Nellie's Diner in Newburgh. (They deliver locally and have amazing breakfasts)
Raffi's Oasis on E. Virginia in Evansville for Mediterranean
Pokè Pirate on Diamond for Ramen or Pokè. I got the Ramen last night and I loved it.
House of Como, its a steakhouse
Arazu in Newburgh or evansville. (Another Mediterranean choice i personally love)
Kite and Key on Franklin. (Suggestion: The Franklin Wrap)
Little Angelo's in Newburgh for Italian.
Cleo's downtown Newburgh (very good baking and love the reuben)
Flourish Plant Based (does look amazing and vegan!) (Recommended portobello French dip)
Yak and Yeti, Himalayan food on green river
Honey moon Cafe for coffee and breakfast food. (Yummy chai latte)
Big bang Mongolian on green river is great and one of my favorites. They also own Pirate Pokè
Thai Papaya Cuisine Inc on burkhardt for Thai food. Yummy
Iwataya near airport for authentic Japanese
Lombardi for NY style pizza
The slice (pizza)
Milanos (Italian and pizza)
Azzip is super fast pizza with interesting flavors. My personal favorites are potato head and Westsider
poke river by Sam's club
Siciliano's for sandwiches
Milk and Sugar (great ice cream)
Mele's Diner
Vietnamese Cuisine (on Vogel)
Ma T 888 China Bistro (recommended egg drop soup)
Steve's and Spanky's UNA pizza
Sauced at Haynes corner (heard its pricy Italian and I've always wanted to go)
Bokeh Lounge is a bar and restaurant on Haynes Corner that use to have a lot of social events before covid.
Schymiks Kitchen (variety of foods)
Peephole (I thought that was only a bar but has burgers and bar food)
La Camparina for fast Mexican
Acropolis (I remember having great coconut shrimp there once)
Docs (thought they were mostly a bar too but they have a variety of foods)
Gangnam for Korean
Manna is fast food Mediterranean. I prefer Arazu for gyros if you have funds and time for a more authentic experience.
Lincoln garden (chinese by ue)
Canton Inn (Lincoln park)
Fujiyama (sushi)
Sweet Schmitt for candy
Heady's on first ave. Can be pricey
Yangs Shabu Shabu (japanese)
Piece of Cake bakery downtown
Bits and bytes for Floppy disks? Not sure what that is.
Purple cup coffee
The Landing in Newburgh
Little Italy on the north side. Owned by Carlos. The brother of Angelo (who owns Angelo's) has superior marinara sauce apparently
Geist Haus for German and beer. Company also owns Smitty's across the street for Italian but has an amazing bourbon burger)
Fool moon for the great atmosphere, wraps and the cowboy burger
Pangea has great pizzas and I can't believe it wasn't on the first list because I love their pistachio pizza.
Rennies on 4st st. Amazing chicken salad and big doughy cookies...I may go today for cookies.
Jayas downtown on 4th st has amazing bibimbap? Kk
Friendship diner on Burkhardt
Cork and Cleaver off the Lloyd near Hobby Lobby
El patron Mexican in North Park.
Fat Boys Pizza
Kabob Express
Chopstick house for takeout
Hayne's Corner Brewing co. (doesn't serve food but you can bring your locally acquired food here to drink local brews!)

Please add more locally owned restaurants below for the Evansville/Newburgh area! Also, disclaimer: I didn't double check all of these but many I did to make sure they were legit local. Sometimes it is hard to tell though but none were obvious chain restaurants.

The menu just had names without descriptions. Here's what I ordered: agedashi tofu, BBQ eel, beef tongue, bibimbap, japchae, and calamari. I received all of that, but in addition there were: 3 containers of rice, one condiment cup of what might be peanut oil, a 2nd cup of what also appears to be peanut oil but with salt, a condiment cup of a sauce with the color and texture of ketchup but it's spicy, a condiment cup of jalapeños, a condiment cup of sweet cucumbers, a condiment cup of onion bits with red orange spice and some confusing strings, a condiment cup of what seems like spiced jicama, a condiment cup of a tasty red paste, and, most confusingly, a bag of intact lettuce leaves. What goes with what? I don't want to eat it wrong.

Hello everyone,
We are back with our second installation of our community-voted top goals of the month. If you missed it the first time around, you can find our thread for October here for a quick explanation of the way that these threads are being operated. As you may notice from the title, we will also be revealing the results from the previous month in these threads, which will be the norm going forward.

October Results

5th Place: Turinturo flip reset, pre-flips into beautiful air dribble (Rogue vs XSET, NA Fall Regional #3)
4th Place: Virtuoso comes off the backboard to score a Deevo-esque goal on 0 seconds (Endpoint vs Top Blokes, EU Fall Major)
3rd Place: Virtuoso scores an absurd pre-jump goal from the ceiling (Endpoint vs Solary, EU Fall Major)
2nd Place: FairyPeak! with the most delicate of re-directs on 0 seconds (Renault Vitality vs Barca Esports, EU Fall Major)
1st Place: Ayyjayy double flip reset double tap (Ayyjayy vs LionBlaze, NA Gold Mine)
Our October winner is AyyJayy's brilliant mechanical display in the NA Gold Mine finals. While flip resets, double-taps or even flip reset double-taps are common-place, double flip resets are still exceedingly rare, and given the stakes of the match in which AyyJayy's double flip reset double-tap took place in, it's a worthy winner of our first goal of the month.

November Shortlist

Goal 1: Fahad77 with the Dirty Kickoff (Fahad77 vs Fairy Peak!, EU Gold Mine)
Goal 2: Joreuz forces OT in dramatic fashion (Joreuz vs Fairy Peak!, Salt Mine Underground)
Goal 3: Alpha54 hits Musty vs. Denied (Renault Vitality vs Denied, EU Winter Regional #1)
Goal 4: Breezi 0 boost double wavedash to set up Scrub (Team Singularity vs Team Liquid, EU Winter Regional #1)
Goal 5: Back-To-Back Highlight by Eekso! (Galaxy Racer vs Sauce Squad, EU Winter Regional #1)
Goal 6: Zamue recovers from the whiffed ceiling shot to catch Top Blokes off guard (Vodafone Giants vs Top Blokes, EU Winter Regional #1)
Goal 7: Fairy Peak with an 8 Boost Double Tap (Renault Vitality vs Vodafone Giants, EU Winter Regional #1)
Goal 8: Amphis with the cherry pick goal (Ground Zero Gaming vs Renegades, RLO Masters Week 3)
Goal 9: Rehzzy Incredible Flip Reset Corner Read Assist (SWAG vs Team Singularity, EU Grid - Qualifier)
Goal 10: Faisal with a mid-air bump to secure the goal in the Nicecactus Clash: Middle East (Sleeping vs Forest Hunters, Nicecactus Clash: Middle East)
Goal 11: Caard triple taps vs True Neutral (Ellevens Esports vs True Neutral, SAM Winter Split - Phase 1: Prime Series 1)
Goal 12: Monkey Moon bumps FlamE out of the way to score a pre-flip re-direct (Team BDS vs Top Blokes, EU Grid Week 1)
Goal 13: eekso with a crazy read to score from a crazy angle (Galaxy Racer vs Top Blokes, EU Grid Week 1)
Goal 14: Aztral with an Unbelievable Flip Reset Double-Tap Off the Ceiling (Oxygen Esports vs Rix.gg, EU Grid Week 1)
Goal 15: Envy executes a fake kickoff to perfection in the final seconds (Team Envy vs NRG Esports, NA Winter Regional #1)

Mod Spotlight

u/DS0308: Back-To-Back Highlight by Eekso! - While the first goal in this clip is impressive in of itself, the second goal is the one that particularly strikes me. He gets a perfect touch off the wall despite having to first drive back around it from the corner of the pitch, then adjusts his car with a full spin that delays his shot just enough so that Rise can't time his challenge on the backboard correctly. I'd definitely consider it one of the more visually appealing goals of this month.
u/John_aka_Alwayz: Monkey Moon bumps FlamE out of the way to score a pre-flip re-direct - Even by the standards of the best player in the world, this absurd goal left Hunted & Sleegi speechless. Even without a defender in the way, the angle would be pretty impressive considering he arrived from the opposition goal line, but to muscle FlamE out of the way simultaneously, no one could have seen it coming, Who dare says bump plays are boring?
u/MadWooookie: Rehzzy Incredible Flip Reset Corner Read Assist - I think I can say that for most of us, we have quite high expectations from the newly formed SWAG (Kuxir97, Flakes, and Rehzzy), probably most of us former Team Liquid fans. And although the results haven't been fantastic, there's a lot of promise for this team. This shot by Rehzzy, who would be considered the unknown player on the team, shows what is to come, and a sort of hopeful intrigue. Rehzzy is sure to be a future star no matter what team he's on, and this highly mechanical, as well as team focused assist, is a strong showing of his incredible ability.

Voting

Voting Link
Once again, we will use a Google Form for voting. You will be asked to vote for your personal top 5 from the above list, with each ranking giving a certain amount of points towards an overall score that leads to a final overall ranking (1st = 10 points, 2nd = 7 points, 3rd = 5 points, 4th = 3 points, 5th = 1 point).
Voting for November will end at the commencement of our December thread.
Once again, we encourage everyone to discuss any goals from this month that may not have made this list in the comments that you thought were particularly noteworthy, while also encouraging the submission of clips from lesser viewed competitions or regions so that they have potential to be spotlighted here.
We look forward to seeing your responses,
- RocketLeagueEsports mod team

So, I love food, and I consider myself pretty adultish, except for the fact that every week I wound up wasting something that's in my fridge while "having nothing to cook". The parsley that I optimistically bought thinking I am Le Chef Sophistique, or the greens that never made it to any sandwich but I bought them because I should eat more veggies, or the bread slices that turned into trash instead of croutons. I hate throwing away food, but I also never planned out what I was going to eat for the entire week.
How?? Why???
After many years of skating by as a decent cook who YOLOed grocery shopping and breakfast, my pre-frontal cortex is finally fully developed and I have reached an age where skipping meals turns me into a houseplant. Meal planning takes work and forethought, and sounds like a thing that grandmas do. But, it legit saves you time that you would spend with your head in the fridge wondering what to make for dinner, and it saves you money at the grocery store since you aren't buying shit that you don't have a plan for.
"How did shoddybeta do it?" I hear you wonder.
Well, kids, the secret is a whiteboard and a list of tasty shit you want to make. To figure out the tasty shit, I started by thinking about stuff I love to make and eat, then I bought one (1) cookbook. (The cookbook is Thug Kitchen and you should go read it. Or read the blog.) Top it off with Cookie and Kate and you got a recipe (hehehe) for tummy-rumbling inspiration.
Once a week (or when your fridge is looking kinda empty and sad), sit down, and think to yourself "what kinda tasty shit do I want to eat soon?" For me, the choices shift seasonally; wintertime (now-ish) is all soups, stews, and casseroles. The bulk of the work is done with the whiteboard:

On the whiteboard, list out what you currently have in the fridge that you need to eat - veggies, pre-cooked grains, half-full jars of pasta sauce, whatever.
Next, I think about what would be real tasty with the leftover . Got some leftover rice, neat - would I rather do fried rice, or bibimbap, or, like, fish fillet with rice and roasted broccolini? Got some leftover stock because I was trying to make fucking fancy ass ramen - should I make minestrone, or basic ass tomato soup, or use it for risotto or some shit? Don't worry about getting 100% coverage on your random refrigerator stuff, but be willing to dress up your normal food in a new way. Bonus points if you can kill multiple leftovers with one meal idea. Whatever you come up with, write it down. Also, fun fact: the three foolproof catch-all dishes for random shit in your fridge are fried rice, stir fry, and minestrone. Consolation prize goes to taco salad.
While you're at it, check your freezer! Did you forget about the lasagne you made 2 months ago? Defrost that fucker.
Still need more shit to eat that week? I normally pick one decadent-ass meals (think, big pan of lasagna), and pick two easiesimpler proteins.
Does your list looks like it's on the Atkins diet? Figure out what kind of veggies you want to go with your meat and taters.
Pick one thing to make for breakfast besides cereal (for me, it's usually a baked good like muffins or a set-and-forget thing like overnight oats or chia pudding).

