Category: Uncategorized

I’ve been working in a ward where we help ex-drug users recover. I always tell them, “If I could quit, you can too.” But to be honest, it often feels too comfortable for them to stay there. One guy told me he wanted to become a nurse, but most of the time he’s too groggy on strong downers to hold a proper conversation.

Those meds—like paliperidone and olanzapine—flatten a person so much they lose touch with themselves, let alone their goals. Grogginess, weight gain, emotional numbness, lactating (yes, that too)—it’s heavy. And yeah, it’s rough seeing people sedated enough to behave, but not enough to really live. I get emotional because I was once there too.

There’s a colleague of mine who’s terrified of that ward. She says the ex-users are violent and filthy. “They’re a threat to society.” Honestly? She’s scarier than any patient I’ve ever met. She looks like a Ninja Turtle. Not in a mean way—she’s not a bad person—it’s just… that’s her face. She comes from somewhere in Southeast Asia, but she’s constantly saying she looks Korean. I nod and smile because what else do you do?

One day she rocked up with this bright, clip-in hairpiece and a full face of makeup. Imagine a Ninja Turtle at Coachella. I told her she looked nice (just being polite), and the next day she gave me hairpieces. I thanked her and said, “I should go clubbing tonight!” Then chucked them in the bin when I got home.

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So, my birthday. A friend made dinner. Another gave me over 30 vapes as a present. You’d think 35 vapes is wild—and yeah, it is. For me that’s like a year’s supply. What’s wilder is: I accidentally threw them all away.

They came in a box of Dove soap, and I moved them to a plastic bag (why? still don’t know). I put that bag next to my bin and told myself, “Be careful not to throw it away.” and next minute I’m at the garbage chute, dropping it in like it’s nothing.

I didn’t even think about it again until the next morning—my actual birthday—while sitting on the toilet. I looked over at my bin and realised: I threw away 35 vapes. At 6 am, I put on tall rain boots, thick gloves, grabbed a ladder, and went downstairs to the building’s waste room. Now, my complex has 200+ units, probably 500+ residents, and there are four buildings—A, B, C, and D. The waste room? A graveyard of garbage bins, some of them 1100L monsters. I opened one bin, saw spilled food, plastic bags, fruit flies (maggots lurking), and I just… gave up.

First, I felt sick with myself. Then with the rubbish room. I lost a birthday present. Not just a personal loss (-10 points), but a gifted one? That’s like -100. It made my heart and brain ache. It wasn’t just the vapes. It was the lost time, the saved money, the relief of not having to visit the rude tobacconist in Eastwood (except the owner—he’s okay. But those 3 Korean girls? Ugh). I’d lost all of that, too.

And then came a moment of 정신승리—that Korean concept where you mentally twist a failure into a win. I told myself: “Maybe this is my sign to quit. Maybe the universe made me lose the vapes for a reason.” Main character logic. Delusional, sure. But I needed that logic to make Habe’s gift mean something. If I quit now, I’ll always say it was because of her. Because she got me 35 vapes… and I lost them all.

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Dear vape 😭
I vaguely remember when we first met.
2018? 2019? I was trying to quit cigarettes.
I loved you so much I smuggled you into a psych ward inside a condom tucked in my vajayjay.
I really did love you.
Lately though, my breath smells like burnt plastic. I don’t know if that’s you or just me.
I’ve always hated being dependent. And I depended on you so, so much.
You were too easy. Too available. Too everywhere.

Now the universe is telling me to say goodbye.
The only thing that hurts more than losing you is feeling like I lost Habe’s thoughts about me.
To make up for that, I’ll quit. For real this time.
So when people ask, I’ll say:
“I quit because of a birthday present.”

I still touched my pocket twice while writing this. Just muscle memory.
But please, don’t come back.
You’ve done enough.

…But should I quit after this last one?
Like… breakup sex?

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So maybe this was all just burnt toast.

You know the theory — you burn your toast, get mad, run late, and miss the bus… but that delay keeps you from getting into a car accident or bumping into someone awful or whatever. Maybe me throwing away 35 vapes by accident wasn’t just me being a dumbass. Maybe it was the universe slightly nudging me into something better. Maybe the lost vapes saved me from something I can’t even name yet — a worse addiction, a bleaker version of me. Maybe this was the burnt toast I needed to quit.

Or maybe I’m just coping hard. Either way, I’ll take it.

