Thanksgiving, Chicken Tortilla Soup, and Lessons in Garbage

I've been feeling a little self-induced pressured to write about strange and exciting events from the Far East every day, but to be honest, now that I've settled in, I don't think I can keep up with my own expectations of venturing out to a new area every day and then immediately writing home about it. I do have a couple of back-up adventures (a visit to the Samsung Museum of Art and the trendy shopping district of Apgeoujong) that happened my first week here that I will write about in the case of writers block or lack of interesting topics, but some days might just be about simple happenings around the house that when you live in a foreign country are a much bigger deal than they would be at home. So, sorry for the delay in writing about something worthwhile. I didn't really venture out to explore yesterday because we had a Samsung event in the evening and I didn't want to tire myself out by walking all over the city.

However, today not only included a culinary milestone, but included preparation for our first Korean holiday trip outside of the city. Tomorrow we're headed to the Westin in Langkawi, Malaysia for a week while the rest of South Korea celebrates Thanksgiving! Chuseok is one of the largest, most important holiday's in Korea. Similar to the American Thanksgiving, it is a time when family members come together to share food and stories and to give thanks to their ancestors for the abundant harvest.

This year, Chuseok Day falls on Monday, September 12, but the holiday is observed for a total of three days (Sept. 11 – Sept. 13). On the morning of Chuseok Day, Songpyeon (a type of Korean rice cake) and food prepared with the year’s fresh harvest are set out to give thanks to ancestors through Charye (ancestor memorial service). After Charye, families visit their ancestors’ graves and engage in Beolcho, a ritual of clearing the weeds that may have grown up over the burial mound. After dusk, families and friends take walks and gaze at the beauty of the full harvest moon or play folk games such as Ganggangsullae (Korean circle dance).

Earlier this week I was at E-Mart and experienced some Chuseok preparations, but instead of turkeys and sweet potatoes, everyone was filling up their carts with much healthier choices: apples, peaches, melons....Spam. Women were even dressed in traditional Korean dress to assist with gift box selection.

Spam: the gift that keeps on giving....and stays fresh for years to come.

Not sure what everyone is signing up for, but I think it's gift box delivery.

Apples. Healthier than a box of chocolates.

Chicken [Tortilla] Soup for the Seoul

While everyone else has been prepping for Chuseok, buying fruit boxes and making rice cakes, I've just been trying to find celery and chicken stock. I only brought one cookbook and one binder of select recipes here to Korea with me. One of my prized recipes is a recipe for tortilla soup from the Houston restaurant Rotisserie for Beef and Bird. This is the most fabulous tortilla soup I've ever tasted and I have been determined to make it while living abroad. So much so that I brought a can of Rotel, cumin, chili powder and tobasco with me in my suitcase. I like to travel with my own spices since Cousin Penny had quite an unfortunate experience with some curry flavored taco seasoning in Norway recently. Since today was a rainy Friday with an early fall chill in the air and I had domestic things to do like laundry and packing for Malaysia, I decided today was the day for the tortilla soup. Boy did it turn out to be an ordeal. 

My Korean kitchen is quite fabulous. A true chef's kitchen with multiple prep sinks, 6 burner gas range, easy to reach pot and pan storage, etc. None of that really matters though when you don't have your normal cabinet full of sugar and spice and everything nice like good knives and prep bowls......or a can opener. To make a VERY long afternoon of chopping and simmering short -- after two trips to L-Mart (once for celery...yes! I finally found celery... then back for chicken...I was making chicken tortilla soup and obviously don't know how to make a shopping list), then a trip to Expat Mart for two more cans of chicken broth and lemons to make an impromptu lemon pepper seasoning, and THEN the use of a Swiss Army knife....yes a Swiss Army knife....I had chicken tortilla soup that tasted JUST like it does at home.

 Delicious success.

I have never used a Swiss Army knife to it's full potential...until now.

We are not camping, there is no reason to be using a Swiss Army knife.

Note to self - buy a can opener at E-Mart.

Lessons in Garbage

Since we're on the subject of food I thought I'd explain how we take out the garbage in Korea. Here, we separate everything. Even food. We also don't use Glad. We have to buy special garbage bags in special colors from the local mart. There's lots of information written on them in Korean, so all I know is that anything but food goes in the large white one, food goes in the smaller yellow one and all recyclables must be taken out. The food separation part has taken some getting used to, since we're not throwing it directly in a compost bin every night and there often isn't enough food to fill up a bag at once. So in an effort to conserve, I've taken to freezing the yellow food bag until it's full, then I throw it out. Again, somewhat odd, but I feel better about freezing and then throwing out a whole week of food as opposed to just one meal's scraps. That and freezing eliminates the smell.

The Official Garbage Bags of Korea