Then: MAKE YOUR GROCERY LIST BASED OFF THE MEAL LIST. Just like, google a recipe, and figure out what you need that you don't already have, and write those things down, and bookmark that recipe so you can actually make it when you're ready. A mind-blowing concept, I know. But, here's the thing: it took me 10 YEARS of adult life to figure out that you do plan your list around your meals, not vice versa. And I'm way happier now.

History
A little bit of history, and any Koreans present please do feel free to correct me. Starting in 1963 or so, during the reign of Park Chung-hee (박정희), there was apparently either a shortage of rice or it was determined that eating other crops like wheat and potatoes would be more economically efficient. There were two notable policy results of this determination:

The production of soju from rice was either banned or very strongly discouraged, and it switched to a mostly potato-based formula which is, as far as I know, still dominant today (perhaps with some rice added now that it's no longer restricted, and luxurious 100% rice sojus are available).
Nationwide, the government banned the sale of rice at restaurants between the hours of 11am and 5pm Wednesday to Saturday, from 1969-76. They began to promote "분식" (bunsik/flour-based foods) as an alternative. In its original meaning, this term largely referred to noodles (most prominently ramyeon), fried foods, dumplings, fish cakes, and various "kabobs" that could be made without significant amounts of rice.

By the mid-70s South Korea's economic situation had begun to stabilize (even Park's detractors, which include most sane people including me, acknowledge his economic brilliance) and it was no longer necessary to ration rice. But the bunsik restaurants remained, and steadily began adding rice-based dishes such as kimbap (김밥), bibimbap (비빔밥) and fried rice (bokkeumbap 볶음밥) to their menus.

Bunsik Restaurants
The most prominent 분식 chains nationwide are 김밥천국 (Gimbap Cheonguk, literally "Kimbap Heaven"), 김밥나라 (Gimbap Nara (meaning "Kimbap Nation"), and 김가네 (Gimgane, I think this literally means "Kim's Restaurant" like the family name Kim but I'm not sure). These are not by any means the only 분식점, but they are the easiest to find for someone who's new to Korea and may not know the language well yet. Generally Gimbap Cheonguk and Gimbap Nara have red signs. Some of these may be open 24 hours a day, although I feel like that's becoming less common as tastes diversify and convenience stores improve their offerings. Gimgane usually has yellow or white signs, is slightly more expensive than the others (due ostensibly to higher quality, though it's not really all that much better despite having a fancier menu), and will usually only be open between 11am and 9 or 10pm or so. All 3 often deliver via apps. Note: Though all three of these are chains, quality and offerings may vary.

How to get Bunsik as a Vegan or Vegetarian
In the comment section of another post on this subreddit I, overcome with concern for a vegan friend who admitted to indulging in copious amounts of Lotteria burgers, wrote up the following suggestions for ordering from restaurants like these:
"Bibimbap's your ticket. Go to any 김밥나라/김밥천국/김가네 (Gimbap Nara/Gimbap Cheonguk/Gimgane), ubiquitous diner brands, and say:
"저 계란 안먹는 채식주의자이에요. 야채비빔밥 주세요, 고기 빼고, 계란 빼고"
(jeo gyeran anmeog-neun chaesikjuuija iyeyo. Yachae bibimbap juseyo, gogi-ppaego, gyeran ppaego).
My Korean here may not be grammatically perfect but it should be sufficient. Literally it means "I am a vegetarian who doesn't eat eggs. Please give me vegetable bibimbap, no meat, no eggs."
You should end up with a vegan bowl of rice and vegetables with spicy sauce (고추장/gochujang) that will be a palatable and healthy, if low-protein meal. It's impossible without a VERY fluent command of Korean to never end up accidentally consuming some kind of invisible amount of seafood, but most of the time the above order will be vegan as they don't usually put shrimp-fermented kimchi directly into the bibimbap as far as I know.
Another option, if it's present is 유부초밥 (yubu chobap). I personally don't really like the stuff, but it's bean curd stuffed with rice and is, as far as I can tell, natively vegan. If you were to order this with bibimbap you'd have a fairly complete meal and, if you like bean curd and rice a lot, a rather satisfying one. Yubu may not be available everywhere however. I have never seen this served in a non-vegan way, but don't blame me if your server somehow innovates by adding ham or mayo. You could always say "고기 빼고, 마요 빼고, 계란 빼고" (gogi ppaego, mayo ppaego, gyeran ppaego) but they're gonna look at you especially suspiciously for that one since it probably never contains those things.
Other potential options:
쫄면, 계란 빼고 (jjolmyeon, gyeran ppaego). You're asking for spicy noodles with no eggs. In my experience, this dish appears to always be vegan except for the half of a hardboiled egg placed on top, which is easy to toss. Warning: On occasions this may be very spicy.
일반김밥, 햄 빼고, 생선 빼고, 오뎅빼고, 계란 빼고 (ilban gimbap, haem ppaego, saengseon ppaego, odeng ppaego, gyeran ppaego). You're asking for standard kimbap but with no ham, fish, fish cake, or eggs. This would most likely result in, if they're willing to engage you, a roll of rice and seaweed with carrots, cucumber, radish, and maybe sesame leaf in it. I would enjoy this, personally, but as with the vegan bibimbap you're kind of short of a complete protein unless you can score some chewy black beans (검은콩 geom-eun kong) as a side dish. Asking for those, in general, might be a good way to add protein.
Additional suggestion: "고추장 따로 주세요" (gochujang ttaro juseyo, meaning "give me the gochujang separately"). This should result in a small adjoining plate of generally vegan hot pepper sauce. You can substitute 간장/gangjang for gochujang in this phrase, if you like salty food, and have soy sauce to dip your yubu or kimbap in. Note, if you say this when ordering bibimbap or maybe even jjolmyeon you might get the spicy sauce on the side instead of inside the main bowl (장/jang means sauce in general, when the sauce you're referencing is already known to the listener). This is useful if you aren't good with very spicy things, but is also adding to the litany of special requests and thus might engender a degree of resentment if the staff feel busy at the time."

Additional options:
Soy Milk Noodles - 콩국수/콩물국수 (kongguksu or kongmulguksu) - This is a natively vegan dish, consisting simply of noodles served in unsweetened soy milk, with sugar and/or salt served on the side. The reason I didn't mention it above is that there are many restaurants which will refuse to (or be unable to) serve it during the colder half of the year. 설탕 (seoltang) is sugar, 소금 (sogeum) is salt.
Vegetable Fried Rice - 야채볶음밥, 고기 빼주세요 (yaechae bokkeumbap, gogi ppaejuseyo) - This is also an option for vegans maybe if you ask for the eggs removed (gyeran ppaejuseyo).
Tteokbokki - 떡볶이, 어묵 빼주세요 (tteokbokki, eomuk ppaejuseyo) - Rice cakes in spicy sauce, with the fish cake removed. Normally contains eggs, which vegan folk can have removed as mentioned above.
Omurice - 오므라이스, 고기 빼주세요 (Omeuraiseu, gogi ppaejuseyo). This is fried rice wrapped in an omelet, originally a Japanese dish. Due to the prominence of eggs, it is wholly unsuitable for vegans.

On the subject of kimchi:
A final note on kimchi. Kimchi is generally fermented using seafood, most frequently shrimp. Vegan versions can be ordered online (see lovinghut.co.kr), but will rarely be encountered outside of specialty veg*n restaurants. That said, I estimate I've had kimchi over five thousand times, and perhaps ten to twenty of those times have I actually been able to see the seafood in it (usually oysters in very recently made specialty kimchi, as I recall, it's been a few years). So, for new visitors to Korea, you'll have to decide how strict you're going to be about avoiding it, as it will be on almost every single table at which traditional Korean food is served and is so ubiquitous that it is essentially a metaphor for the culture itself. Literally they spent supposedly millions of dollars to develop a space kimchi for Yi So-yeon, the first Korean astronaut, and Park Chung-hee warned Lyndon Johnson that if supply lines in Vietnam were unable to deliver kimchi to the front that the Korean soldiers would be unable to fight well due to a devastating drop in morale.
For any of you vegetarians who have decided you'll try kimchi, I recommend:
김치김밥, 햄과 어묵을 빼주세요 (gimchi gimbap, haem-gwa eomuk-eul ppaejuseyo) - Gimchi gimbap, no ham, no fish cake. As above, if you don't eat eggs, say "gyeran ppaejuseyo").
김치볶음밥, 고기과 햄 빼주세요 (gimchi bokkeumbap, gogi-gwa haem ppaejuseyo) - If you've read this far, you'll know what this is.

TLDR:
Most important phrases:
x 주세요 (x juseyo, give me x)
y 빼주세요 (y ppaejuseyo, get rid of the y)
Restaurants: 김밥천국, 김밥나라, 김가네
Food: bibimbap, yubu chobap, jjolmyeon, gimbap, kongguksu, bokkeumbap, tteokbokki, omurice

New to smoking! So far I've only done:

Old Bay Chicken Breasts
Traditional style Whole Chicken
Baby Back Ribs and Mac n Cheese.

So I've got absolutely zero idea what I'm doing. But here's my plan. Would love feedback.
1.) Brine the chickens the morning of
2.) Smoker at 275F
3.) Wet rub with a homemade Korean marinade similar to bibimbap sauce
4.) 3 - 4 hours in the smoker
5.) 15 minutes before it being done, take it out, lather a Korean style BBQ sauce on it, finish
6.) Hope it turns out really good
Is this a bad idea and I should just give up? Am I on the right track here?

Title says it all! We are SignKitchen and we are making bibimbap tonight! Everything is captioned and in ASL/PSE, simcom, and English. We are accessible to everyone, as best as we can!
Our Twitch is https://www.twitch.tv/SignKitchen
If y'all can't make it tonight, have our recipe(s) for bibimbap so you can make it another time! :)
Ingredients:
Marinated Beef:

8 oz beef cut of some kind, typically sirloin
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp minced garlic

Pickled Carrots and Daikon:

1/2 cup carrots (julienne cut or peeler sliced)
1/2 cup daikon (julienne cut or peeler sliced)
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/8 cup sugar
1/2 tsp kosher salt

Smashed Asian Cucumber Salad:

1 English cucumber
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 1/2 tsp soy sauce
1 1/4 tsp rice vinegar
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp chili oil
2 tsp toasted sesame seeds
a small handful chopped cilantro

Seasoned Bean Sprouts:

box of bean sprouts
salt to taste
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp finely chopped scallion
1 tbsp sesame oil

Bibimbap Sauce:

2 tbsp gochujang
2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp white sugar
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp roasted sesame seeds
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp minced garlic

Sunny Side Up Eggs:

2 eggs
oil or butter of your choice

Rice:

3 c short grain rice
water, but less than what the recipe calls for--you want it on the drier side

Miscellaneous:

kimchi

Instructions:

Rinse out rice and start the rice cooker, ensuring that there's slightly less water so the rice is a bit dry.
Mix together soy sauce, sesame oil, brown sugar, and minced garlic for the marinade. Thinly slice the beef and put the marinade and beef in a bag, allowing that to soak for about 30 minutes.
On stove top, mix together white vinegar, rice vinegar, water, sugar, and salt, ensuring that it's mixed, and bring everything to a slight boil.
In the meantime, clean and peel carrots and daikon, then either julienne cut or peeler slice them. Put in a large mason jar.
When pickling liquid is just on the verge of boiling, take off stovetop, allow to cool to room temperature, then put it in the mason jar. Fill, close the lid, and chill. Allow about 30 minutes to marinate.
Wash cucumber and pat dry. Make salad dressing by adding salt, sugar, sesame oil, soy sauce, and rice vinegar. Stir until sugar and salt is dissolved. Set aside.
On a cutting board, lay large knife flat against cucumber and smash it lightly with your other hand. Repeat along its full length. Once cucumber is open, cut it to bite-sized pieces.
In large bowl, mix cucumber, dressing, garlic, and chili oil, sesame seeds, and cilantro and toss well. Chill until ready to serve.
Rinse out the box of bean sprouts. Prepare the scallions and garlic, and heat up a nonstick pan with sesame oil. Saute bean sprouts, scallions, and garlic to preference. Move off heat when done.
To make the bibimbap sauce, mix together gochujang, sesame oil, sugar, water, sesame seeds, ACV, and minced garlic.
Make sunny side up eggs.
Fill up bowls with rice, place sauce over rice, top with egg and toppings, garnish with scallions and sesame seeds.