Think about how many girls use those cute Ghibli style drawing as their profile pictures now. It’s the new cat/dog filter few years back snapchat’s magic. A way of saying “this is what I want to look like” You can be insecure, but make it aesthetic. And I’m projecting.
Fuck and even though I think Ghibli style selfie shows insecurity, I don’t mind to try (actually wanting to, right now) but chatgpt updated their policy or something so I can’t!

2024 is almost over, and how many books have you read this year? I’ve read zero. I started plenty but finished none.

Recently, TikTok started showing me ads for the Kindle 2024, which reminded me of my Kindle from 2012, a birthday gift to myself. It’s now 12 years old, and the last time I checked if it still worked was about two years ago. I charged it with little hope, thinking it was probably dead for good—but wow, it’s alive! What a monster.

It got me wondering: why did I stop reading? I can’t even remember. Maybe it was when I moved to Australia? Back in Korea, I wasn’t a bookworm, but I read a fair amount compared to others. After moving to Australia, though, it became harder to find Korean books. (I guess it’s easier now compared to 10+ years ago.) Back then, the Eastwood Korean bookstore charged nearly double, so I switched to Ridi, a Korean e-book app. But I wasn’t a fan because:

1. iPads were heavy back then, still is, compare to kindle
2. My eyes hurt from staring at blue screens.

Life also shifted into “survival mode.” Someone had to pay the bills, and there was no time to read. But as I write this, I realize that’s a garbage excuse. I found time for yoga, freediving, and jiu-jitsu, even knitting and cycling, even, DRUGS —so I clearly had time and money. I just gradually lost interest in reading.

When I bought the Kindle in 2012, I had big dreams of improving my English by reading books. My English back then was far worse than it is now, and reading was torture. Every sentence had words I didn’t understand. I’d look them up, only to find dictionary explanations using other words I didn’t know. By the time I understood one word and returned to the book, I’d forget what the paragraph was even about. Reading a paragraph took hours, a page could take days. And I made it worse by starting with Penguin Classics—absolute misery.

Eventually, I gave up on proper books. Instead, I read 4chan, Reddit, Twitter, and many other forums. These days, I enjoy threads. I lost interest in well-crafted, properly written stories. Now I like debates, even petty arguments. I love analyzing why people express themselves in certain ways—it’s fascinating. And honestly, reading threads makes me feel better about myself. So many people out there seem unhinged, and I used to think I was the worst. Turns out I’m fairly normal in comparison.

I almost gave up on my 12-year-old Kindle, planning to toss it if it didn’t turn on. But here it is, still in mint condition. I love it. Meanwhile, people replace their phones yearly (I’m still on the Google Pixel 8 Pro, by the way). Especially iPhone users

So, the real question is: what book should I buy?
A Korean book? But I don’t know what’s good these days. An English book? I’m not sure I can fully enjoy it; I think I’m traumatized from past attempts.

If I want to completely lose myself in a book, reading in Korean would be better. But there aren’t many Korean books on Kindle (though I haven’t searched thoroughly). I read on a naver blog that you can buy books from the Google Play Store, download them, and transfer them to your Kindle using a program called Calibre.

But honestly, I use Kindle for convenience, and I don’t want to involve any other machine in this whole process. If I’m buying books from the Google Play Store, why not just read them on my Pixel 8 Pro? Last night, I tried three books:

1. 수치심 탐구생활 (no English version available)
2. A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace (short stories)
3. 어른이 된다는 것 by Banana Yoshimoto.

They were quick, easy, and cheap to access. I even logged into Ridi to check my balance and found 5+ books I’d started but never finished. Maybe Kindle will thrive for another 10 years, and by 2034, more Korean books will be available. Who knows?

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I haven’t written in 6 months. My original plan was:

• Start writing when I’m pregnant (I didn’t).
• Start writing while traveling (I went to Malaysia last month but didn’t write—excuses, excuses).

Beyond that, I got sick of the fact that all I had to talk about were things like expensive restaurants, wines(that i have no idea with), business class, and unnecessary colourful water bottles(this, I haven’t talked about yet), and so on. And the worst part is, none of it was even stuff I earned myself—it was all on L’s credit card… It made me feel self-loathing.

I’ve been working at a psychiatric hospital for about a month now. When I told my mom, she immediately said, “No! Don’t do it!” before I even finished explaining. She doesn’t know I was a psych patient not long ago. ㅋㅋ

It’s only 10 hours a week, and I barely make enough to cover rent, but honestly, it feels like the best shift I’ve ever had. It’s like having a “title” again, instead of just being a “stay-at-home girlfriend.” Now, I can justify buying more colourful, heavy, and unnecessary water bottles—and many other random stuff—on L’s credit card. 😂

Maybe I’ll try to finish all the books I started in December.

