Valentine's Day in Korea

     Fish-shaped bread sold along the streets in South Korea makes me curious every time I see them in Korean dramas.  It was disappointing not to find one on my first visit back in 2012. Who'd have thought that I'd get some as Valentine's gift?! 

    My husband handed me a cute, white paper bag on the eve of Valentine's Day. "An advanced gift", he said. He always know how to make me smile.

     An ahjussi (old man/ uncle) opened his Bungeoppang shop just near our apartment. It's only 2,000 Won for 3 bungeoppangs. Finally, I got to see and sample them. They are actually waffles with bean paste filling, best consumed while still hot...perfect during winter.

cute bungeoppang wrapper

bungeoppang

     Everything sweet went up a few thousand Wons on February 14. I went to Daiso and M Mart to get something for my Chagiyah (sweetheart). This lovely picture frame card and chocolate lollipops caught my attention days ago. I just couldn't buy them in advance because he might see them before I get to give it to him.

picture frame card and "kyooti" chocolates

     I could hardly wait to surprise him! But I was just as surprised when he got home and got me another gift. Chocolates in heart-shaped box and more! 

sweets from my sweet!

     He told me later that the Atlas chocolates were from the ahjummas (old ladies) in the company. Oh, sweet ahjummas. They fancy my husband like a nephew.

     I didn't touch the chocolates until after 2 days. A day short of its first week on our desk, he noticed it wasn't Ferrero! Haha...

My Asawa's (Husband's) Birthday

     I stayed longer than I should in Pyeongtaek, South Korea for my husband's birthday. Since I'm the "crafty-kind", I tried to prep something unique for him. I came up with these little flowers with the help of some origami papers from Daiso, a store that's almost everywhere which has almost everything you need at home.

Origami paper for only 1,000 Won

My flower art

       A little too girly for a man, huh? Poor husband. But he didn't complain when he saw it. He was just too surprised how I made them and how I managed to get him a cake with my very poor Korean vocabulary. Oh, well, I learned a new word that day. Cho. Cho is candle in english. I searched the internet before I went out. Clever girl! Good thing I did, because the ahjumma (an older lady) who owns the bakeshop asked if I needed cho!

      Checking out the cakes was quite surprising. They were just so cute. But when I came closer to see the topping, most were cherry tomatoes! A first for me! I never saw or had a cake with tomatoes on it back home. To be safe, I took the one with strawberry topping.

milk, strawberry vanilla cake and walnut ice cream

     My asawa wanted to cook everything for me that night, though it's his birthday. We bought our favorite hodu maru (walnut ice cream), milk and some fruits from Lotte Super (they call supermarket, super, pronounced as shooper). Then he cooked some noodles, which we call "pansit", and biko (a kind of rice cake). 

My happy husband

     Celebrating with just us may look sad, but we were very happy to be together that night instead of sort-of-partying through Skype 1,628 miles apart.