So I’ve always loved spicy stuff, mostly salsas. I got secret aardvark and yellowbird, and I just don’t love either. SA is good, but it’s just so rich? Really aggressive flavor that kinda takes over and doesn’t always compliment what I’m using it on. Yellowbird habanero is just not my thing at all. Seems overly sweet/fruity.
I quite like tapatio and the green Tabasco (both could be much hotter - although I’m def not a huge heat fiend like some of you). Just for reference, I’m a big buffalo guy and really dig Asian zing at bww. My favorite sauce ever is red pepper paste bibimbap sauce.
Do I have a hope for a future in the hot sauce world? Anyone have any specific recommendations? Thanks!!!!!

Hello friends! A year ago I posted one of my favorite make-it-a-meal methods, which is basically an bastardized version of dolsot bibimbap. Today I have another bastardized meal for you, variations on shakshuka (could also be compared to eggs in purgatory). To me, some of the most useful skills in eating cheap & healthy are confidence and flexibility - recognize the most important elements of a dish, then use what you have to make a limited pantry work, or just to add some variety. This method, rather than strict recipe, reflects that.

Sauté some onions and garlic. (Type of onion doesn't matter. Prep doesn't really matter either - I usually chop my onions, but sometimes I've used sliced and that's fine as well. Ditto the sautéing material - use butter or olive oil or canola oil, whatever, it's gonna be fine) Optional additions: hard vegetables such as peppers, carrots, or cabbage. (add at the same time as the onions)
Add some spices. Options to consider: paprika, cumin, red pepper flakes, oregano, turmeric, curry powder, za'atar, harissa, gochujang, sambal oelek. Obviously don't add all of those together, but you get the idea. The flavor is flexible, go with what you like & have on hand. If you're very hesitant about proportions & combinations, Smitten Kitchen has a good shakshuka recipe that you can look up as a standard baseline.
Add some tomatoes. They can be canned or fresh, diced or smashed, I've ever seen some people say they just use plain tomato sauce (this one's texture seems iffy to me but whatever floats your boat). I use "regular" tomatoes but have heard of it done with cherry tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, tomatillos..... you get the idea. Simmer over medium heat until their juices start to thicken into a saucy consistency. Optional additions: cooked carb-y grains like chickpeas, lentils, rice... AND/OR leafy vegetables like kale, swiss chard, spinach. Whatever you're adding, you will probably want to add it in after the tomatoes have simmered a little bit so that they don't get overcooked, but not at the very very end because they need a little time to warm up and/or wilt.
Add some eggs. Crack them on top of the whole thing. Cover and cook for ~4 minutes, until the whites are cooked through but the yolks are still runny.
Add some toppings/serve-alongs. Options to consider: parsley, basil, cilantro, cheese (parmesan, cotija, feta...), avocado, sour cream, yogurt, toast, flatbread, tortilla chips. Again, obviously don't use all of these - try to keep in mind the flavor profile that you've already made with your spices & choice of tomatoes, and pick a couple additions that will enhance that.

So for example, today I used (1) some sliced red onions and minced garlic sautéed in veg oil (2) with paprika, cumin, & red pepper flakes and (3) a can of diced tomatoes and (4) 4 eggs with (5) buttered toast. It was a very basic version of it, but tasty and filling.
Another example - I have made it with (1) diced yellow onion, diced jalapeno pepper, & minced garlic sautéed in veg oil (2) with paprika, cumin, & za'atar and (3) canned crushed tomatoes, canned chickpeas, and fresh chopped kale and (4) 2 eggs with (5) yogurt and more za'atar. This is heartier & feels like a different meal thanks to a few changes.
This can be served for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It is ready to eat in less than half an hour. I hope that the ideas here are helpful. Happy cooking! :-)

Welcome to the third serving of Have You Eaten? This month our chosen snack of the month is Tteokbokki! Also known as Spicy Stir-Fried Rice Cakes, tteokbokki is commonly seen in dramas as it is one of the most popular street food snacks around. It is a cheap snack for anyone on the go. You’ll often see characters picking it up when in a rush or if they are stressed out by life. It stands out on the screen as its sauce is bright red but it wasn’t always that way…

A Brief History of Tteokbokki
Tteokbokki wasn’t originally a dish of the common folk as it is today, the earliest known recorded version of Tteokbokki was found in a 19th century cookbook, “Siuijeonseo”, in which it was known as “steokbokgi”. It was a soy sauce based rice cake dish served with beef and available vegetables such as scallions which was exclusively served to Joseon royalty during the first month of the year. This is now known as “Royal Court Tteokbokki”.
Funnily enough tteokbokki as we now know it was developed by accident. Back in the 1950’s when Ma Bok Lim accidentally dropped a rice cake into some hot sauce and found it so delicious that a new snack was born. She started selling it in Sindang and eventually it became the tteokbokki we know and love today. This area is now known as “Tteokbokki Town” and is full of famous tteokbokki restaurants including the original Maboklim Tteokbokki. They host festivals and competitions there from time to time.

Types of Tteokbokki
Tteokbokki is typically made with small pieces of the long cylindrical rice cake, commonly known as tteokbokki tteok (tteokbokki rice cakes). It is usually served in a sauce and is most commonly served with some combination of boiled eggs, fish cakes, and scallions. There are many different versions available in street market stalls and dedicated restaurants. Here are a few of the more common ones you might find:

Tteokbokki (standard) - gochujang (chilli paste) is the standard spicy sauce
Gungmul tteokbokki - a soupier version of standard tteokbokki
Gireum tteokbokki - a drier version of standard tteokbokki in which tteok are fried in oil and served with very little sauce. This version is famously found at Seoul’s Tongin Markets (across from Gyeongbokgung Palace).
Ra-bokki - standard tteokbokki served with ramyeon
Cheese tteokbokki - standard tteokbokki that is either topped with cheese or where the rice cakes themselves are stuffed with cheese
Royal court tteokbokki (gungjung-tteokbokki) - gangang (soy sauce) is a less common non spicy option
Jjajang tteokbokki - jjajang (black bean sauce) is a sweeter savoury option
Curry tteokbokki - tteokbokki tteok in a yellow Korean style curry sauce
Cream tteokbokki - tteokbokki tteok in a carbonara sauce

Dramas with memorable Tteokbokki Scenes
Like with the previous foods we have discussed, tteokbokki is seen in so many dramas, here are a few that have stood out to me:
My favourite tteokbokki scene of all comes from one of my favourite dramas, Radiant Office. It features a scene in which the lead, Eun Ho Won, and one of the side characters, Seo Hyun, go to eat tteokbokki as eating spicy foods is one known method of combating stress. They order four ascending levels of heat. As they eat the differently spiced tteokbokki they share one thing that has been stressing them out and release their stress, until they reach the ultimate spice level four. Throughout the process the characters get to know one another a little better and become closer. At the time of my first watch I hadn’t tried tteokbokki so I couldn’t really imagine how spicy that tteok could get, now I fully understand their pain and love the scene even more.
The Heirs had a storyline in which a tteokbokki restaurant was a very symbolic place to one of the characters, Choi Yeong Do, as a result there were quite a few meaningful scenes shot there throughout the drama. Sadly, a lot of tteokbokki was wasted in the process.
Pegasus Market features a really fun tteokbokki storyline in which the heir to the company whose only happy childhood memories revolve around tteokbokki decides to have a go at creating his own tteokbokki franchise. Everyone is too afraid to tell him how incredibly awful his tteokbokki is and there are some pretty amazing reactions to the tteokbokki allround (especially since this one is based on a webtoon). How the market deals with the problem is great too.
Finally Let’s Eat 2’s leading lady, Baek Soo Ji had a childhood trauma when it came to overeating tteokbokki that caused her to be unable to eat it. After a day of starving herself on a date she comes across Gu Dae Young who is snacking on it for the second time that day and steals his meal before realising what she’s done. Understandably he was annoyed by this.
What dramas have scenes that have stood out to you?

Personal experiences with Tteokbokki
I won't lie, I’m not the hugest fan of tteokbokki. I keep trying it thinking maybe this time I’ll love it, but I think it is kind of like Vegemite in which you need to be brought up eating it to really get it. It’s usually either too fishy, too spicy, or too chewy for me. Thanks to Hi! School - Love On here is an accurate depiction of my initial impressions and attempts to eat tteokbokki with chopsticks. The first time I bought it, I got a humongous plate of “cheese tteokbokki”, it took me a really long time to eat half of it (the cheesy half). I don’t think I ate it again until I went to Korea where I ate quite a lot considering my feelings about it.
Most memorably of all with u/MerinoMedia I visited Dooki in Hongdae, a chain which were prominently featured in quite a few dramas around 2017/2018 including My ID is Gangnam Beauty one of the rare occasions they weren’t eating tonkatsu! I really had to try the cheese ring and it was seriously cheesey. OMG. So much cheese. But it was truly a lot of fun trying all the different types of rice cakes.
I also had some tteokbokki at the Tongin Market but I don’t think it was gireum tteokbokki, just standard tteokbokki. It was super spicy but somehow I managed to eat it all without crying.
I haven’t tried to make my own tteokbokki, but in preparation for this post I got some instant kinds to try. So far I have tried the Jjajang flavoured one which was not great and as a bonus it exploded in my microwave. I’ve decided to hoard the rest in case I get trapped inside my house for a while and need some excitement one day.
What types of tteokbokki have you tried? What were you experiences? Has anyone tried the original tteokbokki at "Tteokbokki Town"? Or have you ever made your own tteokbokki from scratch or pre prepared ingredients?

What’s the Next Course?
Our April snack needs to be chosen! This month we will be choosing between three different foods/drinks, cider (soda), bibimbap (mixed rice), and gimbap. PLEASE VOTE FOR YOUR FAVOURITE HERE. I’ll leave the vote open until this Friday’s Weekend Wrap-up post goes live then announce the winner there. Our next post will be on the 26th of April 2020.
Until then come and share your experiences whether they are limited to drooling over tteokbokki be it simply on screen or more in the comments below.

