Sunday, October 10, 2010

10 Oct 10 (Sun) - Black Glutinious Rice Porridge [Bubur Pulut Hitam] (黑糯米粥)

Was at my sis's place together with M since yesterday to spend the weekend. Couple of weeks ago, I bought a packet of black glutinous rice and a small packet of coconut milk but didn't have the chance to cook. Therefore, I brought them up to my sis's place to make Bubur Pulut Hitam since my sis like that dessert. Only used half the packet which was 100g of black glutinous rice to make a four persons' share coz I don't know if her other family members eat that dessert.

Started cooking around 9am after breakfast. The preparation was fast since it only required washing of the rice. It was the cooking that took a long time. According to the recipe, it should take about 30min to cook but I forgot to check the time or set the timer so I had to check the rice every now and then to prevent it from getting burnt. After it was cooked, added in the gula melaka syrup and off the fire. Drizzled some coconut milk over it and it was ready to serve.

My sis took a big bowl and let M tried some coz she has never eaten that before. After trying, she came into the kitchen and asked for more so gave her the balance which was the equivalent of a rice bowl and the three of us sat around the dining table to enjoy our dessert.
 
Bubur Pulut Hitam - Black Glutinous Rice Porridge

Ingredients:
100g black glutinous rice, washed and drained
5 cups tap water
4 stalks pandan leaves
50g gula melaka
1/2 cup thick coconut milk

Method:
1.  Boil black glutinous rice with water and pandan leaves for about 30mins until rice is cooked
2.  Add gula melaka and stir for another 5mins until sugar is dissolved completely
3.  Spoon into individual bowls and drizzle coconut milk over

Friday, October 1, 2010

1 Oct 10 - Day 8 (Seoul)

Morning call at 7am and gathered at the lobby at 8am. Had to travel out for breakfast before going to the Korean Cordyceps Monopoly Showroom where the lady introduced their best selling product - Liver Tonic (护肝宝) instead of the Cordyceps. By the way, their cordyceps were not the black and dried type that we usually see back home. Theirs were fresh and whole stored in a big, transparent container. Good products come with expensive price tags and so again M and I didn't get anything even though M was tempted to get for her dad. The lady said the Liver Tonic is good for people who have been taking Western medications for a long time.

After that, we headed to a place near Incheon Airport where the two levels sell all the Korean local products from food to souvenirs. Because we had limited cash so we had to be careful of what we throw into our shopping baskets. Bought kimchi seaweed to share with M, bamboo salt seaweed for sis's place, three boxes of choco pie, a box of ginseng tea to share with M and some others. After making payment, we went out to have our stuff packed into a big box together with the two bottles of honey that I bought from Jeju. Since we still had time so we went back into the shop to browse again.

Settled our lunch on the third floor and we had dumpling steamboat which was rather nice. After that, we headed to Incheon Airport and we were very early. Only one counter was opened and the counter lady was very strict on our luggage weights where one passenger was entitled to 25kg. The four friends had their limits burst and so Hanna asked us to do them a favor by taking out some of our stuff out to hand carry. So M had to take out her CDs and put inside her new backpack to be carried up to the plane. We were unhappy about it but what could we do? The rest of the group also had to repack their stuff coz most of them had limits burst and some didn’t have the sense to pack their masks into their luggage and thought they could hand carry up the plane. For Christ sake, those masks contained moisture and liquid, of course those were not allowed on board.

Our last meal in Korea, steamboat dumpling

Finally after a long time, all of us had our luggage checked in and then we checked ourselves in after saying goodbye to Hanna. Most of the shops inside the Airport were repetitive and so didn’t bother to explore. Saw the Cultural Centre and there were foreigners inside doing hand painting of paper fans. Checked with the staff how long it would take and was told it would take about 20min. So we sat ourselves down and started painting. The four friends also came to try their hands on it and they managed to finish before we did. After we were done, went to the restroom and waited at the designated gate for boarding and we were on our way back home.


Our hand-painted paper fans

 Bibimbap dinner on the plane

Sunset view from the plane

Thoughts: Those inconsiderate group members should know better than to bust their limits and inconvenient the others. During the trip, found out that the four friends, the two friends and the couple were smokers. After every meal, they would go out to smoke together. And poor us had to endure all the secondhand smoke. Also all the eight of them also couldn’t survive without chili in their food. Those four friends were also big eaters and they eat very fast too which pressurized M.