My period just started this morning, and I failed again. This time, I kind of expected failure already since I had none of the fake symptoms that I experienced last time, such as bloating. If you remember, for the last two years, I only drank Diet Coke or taro milk tea instead of clear water just to challenge my liver and see how long it would last, but I survived. I just had dry skin and chronic constipation. L clicked his tongue in annoyance and bought an $80 water bottle to motivate me to drink clear water, and I think money works. I started drinking, and the bloating and constipation went away so easily; wowzy I didn’t expect this.

At this point, I have a pseudo-gynecological degree issued by Google and Naver.com. Based on my degree, our failure points are that I trusted and relied on the Flo™ too much. I’ve been using this app for so long just to track my bleeding date because it always gave me an accurate date with an error margin of plus or minus a day or two. Since my bleeding cycle is so regular, I expected my ovulation date to be too. However, I might be wrong. Flo™ always tells me day 14 as the ovulation date, but my last cycle was 35 days. It could mean I ovulated on day 20 instead of day 14, or possibly I egged randomly. I live such an unhealthy lifestyle, and I don’t know how I overestimated myself to lay an egg in such regular time manner. Nevertheless, Flo™ gave me the expected ovulation date on day 14 for this cycle again.

I had mild cramps with egg-white stretchy cervical mucus (aka pu$$y juice) on the morning of March 21st (which is day 10). So, I thought, “Hmm, isn’t it too early?” And I noted, L was still overseas at that time, so too bad; we had sex every day until the day L left last week and crampie-d from day 12 to 19 . So, I don’t freaking know what’s wrong. Either I laid egg too early, randomly like last cycle (day 20), or didn’t egg at all.

According to my pseudo-gynecological degree, I’ll have to follow a few things for the next cycle (skipping April because L’s not here) instead of relying on Flo™. While I was typing this, Flo™ was desperate and offered me a premium subscription ㅋㅋㅋ.

First, check the resting body temperature every morning before getting out of the bed. Before my degree from Google and Naver.com, I thought humans only had a temperature of 37.5 degrees, and if it was more than that, it meant sickness. But in fact, some thermometers(I bought one today!) can measure and display two decimal places and can help me make a chart like this:

I think this is by far the most reliable source, even though it’s a bit of a pain in the ass. I’ve heard of ovulation tester strips too, but they only check LH levels, and even if I witness an LH surge, that doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll egg. LH surges right before ovulation, but it doesn’t guarantee it. What if I don’t egg at all? In conclusion, body temperature and pu$$y juice should be checked every morning and documented promptly. I’m pretty convinced that I ovulated before L was here. If not, who knows… my degree from TikTok taught me that the chances would be around the same if I had sex every 2-3 days throughout my cycle instead of sex every day and creampie for a week. But isn’t it more problematic if you can’t have sex every day, especially if you’re a new couple?

Week 1: As I mentioned in earlier entries, I almost drank wine every day, even if it was just a sip or two. I didn’t work; I stayed at home chilling while experiencing normal bleeding. I didn’t realize that pregnancy weeks are counted from the day I start my period. So now it makes sense why Koreans (or maybe just my mom) say it takes 10 months until the baby is born, whereas I’ve been corrected so many times that it’s actually nine months(36 weeks) to carry the baby inside my body. When you notice you’re pregnant, you’re already four weeks along.

Week 2: I didn’t work, didn’t exercise, just breathed, with light house chores(laundry, vacuum, cooking) as the only activity. My excuse was that I was building a strong house for my baby. But then I shouldn’t have sipped wine or tequila, or vaped kek. We had sex every day but didn’t really think about getting pregnant because Flo™ says that during week 2, it’s hard to get pregnant anyway.

Week 3: Had sex every day, but also wondered how sperms and eggs actually meet if I stand up and rush to the bathroom to clean up afterward. I searched “headstand after sex” and was glad to see that I’m not alone in thinking that a headstand might help because hello, gravity? I didn’t want to dirty our bedsheet, and I didn’t want to give the sperm an easy route. I wanted survival of the fittest; I wanted my eggs to meet healthy sperm, like salmon swimming upstream the river. I assume I don’t have to do a headstand, but lying down calmly would be helpful. I might wear my period undies next time to improve the situation, but it’s not necessary.