Welcome to April’s serving of Have You Eaten? This month our chosen food is Bibimbap, also known as mixed rice. The name bibimbap breaks into two parts to describe the meal - bibim (비빔) meaning “to mix with various ingredients” and bap (밥) meaning “rice”. Bibimbap is a simple, homely yet hearty and relatively healthy meal. It is usually prepared with rice, whatever banchan (반찬 or side dishes) is at hand and mixed with some sauce to tie it all together, traditionally gochujang (고추장 or red chilli/pepper paste) is used.
A Brief History of Bibimbap
The true origin story of bibimbap’s creation is not actually known. There are a number of theories about when and where in history it first was created:

Royal origins theory - It was originally a simple dish known as “sura” ( 수라 King’s meal) served during the Joseon dynasty when a light meal was required or when the royal family attended court.
Peasant food theory - During harvest season farmers would take all their food combined in one bowl with them.
Donghak uprising theory - During the uprising of 1894 the rebels were forced to mix their dishes together as there was a general lack of crockery to eat from.
Eunbok theory - After the completion of ancestral rites people would take a portion of each dish into a bowl and mix them together.
Lunar New Year theory - On the eve of the lunar new year ordinary people would take all the leftover food they had and mix it together with rice as it was considered necessary to get rid of all uneaten dishes before the new year began.

It is believed that the dish was originally known as “goldongban” which translates as “rice mixed vigorously” (also “hwaban” which means “flower blooming on top of rice”) and is recorded as early as the 17th century, with the earliest recipe being recorded in the Siuijeonseo. Some sources state this is the first in print mention of “bibimbap”, however, a study from 2015 argues against this.
In the late 1990’s Korea Air was the first airline to serve bibimbap as an inflight meal paving the way for it to become an internationally renowned signature dish of Korea. Since then the dish has grown in popularity on a global scale.
Now there are all sorts of modern takes on bibimbap from cup bibimbap, to easy microwavable bibimbap, to all sorts of bibimbap flavoured dishes, they have even developed it so that astronauts can fulfil their bibimbap cravings but none of these can beat the original form.

Symbolism of Bibimbap
As a dish bibimbap is very symbolic. It is said to “symbolise the harmony and balance in Korean culture”. Additionally the individual colours of the ingredients are also symbolic following the principles of the five elemental colours (Obangsaek 오방색) each colour represents a body part, a position and an element.

Colour	Body Part	Position	Element	Representative Ingredients in Bibimbap
Red (Orange)	Heart	South	Fire	Gochugang, Carrots, Chilli, Jujube
Black (Brown)	Kidneys	North	Water	Mushrooms, Seaweed, Beef
Blue (Green)	Liver	East	Tree	Cucumber, Spinach
Yellow	Stomach	Centre	Earth	Egg Yolk
White	Lungs	West	Metal	Rice, Bean Sprouts, Radish

Varieties of Bibimbap
As mentioned above bibimbap is a dish which combines rice with a number of ingredients, the typical inclusions you will see are namul (sauteed seasoned vegetables 나물) and kimchi (김치). It may be topped with a protein (either cooked or raw) and/or an egg (either cooked or raw). Gochujang is typically added to bring everything together and add a kick. Other common additions include sesame oil, soy sauce, and doenjang (fermented soybean paste 된장).
Bibimbap is endlessly customisable to an individual’s taste, so I’ll just discuss a few of the main versions you can find. The names of the different variations of bibimbap generally stem from the location in which they originated, the type of dish in which they are served, or the type of protein featured in them.
Jeonju Bibimbap (전주비빔밥) - the most famous of all regional bibimbap varieties. In this version there are many different inclusions most importantly the rice is cooked in beef and bean sprout broth and one of the inclusions is bean sprouts grown in the area. This is typically served in a warm brass bowl.
Dolsot Bibimbap (hot stone pot bibimbap 돌솥 비빔밥) - this version of bibimbap is served in a hot stone pot
Yangpun Bibimbap (양푼비빔밥) - this version of bibimbap is served in a yangpun bowl (metal bowl).
Sanchae Bibimbap (bibimbap with wild vegetables 산채비빔밥 ) - this version of bibimbap is made using seasoned leafy greens and other wild root vegetables found in the mountains.

Memorable Scenes in Korean Dramas Featuring Bibimbap
Bibimbap usually appears in a drama under one of the following circumstances:

A character has reached a new low /is stressed out by life; they drown their sorrows in a big bowl of bibimbap usually whilst wearing their best tracksuit/in secret.
A character is too lazy to prepare a meal or has almost no food left to eat and they are starving
A lower class character is eating in front of a chaebol or higher class character and for some reason they have no ramen on hand (poor sheltered chaebols have never tried either of these foods, it’s pretty hilarious!)
A character needs to bond over food with someone they are not that close to. Bibimbap is best when shared out of a big metal bowl.

As this is the usual case it’s hard to think of too many super memorable scenes featuring bibimbap. Here are a few that I personally enjoyed:
In the first season of Let’s Eat Lee Soo Kyung’s mother comes to visit and prepares bibimbap as a meal and comments that it might not be good enough. Goo Dae Yeong replies that it is perfect as it is impossible to get the right taste when only making one portion. Apart from the horror of the eggshell in the frying pan that catches my eye every time I watch, this is a great mukbang scene which showcases the dish bibimbap and how it should be eaten well. It definitely made me want to try it out.
In the classic rom-com Full House, frustrated at waiting for Young Jae to come home, Ji Eun begins a late dinner of bibimbap. When he arrives home she offers him some only for him to tell her “that’s not bibimbap, that’s dog food!. No, I don’t eat things like that”. A few days later she catches him stuffing his face with bibimbap and has to help him alleviate his resulting indigestion. I really like how the scene where Rain prepares the bibimbap and stuffs his face is shot, so here’s an endless loop of it.
Bibimbap is a common feature in many family dramas as you see more of the characters day to day life which includes simple home meals like bibimbap. In the drama Smile, You, the family members were under strict rules for when and what they could eat and so there were a few sneaky bibimbap scenes along the way. In one of these scenes, in order to get Jung In to eat something after having not eaten all day Hyun Soo demands she make him some food. Reluctantly she prepares him some bibimbap which he rejects saying it is too salty and that she has to eat it all or she’ll dob her in for wasting food. The bibimbap she prepared was so-so but this scene was particularly nice as it highlighted the change in the leads relationship.
What bibimbap scenes are memorable for you?

What Experiences Have you had Eating and Making Bibimbap?
Bibimbap is my mother’s absolute favourite Korean food, so I have extremely warm feelings about it because she gets adorably excited at the prospect of eating it every single time it comes up in conversation. I didn’t personally try it before my trip to Korea as it was something that was easy to find everywhere. My first time eating it was on my flight to Korea and it was so delicious I was mad at myself for choosing other dishes over it in the past.
I also ate it by the seaside after visiting Odeo island. I am not 100% sure what sea creature it was because my Korean is about as basic as my ability to identify sea creatures. I think it was possibly sea urchin, whatever it was it was pretty great.
As for cooking, I’ve made bibimbap a few times but I’m pretty lazy with the whole cooking the ingredients separately in order of darkness concept so I don't make it very often. My Korean Kitchen is my usual go to for Korean recipes. By some miracle I managed to find some gochujang at the supermarket today so I’m going to make this one for dinner tonight.

What’s the Next Course?
Next month is KDRAMA’s 10th birthday so we will be celebrating in the traditional way with a bowl of Seaweed Soup (Miyeok guk 미역국) on the big day (Sunday 10th of May).
Until then we’d love to hear your experiences with bibimbap be it simply on screen envy or more in the comments below.

Additional Bibimbap Material:

Historical and Biological Aspects of Bibimbap a Korean Ethnic Food - The study which argues against the theories surrounding bibimbap's history
Bibimbap Globalisation Foundation Story of Bibimbap - Origin of bibimbap, mentions in literature, and Jeonju Bibimbap information
Visit Korea's page on Bibimbap - More regional varieties with pictures
Stop eating it wrong - Bibimbap - For “correct eating technique” tips see this video (or just do your own thing - no judgement here).

Welcome to our second serving of Have You Eaten? For those who missed last month’s post the idea behind this new monthly food/snack/drink segment is to create a space in which we can discuss the dramas that featured the chosen food/drink of the month and made us crave it. Particularly memorable moments in dramas that featured it, recipes, personal anecdotes about cooking or eating it, pics, mukbang, reviews of store bought versions, basically whatever you can think of relating to it.
This month our focus snack Chimaek (치맥) comes in two parts, Korean Fried Chicken and Beer, a delicious and beloved combo. You might love them together or separately but there’s no denying when you see them in a drama, you often find yourself craving them too.

A Brief History of Chimaek
Let’s start by discussing the etymology of the portmanteau chimaek! If you’re from an English language background and you’ve spent any time attempting to learn Korean you’ve probably found that food/beverage names are the easiest as there are a bunch of English loan words and patterns in naming. When it comes to chimaek it’s a pretty obvious one to break down. This slang term takes the ‘chi’ from chikin (fried chicken) and the ‘maek’ from maekju (beer) to become chimaek. It first appeared around the time of the 2002 Soccer World Cup, a time considered to be “peak chimaek”.
While neither fried chicken nor beer originated in Korea, they’ve managed to turn the two into their own classic combination. It is believed that the dish spread from US soldier bases, slowly growing in popularity after cooking oil was introduced in the early 1970’s. The first restaurants appeared in the late 1970’s and the market continued to grow over time. As a result of the late 1990’s IMF crisis in Asia many individuals who lost their jobs opened fried chicken restaurants. The next major growth period was the previously mentioned 2002 Soccer World Cup by the end of which the number of fried chicken restaurants in Korea grew exponentially.
In 2013, wildly popular Korean drama, My Love From Another Star brought the craze to the world starting with China. In fact, the drama is credited with single-handedly saving the Chinese poultry industry after the avian flu had caused a severe decrease in people eating poultry.
There are currently more than 87,000 fried chicken restaurants in South Korea!

Korean Fried Chicken
Korean fried chicken is a little different to its original source as it has evolved to cater to the Korean palate. For more information on how it’s made here is a video from the company who first added seasoning sauce to the dish to make it easier and more delicious to devour.
There are a few different styles -

The original whole chicken - tongdak (통닭)
Boneless chicken/pure flesh chicken - sunsal (순살)
Regular pieces - commonly referred to as chikin (치킨)

Then combine with different flavours (most commonly) -

Fried chicken - huraideu chikin (후라이드 치킨)
Seasoned chicken - yangnyeom chikin (양념 치킨) - a sweet and spicy gochujang based sauce
Soy sauce chicken - ganjang chikin (간장 치킨) - a sweet and salty ganjang based sauce
Scallion chicken - padak (파닭) - fried chicken topped with thinly sliced scallions (green onions)
Half-half - banban (반반) originally shortened from yangnyeom ban, huraideu ban now used to describe any combination of two flavours.

Korean Fried Chicken is most commonly served with pickled radishes, known as “chicken radish” or chikin mu (치킨무) and beer - maekju (맥주) or carbonated non-alcoholic beverages.

Which Dramas Have had Memorable Chimaek Scenes in Them for you?
Thinking of dramas with high quality chimaek scenes is a little tougher because they are literally everywhere so most of mine are more recent watches rather than being truly memorable moments so I’m looking forward to hearing those that stuck with you -
Many dramas have set out to teach us that eating compatibility is one of the most important things to consider in a relationship and you should only dine with those with agreeable palates. Cinderella and the Four Knights highlighted the importance of choosing a partner based on chicken limb preference and it is pure genius. Seriously everybody, update your online dating profiles today.
Radiant Office taught me that opening a chicken shop is an option many people consider when everything else falls apart. While The Sound of Your Heart highlighted the importance of using ethically sourced domestic chickens.
When it comes to eating, Let’s Eat taught me even if everything goes against you, eventually you will get your fried chicken moment, you might just have to wait a while. If you are really lucky you may come across a unicorn like Lee Soo Kyung who will let you eat all the drumsticks AND wings you can handle.
But usually what’s memorable is just me dying of envy over the product placement. Everyone’s current favourite Crash Landing on You taught me that if I ever find myself in Pyongyang it’s still possible to enjoy chimaek, just not BBQ Chicken brand chimaek.
Be Melodramatic taught me just how hard it is to get that desired PPL moment in the first place.
Last but definitely not least is Man x Man which may be the ultimate chicken lover’s drama of all, featuring both types of KFC, Korean and Kentucky fried. Park Sung Woong really sold his addiction and in turn sent me loopy with cravings.

