Asian Ginger Dressing Recipe

Asian food is my favorite genre. In particular I enjoy Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamenese, Korean and Thai food so living right here in Korea is right up my alley. Problem is - I've never really made Asian food.


With this in mind I searched yum recipes on Pinterest, made a list and headed to the grocery store (which, by the way, is now only a short 200 yards away). I filled the basket with ingredients like cocunut milk, fresh ginger, rice wine vinegar, soy, and sesame oil.


I'll share the great (and not so great) moments and recipes here. To kick off the series tonight I made a rare Ahi Tuna, jasmine rice and a salad. The Romano basil or light ranch in the fridge wasn't going to jive with the Asian theme so I experimented until I had a dressing very similar to the dressing Hibachi grills / Asian restaurants use. It was good... actually, it was really-really good! Here's the visual recipe.

And the finished product (actually, it really was about half-finished when I remembered to take a quick pic).

First off-base Korean outing

Today was the day we went off-base and experienced my first taste of Korean shopping and eating and I have to say that I was in a little bit of heaven.

I LOVED everything about it - the unique signage and clothing, the streets and alleys lined and stacked with hidden treasures, the liberal use of the word 'happy', the Korean adoration of Cooper, and of course the yum food.

Main Street - a typical view down the shopping district's streets and alleys

Neat Korean phone booths along Main street.

A Korean eaterie. It smelled wonderful outside.

Along the streets are great little vendors selling food. I felt like I was at the fair so of course I had to get something fried - we chose a bowl of gyoza. Um, gyoza (or anything Asian for that matter) on the street for only 5,000 won (about $5) - yes, please!

Street vendor fried gyoza. Yum. 

The American Base has been here for over 60 years and in that time the area directly outside of the gate has grown into a huge shopping district catering to Americans and Koreans alike. The main road splits off into alleys upon alleys - all lined with shops and usually stacked three high.

Shopping district street view.

Some of my favorite shops? That's a tough one but in general the baby and clothing shops have some really unique finds and are always filled with lovely Koreans oohing and awwing over Cooper.

Adorable clothing shop - authentic Korean. 

The Korean beauty product/makeup shops are complete with beautifully packaged, unique finds with exotic ingredients. To die for. My haul today included choco milk shower cream, royal black honey mask, toner, and emulsion cream, honey salt, a pearl extract mask, and an egg white pore foam. A perfect trip to revive the eyekande.blogspot.com blog!

Skin Food beauty products. 

Skin Food store front. 

And the window displays of Coach, Jimmy Choo, and Prada bags. Come to momma' Mr. Choo...

Jimmy Choo bag. Love!

For dinner we chose traditional Korean food at The Bulgogi House. When I say Koreans love babies I'm not kidding - during this outing one of the waitresses held and entertained another couple's baby for 20 minutes while they ate. And they rushed over when we arrived to unbuckle Cooper from his stroller and then got him settled into his chair after removing his hat and jacket. I could get use to this!

Cooper eating from chopsticks for the first time. 

The menu was traditional Korean but there were American subtitles that made it easy to know exactly what we were ordering.

I chose Bipimbap - translated to rice, vegetables, some meat and a cooking egg served in an Earthenware bowl - little did I know this was the exact meal that I had been pinning about and it lived up to the hype. So, so good! Owen got traditional bulgogi and enjoyed all of the wonderful little side dishes, like kimchi, bean sprouts, and pickled kale, that accompany a meal. This is going to be one of our favorites.

Bipimbap - a traditional vegetable and rice dish. And the side dishes.

The short walk back home was beautiful - nice weather, a sleeping baby and reflection of a wonderful day with visions of many more to come and shopping to be done!

Osan Air Base, South Korea

The base here is a small, compact community with everything you need (you wouldn’t ever have to travel off base for anything if you didn’t want to).  Most everything is within walking distance from our home. The hospital is across the street followed by the community center, the BX (Base Exchange – like a Walmart), fitness center, library, Commissary (groceries), eateries (like Chili’s), the Officer’s Club and more.

Here are some of my initial observations:

Baby Love: The Koreans we saw on base love, love babies. Cooper was oohed and awed at by almost every Korean we saw – no matter their age or gender. Something so foreign (and heartwarming) for a 45 year old man in uniform to turn stop, smile and ooh and awe at Cooper followed by a ‘confirmation of cuteness’ nod to me. 

BX: The BX has the basics (and more) but I’m seriously going to miss Target.

Commissary: I always love to go to the culture-specific sections in markets so living in another country is so fun for me. The market on base is of course primarily American but the end caps of food items in all Korea are so exotic – hmm, I wonder if there is an app for reading for quickly reading what they actually say.

Military Families: Everyone here is doing the same thing we are so there is already a sense of camaraderie – a nod on the street speaks a million words. We all get it.

Accidental Housewife: The word housewife makes me panicky – because I’ve always  been a working girl with a Master’s degree and a strong sense of independence, because I excel in marketing and branding but not so much in cooking and ironing, because I know it’s hard and new. But just like being a military wife – I will make the best of it. And it’s not all scary – the prospect of spending time with my baby, making my own schedule, fitting workouts in, and focusing on doing all of the fun stuff I can’t do with an 8-5 is very exciting. 

Our New Home

Owen had to report to work at 7:15am after we arrived. We all got up roughly around the same time in an attempt to get on our new schedule as quickly as possible. It worked for Owen and Cooper but I had a tough day one. I took two long naps (and I don’t do naps) equaling about five hours of extra sleep. We had TLF reservations until the end of March so while awake I unpacked and organized what we’d call home for the next month or so.