Week 4: I’m already a well-known schizophrenic person. I had all the early pregnancy symptoms found on Google, such as bloating, sore and swollen breasts, excessive sleeping, higher body temperature, constipation, back (more like hip for me) pain, leg edema, etc. But these are also symptoms of PMS, so I kept testing. I used 10+ sticks, all negatives except for only 2 faint positive results. They were so faint that I made sure I wasn’t delulu; I let L examine them. We were both so delusional and excited. How could it happen on the first try?!

Week 5: My period was late for 5 days, and I was sick of guessing, so I booked a GP appointment for a blood test. What intrigued me the most (while googling) was something called the “hook effect,” which is rare but not impossible. I wanted it so bad since I always wanted triplets, or at least twins. I want(ed) to believe~_~

Doc appointment was at 10 am, and I experienced spotting at about 9:30 am. I thought about canceling the appointment, but the blood seemed too little for the usual period, and that made me unable to let go of my hope: it might be implantation bleeding!

Arriving at the hospital, while waiting in line at the pathology, I felt a massive amount of blood come out from my vagina like I never felt before, like something out of Kill Bill the movie, the Kiama blowhole, or the Trevi Fountain in Rome. Blood sample was taken anyway; the male phlebotomist asked me a few questions, including if I thought I was pregnant. I said no, I didn’t think so. Had a chat with the doctor and learned about chemical pregnancy. Ooo… sounds about right. The period cramps are 100 times worse than usual, and I feel like I’m gushing out 3000 buckets of blood, but as you know, I tend to exaggerate.

Week 1: Here we go again. I wrote the conception diary; will try again. It’s fun!

20th Feb
I made tiramisu. It’s just so easy and doesn’t even need an oven. Regretting my life paid $9-10 for a piece. Started selling things that I don’t use. I don’t think any normal people use Gumtree anymore; it’s full of scammers, but I was successful selling a carpet cleaner.

21st Feb
Sold the air fryer and the heat press through facebook marketplace. Spent half a day cleaning the air fryer and sold it for 1/3 of its og price, so I’m not sure if it’s worth selling it. While I was looking for something to potentially sell, I found some badly tarnished chromehearts® and spent another half-day cleaning them.

22nd Feb
Even though I spent half a day cleaning my silver jewellers, I was not happy with the result. So, I watched YouTube before the bed. To clean your blackened silver jewelry, you need foil, a bowl, baking soda, and boiling water. I didn’t even have to rub and polish them; it was actually a bad technique!

[video]

It was a hot day; nonetheless, we went to Eastwood to get 시레기, one of my favorite ingredients for korean dish. But long story short, I couldn’t get them. 😦 We went to the new skewer place in the Chinese side of Eastwood, ate like Roman kings, came back to Macquarie Park for dessert, had Lindt chocolate soft serve. I was actually a bit impressed by what they have. They have more than what Coles and Woolworths have, like sugar-free milk chocolate blocks and vegan chocs (wtf).

23rd Feb
I made tiramisu-inspired strawberry dessert. The mascarpone cheese cream remains the same, but I soaked the ladyfingers in shraz instead of espresso. Fk, I’m so talented.

For dinner, we went to Haberfield to have Italian. I really liked the stuffed zucchini flower. Oh, the Sicilian wine! I always say Italians do better, whether it’s wine, prosecco, or food, just to provoke L. But seriously sicilian wines are the best, They are sweet but also have many other flavors in them, even coffee or toffee? vanila? nuts? maybe i was drunk? Not much like Gewürztraminer, which tastes like grape syrup.

We double-dated for the first time, and it was so fun lol lol. R and J are such a cute couple. I sold the Herman Miller Aeron lol. Bought it for $1800, had it for 2 years, and sold it for $1500, so it’s not that bad, I think. I don’t know.

24th Feb
Got my nails done while L was at the gym and I had nothing to do.

L tried malatang for the first time in his life, he was frightened about sharing thongs at first. Tried the new olive oil that we got from the wog shop, but I just realized, as I write this, it’s from the same farm but in different bottles and names. Do you think South Australia’s climate is similar to the Mediterranean? Because it seems like they make olive oil and wine a lot more than other states in Australia.

Was going to make a rocket pear salad, but we forgot to buy pears, and rosemary for the steak, but we improvised anyway. Django apparently hates aged meat. I am so grateful to have a wog shop nearby to shop daily.

25th Feb
Sunday roast at Glebe… French Pinot Noir, very vanilla, nothing special. The Four Pillars shraz gin + prosecco cocktail was expensive and not sweet, not happy. Sugar fix at Messina. I think Django still hates L. Maybe hate is too strong word for it, django is still not very fond of L i think. L told me not to spread rumors, but it’s a fact, I think. Django never looks at L directly in the eye. Always side eyes… L never likes Django staying in bed, eating chicken on the sofa, etc. L went on a golf trip for a few days, guaranteed peaceful nights for both of them.