What’s Your go to Order? Have you had any Memorable Chimaek Moments?
Fortunately, thanks to my Queen Jun Ji Hyun, Korean Fried Chicken is fairly easy to source. Otherwise, I might have to consider deep frying my own and honestly that is an emergency call waiting to happen.
When it comes to ordering the fact that half ‘n half exists is such a blessing for all the indecisive people out there, including me. Apart from the Fried Chicken with Snow Cheese (aka Powdered Cheese Hell) I had at a music festival in Korea, which was a plate of mild food regrets, every flavour I’ve had has been amazing.
Sadly, though, despite being able to get perfectly fine Korean fried chicken, I can’t get the Korean fried chicken of my dreams, NeNe Chicken’s creamy onion chicken.
Here’s my chicken story (you may have heard it before):
The year was 2019, I was living my best life and travelling to the land where fried chicken dreams come true. During my stay my Weekly Binge friend and co-conspirator u/MerinoMedia was flying in to join me for a weekend of food, drama sight-seeing and more food. She’d told me to wait to eat fried chicken together and demanded we get Seventeen’s 네네치킨, I was happy to oblige. We took our chimaek to a drama hotspot, Ilsan Lake Park for a super late lunch picnic and it didn’t take more than a sip of beer (mostly because we gave up drinking it because it was in serious need of soju to make it drinkable) before we were serenading the locals with a beautiful rendition of Love is the Moment. As for the fried chicken we ordered half creamy onion half seasoned, all delicious. The creamy onion chicken was especially good, a combination that should be gross, but is somehow perfect. After Merry left me I ordered it once more before returning home and ate it for days (it’s even great for breakfast but the onions will stink out your life). When I found out that NeNe chicken did have franchises in Australia it was a real emotional roller-coaster, because for some tragic reason they don’t stock the best flavour here. I did try another company’s version while in Sydney but it just wasn’t the same. Alas. Will I ever have that recipe again?

What’s the Next Course?
Our March focus still needs to be decided! This month we will be voting between three different foods/drinks, banana milk, bibimbap (mixed rice), and tteokbokki (spicy stir fried rice cakes). PLEASE VOTE FOR YOUR FAVOURITE HERE. I’ll leave the vote open for a week and then make an announcement on the following weekend wrap up post. Our next post will be on the 29th of March.
Until then we’d love to hear your experiences whether they are limited to drooling over chimaek be it simply on screen or more in the comments below.

A big thank you to u/MerinoMedia and u/AlohaAlex who gave up their free time to read through my first draft (which was a low key hot mess) and increase the quality! Also to Merry for being my number 1 Korean fried chicken girl and to Aloha for making two of these gifs (the really good ones - for more see dramagifs). <333
Dramas featured in this post not mentioned by name: Father is Strange, Best Chicken, Reply 1994, Something About 1%, Heirs, and Missing 9.
Since you made it this far here's a picture of me preparing for this post, jk, here's a real one ^^

August 31st 2020
We went to petit potato. We planned to meet up at 6. He said that he was already at empress walk early and that he was waiting at the back door nearest to Haig. So uhh once I got there (exactly at 6 lol) I didn't see him... He said he ended up getting bored and walked to the front and he kinda teased me a bit about being at the front ); ANYWAYS since I confirmed with the restaurant that there are still seats available, we just went in and WOWWWWWW the restaurant looked so fancy schmancy. He said it actually looks WAY better than the one at Leslie Square since LS is cheaper. So uh once we got a seat we spent like 30 mins looking at the menu because there were SO MANY YUMMY things on the menu to choose like wtaf I have to come back again some other time(s???). So for drinks, I had trouble with deciding between 2 drinks and what he suggested was to just get both (1 for each) and if we don't like it we can switch drinks since that's what his father does. Interesting but I didn't expect him to be okay with that, especially with my mf boba preferences aaaaaa (yeah I took the strawberry drink lol). For dessert we still didn't know what to get so we decided to save it for later. I got sliced beef teppan pasta, miso kakimayo, and a strawberry drink. He got the spicy beef wrap with satay sauce, chicken curry soup (mom's recommendation), and the house special boba (with my shiitty preferences lol). He said he usually comes to petit potato for lunch so he'd normally get bibimbap or omurice hehe. Anyways, my main course came out first so I ate first but I did offer him some since it was in a HUGE iron dish but he didn't want to have some ): He said he's trying to avoid the dairy stuff because of acne and partially his stomach so I offered to switch drinks with him but he said no which did make me kinda sad but whatever it's highly understandable (I actually thought we were gonna try both drinks together which is why I ordered the boba with certain preferences but guess not so rip). Lol I was wondering why his dish took so long to make since it's just soup but then the dish came out and BAM it was huge and there were 2 big ass chicken pieces on there and he also got some rice served on the side. So in the meantime I decided to get dessert for us :00 He can eat durian <3333 We got the mango honey golden toast. Took 30 mins to get it lol but it was fine. He seemed to take a longer while to finish cuz he said how the question is whether he can finish the food before the dessert comes out. I was like definitely before the food comes out and wondered why he was concerned and what he said was that he's trying to eat slower to match his father's pace and I was like ooooo. I told him how I was afraid of being a faster eater than him but he turned out to be even faster than me so it was oki ); Once he finished we just talked about random stuff which eventually led to me telling him the entire drama I had with my landlords and wow, WHAT A ROLLERCOASTER RIDE THAT WAS... A BAD ONE ):< he laughed a lot loooool. He said ze cantos are always petty and YES I AGREE. The toast arrived shortly after and WOW it was HUGEEEEEE. We both took pics of it and bruh he got such a derpy photo of me )))): So I called it a jenga game cuz of how we were taking turns to break down this mf and we had the universal utensils but I wouldn't have minded sharing cuz u know ); At some point he had to use the washroom cuz the gas in his stomach finally got to him ))): When he came back he said we should continue finishing it but I was already super full so I told him I'm done for now but I ended up eating the leftover mangos loool cuz they're worth it. We decided to not pack the remaining cuz no point since it'll just be soggy bread at the end. Oh yeah looool I told him I got 2 credit cards and he was like wtf why do you need two cards T u T Also we were talking about running at some point and wtf this guy takes 3 mins to run a km...so fast wtff.. Oh yeah pt 3 when he e-transferred me the money for splitting the dessert he saw my middle name and was like "there's a kim in your name?" And I was like yeahh and then I learned that his middle name was supposed to be jian cuz his father's name is jian but typo so now it's jan loool.
Okaaaaay so after we just went on a random walk to digest this FAT meal we had hehehehehehe we went around DSAC and then we ended up walking to Haig where we sat on a bench and just talked for a whopping 2 hours? Idk but I was happy that we were able to talk that long in person XD I got to momentarily rest on his shouder at some point :000 and partial carress as he was fake weeping about girls :000000 O yeah we had what I thought was a staring contest at some point but then he just punched my shoulder and spooked me > <
He said that he wanted to get married by 30 since his parents got married at around that age..mmmm guess I'll wait until 30 as well :3
Oh yeah at some point he offered me to come over and I was like wait really cuz I thought he only wanted me to come over once the whole covid 19 thing is over but turns out it could have been whenever wtfffff wowowowowowowowowowo so I was like sure but in the end we ended up still staying on the bench LOL so kinda sad moment but THANKFULLY I had to go pee cuz it was urgent so I asked to go over to use it but this guy was like "let's check empress walk first to see if it's open" and I was like sure but in my head I was like wut >_> Whatever I already knew it was closed so it was gonna be a waste of time and like BRO IT WAS PAST 10:30 I WAS SO SHOCKED THAT WE WERE OUT FOR SO LONG AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. I got to give him a couple of headpats but like I gave an awkward one like I could have given a better one if the mood was much better ;-------------; wawawawawawawawawa do I even still have a chance I feel so embarrassed.........
OKAY SO yeah washrooms were closed so we ended up walking to his house (which was a pretty long walk tbh cuz I thought it'd be much shorter than that since he said he lives near Haig) but boy when I got there it was ONE HUGE ASS HOUSE WTFWTFWTF IT LOOKED SO BEAUTIFUL AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. Yeah uh so I quickly went to use the washroom and yeah we headed back to empress walk since he offered to escort me there as he was the host then the guest then the host idek XD Man this house was so precious like it smelled like walking into a luxurious piano store and it looked like an Ikea showroom as well and I was very careful cuz of how precious it was ; u ;
So as we were walking back we were just talking about the house and other stuff and then I was thinking of coming back in a few months for a proper tour since he did say he will give me one but then I randomly brought up the next day as well since I was in Toronto until then and he was good with that and I was like whaaaaaaaat oh damn that's cool so yeah I told him I'd come back the next day and give him a short notice beforehand and he was good with that. YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY
So we got to the station and just as we were about to part our ways I saw him standing there doing the hug gesture and I was like o-o cuz I got rejected last time so I was happy this time and yes I went for it and then I told him how I didn't expect one cuz I got rejected last time and made a tear gesture and he did it as well and then told me how we could also hug again the next day (which ended up not happening RIP) but yeaaaaaaaaa I kinda gave a tight ish one but he gave a loose one so I just loosened it cuz ya know it'd be weird if I did more...... Good day I got home at like 12 something lol.

Hey everyone- I know brainstorming of recipe suggestions isn't really discussed here, but I hope that my request is niche enough in content to be allowed.
I made a Noma style beef garum- raw beef, koji innoculated rice, salt and water. Fermented at 60c for three months and then strained. The garum sauce is great, think deep, meaty soy sauce but made from beef rather than beans. The straining process left me with a lot of beef mash solids, not being a fan of waste I'm trying to use it up as it's packed with flavour. I've cut fresh beef with it and made it into burgers and meatballs and so on. I've used it as a smear on the base of a 'pizza' style flatbread for an intense cheeseburgery experience etc.
As a further experiment, I dehydrated the beef mass and passed it through a flour mill a few times until I just had dust. Beefy, savoury, slightly fermented tasting dust. I've used it in seasoning salt to great effect, especially when combined with dehydrated kimchi dust, to make a vaguely bibimbap flavoured seasing, awesome on fries. But am now getting a bit stumped on what to try it in. It's fine, like cocoa powder fine, not fully water soluble so it doesn't really dissolve, but works like a spice or flour. The flavour profile? Think dry aged beef, mushrooms, dark chocolate, brown stew, slightly sweet but very savoury, packed full of glutimates, a general dark soy sauce feeling, it also has a bit of a cereal vibe too from the rice in it.
So what would you do with what is effectively beef dust?