One of Owen’s first priorities was to get to housing to so we could get on the list for the next available home. We anticipated something to be available by the end of March but surprisingly he came home with keys! The next morning after Owen accepted the home and completed the inspection I packed and we took a base cab to our new home.

Our home is located in the 10 story Hallasan Towers with approximately 9 homes on each floor. It is a roomy, 3 bedroom, 2 bath with a cute balcony and great bones. A clean slate – finally, all of that pinning will come to good use!

So, what to put in our home… Remember our moves where we thought our unaccompanied baggage would be here when we arrived? Not our reality. It looks like it actually won’t arrive until around the end of March and the rest of our household goods won’t arrive until the end of April. This was disappointing since we’ve been living out of one suitcase each for the last month but what’s one month more?

The great thing here in Osan is that everyone has been through the same thing – the assignment, the family goodbyes, the air travel and the living out of a suitcase. So, without hesitation (or even a request) the wife of the squadron Commander – Beth and of the DO – Aimee came to our rescue with loaner sheets, pillows, blankets, trash cans and more. We also were able to get loaner furniture and kitchen utensils from the base and we stocked up on grocery and other necessary household items - so for the time being we’re set.

Next on the agenda is getting back in touch with Internet and phone service – this couldn’t come soon enough but today is the day so hopefully we’ll be back on the grid soon.

Traveling to Korea (with a baby)

After a quick visit in Dallas with a slue of my side of the family and Owen’s brother and wife we shipped our car off and hopped on our first plane of the trip.

We left Dallas at 2pm and arrived in Seattle around 4pm (6pm Central). USO allowed us to store our seven very large bags with them, which saved a lot of trouble getting to and from the hotel. We finally settled into our hotel room around 6pm, ordered in and got a few hours of sleep. The alarm went off at 1:30am and we left the hotel around 2:15am to pick up our baggage from USO and to check-in. We then un-shamefully curled up and napped on the airport floor for a couple of hours.

The Patriot Express flight started boarding at 6:30am and took off around 7am.

The first leg of the trip to Japan was 12 hours. They played 5 movies and asked that everyone keep their windows down so it was really dark – which allowed Cooper to sleep for about half of the flight. The other half he played on, around and in front of his seat, visited other kids on the plane, watched Baby Einstein movies and walked up an down the aisle with mommy. He was an angel.

When we landed in Japan they said it would be cold - so we bundled Cooper up in his jacket and a light blanket and Owen and I wore our light hoodies. We didn't anticipate what came next – we walked out into sideways blowing snow, several feet of snow on the ground, and absolutely frigid temperatures. I held Cooper as close to me as possible and dashed down the rolling stairs, across the parking lot and into the waiting area. Um... brrr!

We landed on the military base so the terminal was just a large room with a couple of vending machines and chairs. Thankfully they also had a small kid’s play area with a few trucks where Cooper and some other kids spent the hour and a half layover.

The next leg was only a few hours but it seemed to be the most difficult – exhaustion had set-in for all of us. After boarding we put Cooper in the carseat and started giving him a bottle in preparation for takeoff and the altitude change. Problem was we didn’t actually take off for another 45 minutes on account of the plane getting de-iced but we still had to keep him buckled in his carseat. He finished his bottle but without the jostling of the plane to rock him to sleep while siting upright he was wide awake and frankly a little ticked off. This was Cooper’s 6^th flight (11^th if you count to and from) and he’s never fussed on one – until now. It wasn’t terrible but it was necessary to hold, rock, walk, and sing to him to hold back the wailing.

Finally, I found a set of empty seats and laid him down across two. After about 3 seconds of being able to get comfortable on his tummy he was asleep and slept the rest of the flight. For Cooper to stay comfortable I had to sit on about two inches of the front of the second seat he was laying across for the duration of the flight and gave myself a pain in the neck and back in the process – any parent can understand doing whatever is necessary to keep a crying baby asleep!

We finally landed in Osan! We sat through a quick briefing on completing the customs forms, went through customs, and claimed our baggage. Owen’s new squadron commander and Sponsor met us and helped us load and then unload our bags at the TLFs (Temporary Living Facility – or hotel room).

When we got into our room there were six pressing priorities: food, drink, Ibuprofen, shower, status update to the family, and sleep. We barely could get through the first five before falling asleep at about 7p.

We made it! We now call Osan, South Korea our home!

Pre-Move Family & Friends Visits

Before the move to Osan AFB in South Korea we wanted to visit as many of our friends and family as possible. Here's a few pictures from our two week tour around New Mexico and Texas.

Stop 1: Albuquerque, NM
After the 10 hour drive by Owen and a flight be Cooper and I we arrived and visited a slue of Aunts and Uncles over a 3 day period.






Stop 2: Roswell, NM
We visited David and Nancy (Owen's parents) in Roswell over a few days.




Stop 3: Hobbs, NM
We stopped into Hobbs to visit Granddad and GranBoddy as well as Uncle Bobby and Aunt Kay (on Owen's side).

{pics coming!}

Stop 4: Lubbock, TX
During our trip in Lubbock we also had Cooper's 1st Birthday Party - and what turned out to be a surprise going away. We also were able to visit Nani and Papi, Jim, Haydn, Cody and Stacia and Trenton. We also were able to see many of Owen's side of the family visited earlier in the trip as well as many Whitharral friends and family that drove in from Big Spring.



Stop 5: Dallas, TX
This was our final stop before jumping on a plane to Seattle where the plane to take us to ROK will await. During this trip we will ship our car to ROK and be able to see a final slue of Aunt, Uncles and cousins.

{pics coming!}

Next stop... Korea!