Went wine shopping on the way back at Leichhardt, Sicilian wine 💖

13th Feb

Because the lemon pasta was too successful, I thought eggplant pasta would be easy too. Usually, when you take it too easy, you fail. The eggplant was spongy with a weird texture, and the beef was too lean (as L told me: isn’t it better to get just regular one rather than extra lean one). I only liked the fat version of rigatoni, although I don’t know if it’s the brand or the shape.

14th Feb

I was allowed to have two desserts before and after dinner, thanks to God it’s your marketing department’s favourite: Valentine’s Day, and 15 Cenchi was very disappointing, while Le Tao was as expected. Speaking as a well-known cheesecake connoisseur, still, great value for money all time is the Hokkaido/Uncle tetsu cheese tart. I get flare-ups every so often these days, and we can only guess it’s chili. But how? I’m so very much Korean! But I haven’t eaten kimchi since I don’t even remember. It’s chili or grass, or I don’t know; we are still seeking the cause.

15th Feb

Today, I went to see my friend in Rhodes, rode onewheel, had cakes, chatted, laughed. She’s planning to start a dog apparel business; she’s the fourth person I know doing that. We talked about astrology like normie girlies and reached the conclusion that we need to get a job. For dinner, I made avocado chicken pasta, successful! So my success rate is now 50%, I guess.

Ingredient: avocado, lemon, olive oil, salt, pepper, parmesan + chicken tits

16th Feb

I am writing this solely relying on my photo album, and I have only steak pics from this day. I think… we ran 7 km this day. To be specific, Django and L ran 7 km, and I rode onewheel. It was super humid, and those two were exhausted after all. L buys special meat from a special butcher¹ regularly, and he loves it every time. Django loves it every time too². I am okay; meat is meat. I’ve never had red meat this much or this often in my life; just cleaning the cooktop is a bit of a hassle. The wine we had is Gamay, called peasant’s pinot noir or something, french, but I think any shit wines from Italy or France taste better than any wines from Australia but again what do i know about wine, well I like the label of it at least. kek and we had banana bread with mascarpone cream on top for the dessert.

17th Feb

My grandmother died today, and my mom cried on the phone. I didn’t know what to say, so I had to ask L what to say to mom to comfort her and ask another one (Korean) to make sure it’s culturally appropriate. I think I’m so retarded. We went to Marrickville for L’s least favorite food in the hottest weather, got burnt, the three of us, including Django. Came home, had a nap while L went out for another drink or two. For dinner, we went out again for pizza. We forgot about my chili allergy, and I added a lot of chili oil to the pizza, had to consume a lot of cortisol cream on my flare-ups. Oh, but peach Bellini was so yum! And it made me sing Korean songs for hours on L’s belly until he passed out.

18th Feb

We did solo plays on Sunday; L’s Apple Music is all covered by Korean sad songs now because of last night. I went to Olympic Park to watch a basketball game, or so I thought, but in fact, I was there to be a wingwoman. My friend’s Bumble date didn’t buy us McDonald’s soft serves, which cost $1.10! I was too shocked, speechless. He asked me when she’s gone, “do you think she likes me?” I said, “I don’t know,” because I didn’t want to give him free advice. Fucking hell.

19th Feb

L asked me if I wanted to go to the gym; maybe this time was the third time he asked, but I said no. I got fat and haven’t applied for jobs since I don’t know. Only writing this too because L kept asking me, so hmmmm.

1. https://www.grassandbone.com.au/ https://victorchurchill.com/ ↩︎
2. They have the same birthday; imagine the surprise when I found out. ↩︎

Ingredients (for 2 people):

• Pasta: I used mafaldine for the creamy version because it’s like fettuccine but with crinkle edges—such a fun noodle! The fascinating thing about pasta dishes is the sheer variety: mafaldine, linguine, spaghetti, and a myriad of sauces such as cream, tomato, oil, rose, you name it. The main ingredients vary from chicken to bacon, cheese or garlic and parsley. The cooking methods are as diverse as wine and cheese. I used fusilli for the non-creamy version, measuring 100g for each person because when it’s less than enough, it tastes even more delicious.
• Garlic (a handful): I love garlic, but you can use less (or more) if desired.
• Parsley (2 bunches): I’m a fan of parsley, but feel free to use less (or more) based on your preference.
• Lemon: I used half, using both the juice and the skin for zest.
• Olive oil: I used enough to cover the garlic and other ingredients, not too much as I prefer it less oily.
• Parmesan cheese: Add as much as you want.