Disclaimer: I wrote this last month as an experiment, as I’ve never really thought to keep track of my expenses (other than looking at my CC statement every month). It was interesting to see how I spent my money and how hard I tried to have no spend days haha.
Section One: Assets and Debt
Retirement Balance (and how you got there): 401K - $44,664.77 from my first job, which had a great match. $15,273.97 from my second job, which had a terrible match. $6,423.47 from my current job, which has an okay-ish match (I currently contribute 10%). Roth IRA - $20,264.71 (I’ve been maxing out my contributions for the last 3 years).
Savings/investment account balance: ~$120,000 - My dad manages my savings (he’s a finance guy) and guarantees me at least a 5% annual return. Basically anytime my checking account goes above some arbitrary amount, I throw some money into this “account.”
HSA: $508.37. I contribute $15.00 per paycheck (pre-tax) and my employer contributes $31 per paycheck.
Checking account balance: $17,447.01.
Credit card debt: $0. I pay off my CC balance in full every month.
Student loan debt (for what degree): $0. I graduated with about $18,000 debt, which I paid off 2 years after graduation. I went to an OOS school (5 year BS/MPH) and the rest of my tuition was covered by grants, scholarships, and my wonderful parents/grandparents. I also worked the entire time during school (at one point, three jobs at once!).
Section Two: Income
Main Job Monthly Take Home: $4691.17 after all deductions (taxes, 10% 401K contribution pre-tax, $30 HSA contribution pre-tax, $11 dental insurance, $8.28 vision insurance, $103.52 medical insurance) .
Side Gig Monthly Take Home: ~$2,000 on average, UNTAXED. I do some contract work for another company (not in the same industry as my full-time job). I realize as a 1099, I’ll need to owe a lot of taxes next year, so I routinely remind myself that the check I receive every month is not my actual take-home. I’m trying to end this contract though, as I don’t need the money (although it is nice!) and I feel guilt/pressure when I don’t put in hours and instead want to enjoy myself (AKA travel and do all the Colorado things). I’m open to any other side hustle ideas, though!
Section Three: Expenses
Rent: $780. I live in a 3bed/1bath townhome with two other girls.
Savings/investment contribution: Stated above that I just throw money into the savings/investment account that my Dad manages when my checking account goes above a certain limit. I can withdraw from this at any time if I need to. I try to save around 50% of my take-home salary.
Debt payments: $0.
Donations: Varies. I’ll contribute here and there to fundraisers and causes and I volunteer with my local Kiwanis club and college alumni club.
Electric: Varies, but July was $18.68 for my portion. This is much higher in the winter.
Wifi/Cable/Landline: $37 for my portion.
Cellphone: $0. I’m on my parents plan.
Subscriptions: HBO Now - $15.64. Spotify - $10.79. Apple iCloud storage: $0.99. I use my boyfriend’s Hulu with no commercials and my Dad’s Amazon Prime and Netflix.
Gym membership: $59.99 for ClassPass.
Car payment / insurance: $92.09 for insurance. My car is paid off in full (bought off my parents about 3 years ago). It’s not the newest car, but I don’t drive very much so it’s fine.
Day 1: Wednesday
5:45AMish: Wake up to my boyfriend, C, getting out of my bed to leave to go back to his apartment, since he leaves much earlier than me for work. It was my birthday yesterday and we ended up crashing at my place after dinner. I take some Advil and chug some water to hopefully feel better after really getting up (another year older, armirite?). Fall back into a half-sleep.
6:30AM: Alarm goes off. Alarm gets shut off.
6:45AM: Second alarm goes off. Snooze.
6:53AM: Third alarm gets shut off. I’m kind of up and scroll through social media.
7:00AM: Quick body shower (I don’t usually shower in the morning but I met up with C right after I got home from work yesterday and didn’t shower, oops) and go through my normal routine - Brush my teeth, wash my face, put in contacts, get dressed (olive green t shirt dress, pale pink tassel necklace, and slip on white quilted leather sneakers, my office is very casual), go through my super complex skincare routine of just Neutrogena moisturizer with sunscreen, swipe on some Maybelline eyeliner and Burts Bees chapstick, take my meds (I have epilepsy), pack my lunch, and I’m out the door by 7:35AM.
8:00AM: Sweaty from my 25 min walk commute (while listening to trashy Bachelor-related podcasts). My knee is aching, as I hiked a 14er last weekend and then stupidly decided to do a 5K the next morning and then did a HIIT workout the next day. Second oops. Take care of a few emails and get office coffee (very bad, but free), a giant glass of ice water, and heat up my egg cup muffin things (I meal prep these every Sunday for breakfast for the week).
8:30AM: Morning office routine of bouncing between The Skimm, reading some other news/Reddit, emails, work, etc.
10:30AM: My Director wants me to go watch a couple of intern project presentations. I haven’t had my morning snack and know I’ll be starving by the time it ends, so I shove a few almonds in my mouth. Watching the intern presentations makes me laugh a little bit and reminds me of when I was an intern (at another company) and how fabricated the “assigned projects” were. They were all overly enthusiastic, but the presentations were good to listen to, as I’m still new-ish to this company and learned a bit more about other departments/functions.
11:30AM: Heat up my lunch of leftover paella from dinner last night while continuing to work.
2:30PM: Grab grapes that I brought for an afternoon snack and continue working. I also decide to buy two pairs of North Face hiking shorts from REI for an upcoming trip to Moab - It’s going to be HOT and I don’t have any “hiking shorts.” Not sure if these will fit, but I’ll return them if they don’t. $67.00
4:45PM: Leave the office. Contemplate signing up for a gym class, but decide I should let my knee rest another day. Call my Mom on the way home to catch up and figure out what we’re doing when I see my parents for a day in a couple weeks when I’ll be back on the East Coast.
5:15PM: Get home, lay in bed scrolling through social media for a bit, then head to a new (for me) Asian grocery store because a coworker told me this one has a bakery and I need baos in my life. I wander each aisle of the empty store and am saddened that one bao is $2.09! I text my Mom about the days of $1 baos in Flushing and Chinatown (I grew up in New York and my parents and grandmas are still there). Also text C about this, but he doesn’t really care. I buy kimchi, chili bamboo, 4 bags of frozen dumplings (will give 2 bags to C), and 6 baos because I have no self-control. $41.28
6:45PM: Get home, unpack my goodies, eat a hot dog bao (if you know, you know), more leftover paella, then lock myself in my room to watch last night’s Bachelor in Paradise since I missed it (and my bedroom has AC, which the rest of the house doesn’t). Text my friends from back home about the episode (I recently moved from the East Coast and miss my friends dearly and love talking about this nonsense). Contemplate who’s the bigger asshole on this show.
8:45PM: Shower and wash my face with GlamGlow Thirstycleans, moisturize with St. Ive’s body lotion, Olay face moisturizer, then head downstairs to do some contract work. I also order a pair of hiking shorts from Outdoor Voices and will compare with the North Face ones and return whatever doesn’t fit. $56.32
10:15PM: Head back upstairs, take vitamins and meds, put on Kiehl’s lip mask, and watch an episode of Handmaid’s Tale (I’m late to this show, so I’m binging). Fall asleep around 11:30PM.
TOTAL: $164.60
Day 2: Thursday
6:30AM-7:02AM: All the alarms. Don’t know what I’m doing with my life.
7:15AM: Finally struggle out of bed because I know I’m already running 5 minutes late. Normal getting ready routine (black striped linen jumpsuit and Adidas sneakers and accept the fact that I will have to get naked to pee all day), pack my lunch, and I’m gone.
8:00AM: Bad coffee, water, egg muffins.
8:30AM: Morning routine and work work work work work.
10:45AM: Mid-morning snack of grapes.
12:00PM: Lunch with my boss and a couple other coworkers. One coworker is in from out of town, so lunch is expensed. I eat a falafel bowl with spicy hummus, roasted cauliflower, Israeli salad, and half a pita. My boss makes me take a few leftover falafel and sweet potato fries back to the office but I don’t know what he wants me to do with them. I hate food waste, so I’ll probably end up eating them later today.
3:15PM: I take a quick work break to look up some trails and activities for my girls trip to Moab!
4:45PM: Time to trek home. I hop on a free shuttle that would take me halfway home but I miss my stop as I’m scrolling through Instagram, ugh. I get off at the next stop and walk the rest of the way home, texting C about how I was annoyed that the shuttled didn’t stop at every stop like it’s supposed to (but I should have been paying attention). I chat with one of my roommates and meet her girlfriend and eat a little bit of leftover paella from dinner on Tuesday before the gym.
6:15PM: Arrive at the studio and find free street parking! I use ClassPass and today’s session is a strengthening class at a barre studio (I don’t love actual barre, but I like the weights-focus of this particular class). I kind of regret going since my knee is acting up again, but I feel sweaty and good afterwards.
7:15PM: Arrive home, sit for a second, then head out to my sand volleyball game (byob!).
8:30PM: We lose (we’re not very good), but a team that’s playing after us needs girls to fill in and me and my friend and two other people from our team stay. We end up winning! Winning is a lot more fun. I have two Coors Banquets (sorry not sorry) and we decide to meet up with the rest of our teammates at the bar.
9:30PM: Arrive at the bar but realize that our teammates went to another bar. I stay at this bar for a drink with a couple from my team and we end up bonding over common interests and past lives (shoutout to the Bay Area where I lived for a year and LOVED, but the struggles were real). We make plans to meet up for dinner and drinks at some point and I invite them to my weekly volleyball Sundays at the park. I get excited because making friends as an adult is hard. I have a Hazy IPA, which my teammate covers. I’ll get him next time.
11:15PM: Way later than I expected to get home tonight. I shove a hot dog bao into my mouth, shower, and put on reruns of How I Met Your Mother (one of my “background” shows in rotation, the others are The Office and Parks & Rec) and fall asleep way too late.
TOTAL: $0
Day 3: Friday
6:30AM-7:02AM: All the alarms again. Scroll through social media a bit.
7:15AM: Normal getting ready routine (black and white A-line skirt, coral T shirt, white Nike sneakers because it’s too hot to think about commuting in anything else), pack my lunch, and I’m out listening to an old episode of My Favorite Murder.
8:00AM: Bad coffee, water, and char sui bao (roast pork bun) this morning! It’s Friday and I need to change it up. Also PAYDAY.
8:30AM: Work. Thrilling.
10:15AM: Grapes again. I try to switch up my snacking fruit every week so I don’t get bored.
12:15PM: My last meeting went over and I am HUNGRY. Eat lunch of an Asian slaw with tuna (I meal prepped this earlier this week) and my breakfast egg muffins with all the Tapatio. Do a little bit of contract work on my lunch break.
2:45PM: Another quick break to look up more trails for my Labor Day trip! I successfully convince my friends we should do the longest hike in Arches NP.
3:15PM: Mid-afternoon snack of blackberry greek yogurt with chocolate chips from my desk drawer and another cup of bad office coffee. I drink bad office coffee pretty much all day long because I don’t like spending money on coffee during the week.
4:30PM: C picks me up from work because he’s the best (and has every other Friday off) and we discuss what we want to do for the weekend. I want to take it easy-ish since I’ll be out of town for the next 3 weekends and C’s cousin is coming to visit the weekend after that. We swing by my house so I can change (black crop tank top, girlfriend jeans, white slip on sneakers), grab some clothes C left at my place, the dumplings I got him, and head back to his place.
5:00PM: We laze around the apt for a bit. I drink an orange La Croix (do not recommend) and have some Cheez-Its. At some point, C sneaks some vodka into my water and I’m not mad about it. C texts his friend that just moved here to see if him and his gf want to come up to the city (they’re in the ‘burbs) and they decline. We decide to walk to a bar for dinner.
7:00PM: Dinner at a meh bar. I get a Hazy IPA and a meatball sub (on an Amoroso roll!). C pays (we usually switch off paying when we go out to eat/drink and that works well for us).
8:30PM: Decide to go to another bar near C’s place. I order beers for us (grapefruit IPA for me) while C goes to the bathroom and I receive a panic text from C about there being no tp in the bathroom and to tell a bartender. I feel weird about this but I do it. We finally get to our beers and discuss checking public bathrooms for tp before using them (this somewhat turns into a funny argument and we poll all our friends about what they would do). $17.12.
9:30PM: Another bar down the street. It’s pretty empty but we stay for two drinks (I get two pineapple blonde beers). C and I discuss random things - our friends’ relationships, finances, the colleges we went to, diet and exercise, etc. C pays and we walk home.
11:00PM: I’m pretty beat but C grabs two Naturdays (these are actually amazing for a “shit” beer) for us from the fridge and makes bagel bites! Drunk food is the best. I don’t finish my beer, but eat all the bagel bites, swipe off my eyeliner, and head to bed.
TOTAL: $17.12
Day 4: Saturday
Sometime in the middle of the night: I wake up with really bad dry mouth and get a glass of water. I try to go back to bed but am tossing and turning and decide to sleep on the couch so I don’t wake C up.
10:00AMish: I am somewhat up and not feeling 100% (slightly hungover lol I need to remind myself I’m in my late 20s now). Scroll through social media a bit. C eventually joins me in the living room and we put on HIMYM and talk about what we’re each doing today.
12:00PM: I convince C to go to McDonald’s on the way to drive me home (he lives next to one and I’m weak). I get two breakfast burritos and a black iced coffee and C gets an egg mcmuffin and unsweetened iced tea. I pay ($10.55) and I’m finally home and collapse into bed eating my breakfast burritos with another HIMYM episode on in the background. Feel a lot better now.
2:30PM: Finally get up (lol), take a body shower, quickly wash the dishes (my house doesn’t have a dishwasher and we’re all usually pretty good about washing our stuff, but the sink was getting full), then I’m out the door. Head to REI to pick up my shorts (they fit! Will wait to receive the OV ones and compare, but will probably return those since the cost for one pair was almost as much as the cost for these two) and then head to the outlet mall near me. I don’t really need anything, but I rarely go shopping and figure if I see a dress I like for a wedding I have in two weeks, I’ll get it.
7:00PM: Finally home and exhausted and hungry. I end up purchasing two sweaters ($15.24), some baking pans and a food storage container ($17.41), and an iced coffee ($3.21). I also get groceries to meal prep this week and a few last minute travel toiletries - romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, a cucumber, a cantaloupe, eggs, frozen spinach, mushrooms, deli meat, olive oil, Dunkin’ coffee (thank god actual Dunkin’ just came to Colorado!), toothpaste, hair conditioner (to shave my legs lol I don’t use conditioner in my hair), and a toothbrush ($36.86). I eat another char sui bao and text C to see what he wants to do for dinner.
8:00PM: C comes over and I order an Uber to a food hall ($5.96). I order al pastor tacos ($8.64) and get drinks for C and I (watermelon sour for me) ($19.28). C gets a banh mi sandwich and pays for himself. We decide to go to a rooftop bar and C gets drinks this time (I get a mexican lager). We go to another bar and I get two rounds of drinks for us (I get two hazy IPAs) ($23.00).
TOTAL: $140.15
Day 5: Sunday
12:00AM: Open Uber and Lyft apps to compare prices. Ouch. I forget it’s Saturday night and quickly contemplate walking home since we’re not that far, but that thought quickly flies out the window. I order an Uber back to my house ($20.21) and I grab us a bed beer to share (Hemporer HPA) and we fall asleep to HIMYM.
10:30AM: C leaves and I go downstairs to scrounge around for food. I heat up the leftover falafel and sweet potato fries and a lonely egg muffin and douse everything with sriracha. I keep checking the weather to see if I should go to the park to play volleyball or stay home and catch up on some things (like folding the laundry that I did over a week ago… Adulting is hard).
2:00PM: Finally start the day? I’m glad I decided not to go to the park because it’s now raining. I meal prep egg muffins for breakfast for the week and take a cooking break with some contract work. Shower and finally clean my room (and fold that laundry!). I also make a list of things to pack for my trip(s) (I’ll be back on the East Coast for almost two weeks and then leaving for Moab a day after I get back to Denver).
5:00PM: I text C to see if he can quickly help put air in my tires. I drive over to pick him up and we go to the gas station. I don’t have any quarters so I have to make change with cash I already have. I drop C back home and he gives me a new Hydro Flask as a belated gift!
5:30PM: I make an “Indian” stir fry for dinner (chicken and all the vegetables left in my fridge + leftover TJ’s tikka masala sauce over rice) and do the dishes. I attempted to take out our garbage and recycling, but when I opened our back door, our landlord was right there fixing a fence and I’m super awkward and just quietly shut the door before he noticed I was there. What’s wrong with me? Head upstairs to veg out for a bit because I am not ready to tackle my salad meal prep.
9:45PM: Yikes, watched two episodes of Handmaid’s Tale and placed an Amazon Prime order for last minute travel things - A headlamp and mesh laundry bags ($13.91). I go downstairs to cut up my cantaloupe for my fruit this week (I’ll meal prep my salads tomorrow night, since I have a lunch to bring for tomorrow), brush my teeth, wash my face, moisturize, vitamins and meds, Kiehl’s lip mask, and another episode of Handmaid’s Tale and fall asleep around midnight.
TOTAL: $34.12
Day 6: Monday
6:30AM-7:02AM: Alarms. Scroll through emails and social media.
7:10AM: Morning routine (girlfriend jeans, geometric print blouse, white slip on sneakers). One of my contacts is being very stubborn this morning (this is where I wish I qualified for Lasik). Pack gym clothes, lunch, and I’m out the door a little later than normal . I listen to Chicks in the Office podcast because this is how I keep up with pop culture (ugh, Portnoy tho).
8:05AM: Bad coffee, water, egg muffins, emails.
10:00AM: I’m going on hour 2 of a 3 hour customer training WebEx and I have to pee. I take this time to refill my coffee, water, and get some cantaloupe from the fridge that I brought from home.
11:30AM: Training is over a little early, thank god. The hosts were struggling with audio issues real bad and I couldn’t take it anymore. I head to the break room to eat my lunch (double “portion” of the Asian slaw from last week but it’s basically just vegetables so kinda healthy (obligatory ‾\_(ツ)_/‾) and do more work.
12:40PM: My friend texts our group chat about the new Natty Seltzers. I immediately text C about this because we are both obsessed with Naturdays. Am I really 28?
1:00PM: Meetings. Lots of arguments about internal policies. I also have my biweekly 1:1 with my boss, which goes better than my past ones - I’ve been trying to figure out how to ask for more work or how to get more involved in my department since my small team is pretty siloed and he suggests I join a particular committee to give the current members a different perspective.
3:00PM: Meetings over. I eat a mango greek yogurt with chocolate chips and catch up with a coworker about a cool hike she did yesterday.
4:50PM: I leave the office to head to a HIIT class a few blocks away.
6:05PM: I walk home and make a lazy version of bibimbap (ground turkey with gochujang, brown sugar, and soy sauce, quick pickled julienned cucumber and carrots, kimchi, rice, runny egg, all topped with sriracha. I make two servings and an extra serving of rice for fried rice tomorrow. Start BIP!
9:00PM: Fuck, I like the OV shorts that came in the mail today. They seem like they would hold up on longer hikes more since they have a weightier fabric than the North Face ones. I decide to keep these and return one of the North Face ones. I am normally not a big spender on clothes, so this stings a little. I’ll go to REI on Wednesday when I have to run a bunch of other errands. I show one of my roommates all the shorts and she agrees with me (done talking about shorts now). Shower, body lotion, face moisturizer, and head downstairs to meal prep those salads (romaine lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, celery, cherry tomatoes, turkey deli meat). I also make hard boiled eggs for each salad and I have dressing at work.
10:15PM: Put on lip mask and another episode of Handmaid’s Tale. Goodnight.
TOTAL: $0
Day 7: Tuesday
6:15-6:30AM: Earlier alarms this morning, since I have a short standing call with the company I contract for. I scroll through social media and emails for 5 minutes and go downstairs to put on a small pot of coffee. Morning routine (Banana Republic black cotton pencil skirt, my favorite Oakland T shirt, black nike sneakers) and head downstairs for my call. Pack my lunch afterwards and out the door by 7:35.
8:00AM: Bad coffee, water, egg muffins, work. I also book a workout class on ClassPass for later today that I’ve never done before and I’m nervous, but the studio is right down the street from my house.
10:00AM: Grab cantaloupe from the fridge that I brought from home. Also receive an email from a coworker who’s organizing a work softball team that I signed up for and then IM another coworker and text some other friends about signing up for a volleyball league. Both will start in about a month.
11:35AM: I cannot put off lunch any longer. I go to the break room to have my sad desk salad topped with crispy red peppers for dat texture while going through emails. Also do a little bit of contract work.
12:30PM: Back to work. It is freezing in the office.
1:50PM: Sad desk salad is not cutting it. I snack on some almonds from my desk drawer.
3:30PM: Blood orange greek yogurt with chocolate chips. I am constantly eating.
4:45PM: Leave. Take off all my clothes when I get home because I’m sweaty af and laze in my bed for a bit before stuffing some turkey slices in my mouth and heading to the studio for my workout.
7:00PM: It was a good workout! Much more like the group fitness classes I used to take back home. I talk with the instructor for a bit and race home to start BIP and make a quick kimchi fried rice. I also receive my contracting work check from last month and deposit that.
9:00PM: Shower and try on my swimsuits for the beach next week. God damn hip dips. I google “best swimsuit bottoms for hip dips” and decide a) I don’t want to spend money on new swimsuits since I don’t wear the six that I have very often and b) I’m not trying to impress anyone, so fuck it. I head downstairs to do some contract work. No Handmaid’s Tale tonight, as I try to sleep earlier on Tuesdays since I have a 6:30AM call with my contracting company every Wednesday morning. I fall asleep browsing Reddit and playing solitaire on my phone.
TOTAL: $0
TOTAL: $355.99
Food + Drink: $159.94
Fun / Entertainment: $0
Home + Health: $31.32
Clothes + Beauty: $138.56
Transport: $26.17
Other: $0
Lastly, reflect on your diary! I think this is somewhat normal-ish, but since I rarely buy clothes, I think the spread over the categories is unusual (I would normally spend more on food lol). Writing out the beginning part made me realize I maybe need a more active role in my finances instead of letting my Dad completely handle everything, although I do check in with him about once a month to see how everything’s doing. When I first started working (at a lower salary with debt), I had a pretty strict budget (I tracked every single expense and broke it down by category), but I really haven’t had one in the last couple of years. Perhaps it’s time to start again, but I’m pretty comfortable in my spending/saving ratio. Anyone in Denver wanna grab a beer?

