Little Artichoke
  • The Story
  • In the kitchen
    • Breakfast
    • Lunch
    • Dinner
    • Snacks, Cookies & Muffins
  • Guest in the kitchen
  • Travel kitchen

Love food. love life.


 

My husband and I live, work and eat abroad.
WE are food lovers.    
I am not a professional chef. i simply enjoy learning to appreciate new flavours and cooking new dishes.

and that is the purpose of Little Artichoke -
to share the love of food. 

 
little artichoke is about discovering and trying out new things in the world of food.  even when  rediscovering something that was once forgotten;  that too is something new. 

back in south korea...

1/2/2017

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We have been back in South Korea since February, 2016.  To make quite a long story much shorter and easier to digest, it has always been an option for us to come back in the hope of teaching at a University. With a year of University teaching experience (from teaching in China) under our metaphorical belts, along with the master's degrees required for a University job in Korea, we got jobs in Asan and found ourselves at Incheon airport waiting for the bus to take us to our new home.  Some may have decided that we have finally lost the plot of our own life story.  However, we are thankful for the opportunity to live in this strangely wonderful country once again and attempt to make the most of it, knowing that nothing in this life lasts forever.       
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Soonchunhyang University, Asan-si, South Korea (Autumn, 2016)

a glimpse into 2016

Drying Korean chili peppers
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Daegu monorail station (we will always be in love with this great city)
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The first winter snow, December 2016

enjoying the wonderful flavours of korean cuisine  once again

Local Food Market and Onyangoncheon Wet Market
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Friendly fish monger at Onyangoncheon wet market
Our favourite noodle restaurant in Cheonan
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 Here is a slideshow of the lovely food we've enjoyed this year - hover over picture to read caption
Another Korean cooking lesson
A new friend invited us to her home on the top floor of an apartment building where we made Korean food. 
​My brave Mother came to visit for a month.  We watched rugby on our small screen in our tiny living room, went to Seoul a few times and also visited Boseong Tea Fields.  I have tremendous respect for my mom who travelled over 20 hours on her own, walked the 20 minutes from our apartment to the metro station almost every day, and not missing a chance to taste the food.  I am blessed to have a mom like her!  
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Watching rugby in our living room
Boseong Tea Fields
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Daetongbap, rice cooked in a section of a bamboo stalk
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​Cooking at home 
Our weekly meals have become strangely global and I wonder how many of our friends and family would enjoy eating dinner with us on a Wednesday evening.  Maybe it's a little strange, but we enjoy eating simply. 
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Russian bread (from a local Russian baker in our area), curry, cheese, Chinese style eggplant, Korean bean sprouts, and Korean spinach side dishes
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a*live  in the middle kingdom

4/26/2015

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China is called "zhōngguó" in Mandarin which literally translates to "Middle Kingdom".  We have been in the Middle Kingdom for the past 7 months now and this post is long overdue. Our kitchen here is even smaller than the one we had in South Korea, with no cabinets and no storage space.  As a result, we have become quite innovative in the kitchen.  But that is not such a bad thing. Once we started cooking our own food at home again, we started to feel more at home.  We have a gas range, a toaster oven, a pot, a pan, two mixing bowls and the basic baking equipment (measuring cups and spoons).  You don't need much more to cook good food. 

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if nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies 

8/5/2014

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Hanbok - Traditional Korean dress
Change... Some people avoid it; others crave it.  We are learning to embrace it whenever it comes around.  And it will always come around. This month the time has come once again to embrace change.  Two years and six months ago, we packed our belongings into boxes and set out on an adventure - South Korea. The 'land of the morning calm'.  The plan to stay for one year turned into two years and six months.  We are now in the sixth month.  

Bittersweet.  That explains it best.     
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The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and JOIN THE DANCE - Alan W. Watts
Looking back on our life in the Republic of Korea,  I realize that words will never be enough to describe it.  We have made life long friends from around the globe,  tasted live octopus, learned (or attempted to) a new language as well as valuable lessons from a culture so different from our own.  We have learned that stepping out of your comfort zone brings about discomfort and that once you embrace it, it changes you and you are forever thankful.    
Our capacity to enjoy food that look, smell and feel different from what we are used to has increased greatly.  That is something that we will treasure.  We love Korean food.
So, one kitchen closes as we leave our new comfort zone in the South of Korea and another will soon open with new challenges awaiting in the South of China.     
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home is where your kitchen is

1/25/2014

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Home is where the heart is, right? What if your heart is in FOOD and everything that it entails? Then home is where your kitchen is.  I like to think so. Even though it is a temporary one, I like to believe that Korea started feeling like home after I rekindled my love affair with FOOD.     
Although I love living in this country, moving to South Korea two years ago proved to be challenging on many levels. One of them is living in a small apartment with an even smaller kitchen.  At least, this was my view at the time, coming from a background which involves larger kitchens than the one I am currently calling 'home'.  I am ashamed to admit that I had the preconception that small kitchens produce 'small' tastes and flavors.  I was wrong.       
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FOOD has the ability to bring about amazing things regardless of where you are.  Whether you are sitting on the stairs of the bank eating your favorite cheap meal from the corner cafe (which Louis and I did when we were dating) or at a waiter-with-white-napkin restaurant captivated by the way the food is stacked into a beautiful plate of art (which we also did - less), you will probably have some of your most memorable moments in the presence of FOOD.      
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Living in Korea has taught me many things about my relationship with FOOD.  And I am still learning. I am learning that a willingness to try new things may surprisingly lead to a new-found favorite dish.  I am learning that judging a dish by its appearance (and with cultural bias) before you taste it is like judging a person's character by the color of their skin - a complete shame.  I am learning that the familiar way of cooking is not the only way of cooking.  

There is much to learn about a country's culture through the FOOD the people eat.  So, next time you are in a foreign country, be brave and taste something that you have never tried before. And if you are staying home - discover your metaphoric artichoke, try cooking something you've never attempted before and remember to love FOOD and love LIFE.        

   

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    Author

    Philné Lundie
    Lover of all things FOOD

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