Skip below if you are making the non-creamy version.

• Cream: I used a 300ml bottle for efficiency in the cooking process. I don’t want to scale everything while cooking simple pasta dish.
• Butter: I added a chunk to enhance the dairy aroma. Adjust according to your taste preferences. You can skip, but I added like a 4 square centimetre with 1.5 centimetres thickness but don’t trust me, trust your tastebuds I guess

How to cook:

1. Make garlic-infused olive oil by frying chopped garlic on low heat.
2. When the garlic oil smells good enough, add lemon zest and parsley (you can use basil if preferred: some recipes use basil instead but I had parsley at home anyway, I found this recipe while I was doom-scrolling and people were debating 1. This not authentic Italian vs it’s actually Amalfi’s homefood, 2. Creamy version better vs non-creamy version better. I’m not an authenticity police so I don’t care as long as it’s tasty, so parsley, basil, or maybe coriander too if you want to, but I don’t like coriander, it’s too overpowering, I mean, be creative, use anything you like, because why not?)
3. Add lemon juice, cream, and butter if making the creamy version. If not, wait until the pasta is cooked. Follow the instructions on the pasta box for cooking time. For the non-creamy version, use minimal water when cooking pasta and maintain the salt amount; you’ll need this starch water later for thickening the sauce.
4. For the creamy version, add pasta to the sauce, stirring well until the pasta holds the sauce. Add butter, grated cheese, more parsley, and pepper to taste. For the non-creamy version, add pasta to the garlic-lemon-parsley oil, mixing well while adding spoonfuls of pasta water. Adjust consistency with more pasta water if desired, and add lemon juice.

It’s easy and delicious!

This is fun noodle (mafaldine) with spanner crab, uni butter, versus my pasta al limone. I had to Google what mafaldine is after reading a menu last week, and the doom scroll algorithm showed me this pasta recipe the other day, so it’s not entirely random, I guess.

I don’t know if foreigners feel the same when they try Korean side dishes (banchans) with rice. If you didn’t know, we eat a variety of small dishes with rice, main courses, and soup in our day-to-day life.

We don’t eat fried chicken or Korean BBQ every day. Although there are some of my favourite banchans, including spinach and beansprouts, Korean food is my least favourite. Think about well-known main dishes like Bulgogi and galbi; they marinate good cuts of beef with soy sauce and sugar to make it sweet and salty for maximum saliva gland stimulation. Is it because they eat it with rice? I like dishes that take minimal time and effort and allow me to enjoy the natural taste of the ingredients.

Koreans generally enjoy soup dishes. I, too, like beef radish soup (소고기 무국)

or spicy beef stew (육개장),

but the nutritional value is questionable. So, how nutritious is pasta with lemon, garlic, parsley, and cheese? You gotta eat it with steak. A good cut.

Even anchovies, we(Korean) use it for making soup bases with veggies, or again using soy sauce and corn syrup to make it sweet-salty over-stimulate flavoured banchan. Oh, how can I not mention one of my favourites, 꽈리고추 멸치볶음¹!!!!!

Whereas Italians or Mediterraneans should I say, use it on pizza, pasta, salted and marinated in olive oil—bigger anchovies, eat it as it is.

Korean dishes, at least mains that are popular and famous among foreigners, are always too sweet and saucy. It’s the sauce—I hate the sauce! The Korean sauces!! Always sweet, salty, if not, spicy; think about Korean fried chicken, always soaked in honey, soy, garlic, or sweet spicy chili, or snowing cheese—whatever it is, it’s just too much. But I like steamed shishito. I can finish 3 bowls of rice no cap.

Ingredient:

• Shishito chillies
• All-purpose flour

Dipping sauce:

• Chives
• Soy sauce
• Chili powder
• Crushed garlic
• Sesame and sesame oil
• Plum juice or syrup (Korean always has it in their fridge, me too). But if you don’t have it, I think apple cider vinegar with a bit of sugar does the same.

How to: [Link to recipe] at this point I am bored of writing recipes

Anyway, pasta is so fun like wine! This is what I had today: a 10-year-aged German ri.. riesling from L’s cellar. I still like the Sicilian the most.

1. Shishito peppers with anchovy: I can finish a bowl of rice with it, even without anchovy in it. ↩︎