So this is a variation of your classic make-the-random-things-in-your-fridge-a-meal by adding rice or a fried egg. I'm sure it has a proper name but I'm not sure what because it was a random late-night idea that I followed through on which will now totally enter my rotation. Toasting the rice and then frying the egg into the rice are such simple changes on 2 major basics but it makes such a difference!

Grab your random bits of pickle-able veggies such as cucumbers/carrots/radishes/onions/cabbage. Thinly slice or grate them. If you have some ginger mince or grate that and add to the veggies. Give them a sprinkle of salt.Splash some vinegar on them. If you're not into very tangy stuff, add some neutral oil too. Let them hang out in the vinegar while you get the other stuff going.
Grab your day-old or room-temp cooked rice. If you have some leftover shredded or cubed meat, stir together with the rice. Heat a pan with a little oil over high heat. Spread the rice in an even layer and press down slightly with a spatula. LEAVE IT ALONE for ~5 minutes, until it is lightly brown and toasted on the bottom. Mmm. Flip.
Crack an egg or 2 over the top of the rice. Add a tablespoon of water and cover the pan. Let the egg cook until the whites are opaque but the yolk is still runny. Flip (the egg will have spread out and cooked into the rice, so it should be kind of a whole patty that you can turn together) and cook for a minute or two more.
Transfer the egg/rice/meat mix on top of the veggies. Top with soy sauce and hot sauce. Enjoy!

The first time I tried this I made it without veggies, just rice/shredded pork/eggs/sauce. The second time I made it I did it without meat, just rice/eggs/vinegary shredded carrots/sauce. Both times it was filling and tasty! It was inspired by this Smitten Kitchen recipe (which, btw is very good!).

ETA: Thank you guys for the amazing positive response! I am so happy it was useful. Thanks to several users I found out that this is basically lazy-man's Westernized "dolsot bibimbap". I've had regular before but never dolsot, so now I definitely need to go find a Korean restaurant to try it at! :)

This is a vent sorry
I miss cereal. I miss angel hair with meatballs and heavy sweet tomato sauce, I miss grilling myself hotdogs on a frying pan and putting sweet onions and ketchup on a toasted bun, I miss cornbread and chili, pulled chicken, burgers over morning fries and mac salad covered in meat hot sauce, chicken wings, Dunkin’ Donuts vanilla chais, going out and drinking margaritas and searching for the best Moscow mule my fake ID could get me instead of diet cokes and vodkas. eggs. I want eggs, homemade arancini, chicken salad with poppyseed and cranberries I’d eat from Tupperware with chopsticks on the fire escape, simple sandwiches, snack time in school of cheez its and oreos, soup that isn’t low sodium broth, bibimbap of leftovers, grilled cheese with fancy cheese and sautéed veggies, skirt steak, making cakes for fun, weed brownies, and making homemade pizzas.
Anything but my pathetic empty tastless diet of low sodium broth, rice cakes, and carrots. All the food i cant c/s anymore and if i dared to touch would turn into a messy breakdown of purging and laxatives and crying on my bathroom floor and im all puffy faced and broken out from smearing vomit all over my chin. Im so sick and i got what i wanted.

Healthy Recipes from MyFitnesspal.Com

Best: Pepperoni Pizza Mac and Cheese- The slight presence of tomato sauce in really balances it. As with all mac and cheese, use a gratuituous amount of fresh ground black peppers, and nuke it for 6 minutes at least
Joe's Diner Mac and Cheese- Traditional Mac and cheese, a huge step above Kraft "Cheez"
Added: Bibimbap. Very little Beef, but overall tastes good. I lived in Korea for a while and did not like bibimbap but I'll be getting this again.
Worst:
Reduced Guilt Mac and Cheese- Maybe not awful, but it's not like it's even marginally "healthier" than the Joes Diner 4 cheese mac and cheese- this is the blue box with the spirals. Not good either
Veg Pad Thai- TJ's Thai and Indian foods range from good to surprisingly good, but this was a miss for me. Far worse than the Jackfruit curry
Aloo Chat Kati Rolls - Is this what vegans accept? It's spicy, but the crisping sleeves can't save this.
What do you guys stock up on, and what are some of the worst misses?

So to preface this story of how last night’s dinner went, you need some background on me and my fam. We’ve always been big into cooking, and both my parents truly have some serious skill— don’t get me wrong. You just have to picture the stereotypical middle-class white kitchen. I grew up on (great) pastas, casseroles, Tex mex, and BBQ, but nothing that really expanded into different cuisines. Luckily I did have those parents that underseasoned veggies or overcooked meat; they really are great at cooking, they just cook super safe-American. It wasn’t until college that I got to try foods like sushi, Indian food, ramen, Vietnamese, etc. and now that’s almost exclusively what I cook and have even been expanding my parents’ palettes a bit when I come home to visit.
This weekend I had a planned visit where my mom asked me to cook a big meal for the family and her friends. Sure, I love cooking! She specifically requests that I make bibimbap, a recipe I was taught by a Korean woman when I was living abroad. Absolutely, it’s one of my favorites to make, and she’s had mine before. She asks for a grocery list and I give her all the ingredients I need: ground beef, zucchini, carrots, edamame, purple cabbage, bean sprouts, soy sauce, garlic, sesame oil, eggs, and white rice.
Well dinner time comes around and I’m pulling out cutting boards and pans while my mom grabs ingredients. She remembered the edamame, soy sauce, eggs and garlic, awesome. She forgot the zucchini, bean sprouts, and and sesame oil (actually she accused me of not putting them on the list). As for the rest of the ingredients....
Cole slaw mix (“it has some carrots in it!”)
Ground turkey
Brown minute rice
And after this ingredient disaster, when I’m trying to make some semblance of bibimbap with what she bought and what’s in the fridge (mini carrots I individually shredded on a cheese grater, corn, and broccoli at least) she has the gall to tell her friends, “Look it’s so cute, she likes to cook all the veggies separately just so that the dish looks pretty at the end!”
YOU REQUESTED BIBIMBAP NOT A GODDAMN STIR FRY.
I was fuming. Luckily I figured it out and it tasted good and the guests loved the dish but man.
I figured this is the one place where my rant would be understood.

THANK YOU RYKO

THERE IS NEW INFO

Hello. These Combination will give you 3 star ratings for your dishes if you follow the steps correctly.
So for everyone these recipes ratios will be very different for each person BUT the recipes in the thread are considered to the 'baseline' ones. If the first combination doesn't work, please USE A COMBINATION DEPENDING ON THE NUMBERS OF STARS YOU GET FROM THE BASELINE COMBINATION. If you get a one star DRAMATICALLY increase or decrease

Example 1

Escargot	Basic Combination (try first)	if 1 star Then you should try	if STILL ONE STAR then try
Snail	9	7	11
Butter	2	1	5
Parsley	2	1	5
Garlic	2	1	5

Example 2

SO BASICALLY JUST TRY AND GET AWAY FROM YOUR 1 STAR COMBINATION. IF IT'S 2 STARS THEN YOUR COMBINATION IS CLOSE TO THE 3 STAR COMBO ON YOUR ACCOUNT

Nasi Lemak	Basic Combination (try first)	if 2 star Then you should try	if still 2 star then try	IF STILL 2 STAR
Rice	7	6	5	9
Anchovies	5	4	3	7
Egg (2)	6	5	4	3
Peanut	4	3	2	7
Cucumber	5	4	3	6
Coconut milk	3	2	1	4

If that doesn't work try just RANDOMLY adding random combinations of ingredients and if that STILL doesn't work then try ± 1 to one ingredient at a time.

How Do I get a Legendary Dish?

In order to get legendary rank for a recipe you will have to modify the baseline combinations by 1 for each individual recipe until you get it.
As long as it's within the baseline recipe range (this will depend on your account, I think).
For example Baseline for this dish is 6:3:3:2 but in this case this legendary combination is 5:2:2:1 https://imgur.com/a/9h0NR

REMEMBER ALL RECIPE AND LEGENDARY COMBINATIONS ARE DIFFERENT FOR EVERYONE BUT BASELINE IS SIMILAR

Tier 1

Sushi	Tuna	Rice
#	6	5

Tier 2

Hamburger	Patty	Bread	Lettuce
#	8	6	4

Tier 3

Spicy Rice Cake	Rice Cake	Pepper Paste	Sugar
#	8	6	3
Udon	Udon Noodles	Meat Broth	Scallion
#	5	7	4

Tier 4

HogDog	Bread	Sausage	Lettuce
#	9	5	4
ChaiTow Kway	Rice Flour	Radish	Egg
#	4	8	3

Tier 5

Chilled Noodle Soup	Buckwheat Noodle	Cucumber	Broth
#	5	2	7
Goulash	Beef	Paprika	Tomato	Chicken Soup
#	4	3	5	6
Chicken Fried Steak	Chicken	Flour	Bread Crumbs	Egg
#	8	3	4	3

Tier 6

Chili Crab	Crab	Flour	Onion	Garlic
#	7	3	2	2
Dumpling Soup	Flour	Pork	Chicken Broth	Pork Rind
#	4	4	4	4
Escargot	Snail	Butter	Parsley	Garlic
#	9	2	2	2

Tier 7

Bibimbap	Rice	Bean Sprouts	Spinach	Pepper Paste
#	6	3	3	2
Fish & Chips	Flour	Fish	Potato	Egg
#	4	5	5	2
Ramen	Dried Noodles	Beef broth	Egg	Green Bean Sprouts
#	6	4	2	4
Bulgolgi	Beef	Soy Sauce	Sugar	Garlic
#	9	3	2	2

Tier 8

Fried Pork Chop	Pork	Flour	Egg	Break Crumbs
#	9	3	2	2
Chicken Soup	Chicken	Ginseng	Rice	Water
#	9	3	6	7
Spaghetti Bolognese	Spaghetti Noodles	Garlic	Olive Oil	Tomato Sauce
#	9	3	2	4
Mapo Tofu	Tofu	Pork	Sichuan Pepper	Spicy Bean Paste
#	9	3	4	5

Okay for this one there are TWO UNQIUE eggs. To find out which egg you need, you will have to sort your inventory, the first egg will be denoted egg 1 and second will be egg 2.

Tier 9 (READ ABOVE)

Taco	Tortilla	Beef	Avocado	Onion	Tomato
#	3	4	3	4	3
Takyaki	Flour	Octopus	Egg (1)	Scallion	Ginger
#	6	6	3	4	4
Beef Noodle Soup	Egg Noodles	Beef	Bok Choy	Sichuan Pepper	Chilli Oil
#	8	4	3	2	2
Tom Yum Soup	Shrimp	Chilli	Lime	Lemongrass	Cilantro	Ginger
#	5	3	3	3	2	2
Nasi Lemak	Rice	Anchovies	Egg (2)	Peanut	Cucumber	Coconut milk
#	7	5	6	4	5	3

Tier 10

Stir-fried Rice	Rice	Scallion	Garlic	Oyster Sauce	Egg	Fish Sauce
#	7	4	3	4	3	6
Laksa Soup	Rice Noodles	Coconut Milk	Shrimp	Fish Cake	Green Bean Sprouts	Chicken Broth
#	7	2	4	4	4	7
Pad Thai	Egg	Fish Sauce	Rice Noodles	Shrimp	Green Bean Sprouts	Peanut
#	3	2	8	4	4	2
Pho	Fish Sauce	Rice Noodles	Pork	Cilantro	Green Bean Sprouts	Lime
#	2	7	3	2	6	2
Peking Duck	Duck	Salt	Cooking Wine	Soy Sauce	Honey	Apple
#	9	2	2	2	3	4

LEGENDARY

To 3-star legendary recipes you will need to slowly change one ingredient at a time to see what will have what effect.

Example LEGENDARY

Sweet and Spicy Shrimp	Basic Combination (try first)	Then you should try	then try
Shrimp	23	22	21
Cornstarch	10	10	10
Egg	10	10	10
Spicy Bean Paste	15	15	15
Chilli Oil	5	5	5
Garlic	6	6	6

Sweet and Spicy Shrimp	Shrimp	Cornstarch	Egg	Spicy Bean Paste	Chilli Oil	Garlic
#	23	10	10	15	5	6
Sweet and Sour Pork	Pork	Cornstarch	Vinegar	Flour	Soy Sauce	Sugar
#	25	15	5	10	5	10
Burrito	Tortilla	Beef	Avocado	Onion	Tomato	Pinto Bean	Cilantro
#	15	10	10	13	14	10	5

TRANSLATED FROM THIS THREAD: https://m.gamer.com.tw/forum/C.php?bsn=7650&snA=982022

Whenever I go to Korean restaurants, the Korean servers tell me that the delicious red sauce that is served with bibimbap is called "gochuchang", which is the red pepper paste. However, when I purchased the tub of gochuchang, the flavour and texture is completely different. I'm assuming the red sauce is made with gochuchang, but a google search doesn't really explain how to make the korean red sauce. Anybody care to explain, or link to how I am able to replicate this red sauce? (what is the red sauce called, anyways, if it isn't gochuchang?)
Thanks in advance!

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AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

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