This Global Kitchen | Day 19: South Korea
Connect with Kara:
Hi everyone! My name is Kara, and I live in South Korea with my husband and four young kids. We’ve lived here, in this apartment, for almost 8 years now. Our kids are 7, 5, 3, and 1 — so we are all about convenience and functionality in the kitchen. There are several design elements I would change (all the brown, the fluorescent lights, the storage cabinet doors...), but overall, this kitchen gets a solid A+.
This is what you'd see if you stopped by our apartment in the afternoon. Our kitchen is open to the living space, which is helpful in keeping up with the kids and eavesdropping on their adventures, but sometimes I wish I could shut a door and ignore the mess. Our kitchen counters are usually crowded with water cups and piles of treasure. I cleared it all away for this photo shoot and my seven year old immediately busted my efforts, “Are you faking our kitchen?!” Maybe she's never seen clear counters before? Whoops. Anyway, this is what our kitchen actually looks like most of the time.
This space probably won't win any design competitions (unless there’s a contest for storage space or the brownest kitchen?). I haven't changed much since we moved in. In this season with young kids, I’m much more interested in filling the space with things that are meaningful—reminders, quotes, kid drawings, family photos, and weird seasonal items we’ve grown attached to. I always keep a photo of my US family above the kitchen sink. It reminds me to pray for them and it's the perfect height for the baby on my hip to learn who's who.
Dishwashers are not common here, but this apartment came with (a brown!) one. I'm still trying to teach my friends and family how it works. When people offer to do the dishes, they usually pile the clean dishes inside and use it as a drying rack. That works, too, I guess.
Our apartment also came with a built-in rice dispenser. We eat mostly Korean food, so we have rice at almost every meal. This is one of my favorite little luxuries in our kitchen. It's such a convenient way to store rice.
This is the area of our kitchen with the most personality. The shelf on the wall is crooked, most of the chairs are broken, there's instant ramen tucked under the side table. It's well worn and well loved. This is where we gather with friends to laugh and tell stories. It's easily my favorite spot in our home.
The cabinets store our pantry items, storage containers, dishes, and miscellaneous craft supplies. The doors have dark glass panels, so I covered them with a kid art gallery. I would much rather look at a three year old’s depiction of all his loved ones with exaggerated eyebrows than all the snacks poorly hidden by frosted swirls. Also, their art is free.
The utility room is right beside the kitchen. It houses our refrigerators, oven, two extra burners, and our washing machine. It’s also where we sort through our recycling. There are at least 10 categories for recycling here, so this room gets overrun by garbage sometimes. The kids call it the “trash room.” I call it my ice cream closet. If the kids are occupied I sneak in here to eat ice cream in peace.
Our rice cooker is usually full of cooked rice, ready to eat. And the convection oven gets some good use in the fall and winter. I used to bake a lot more when I had free time back in the day. We rarely use the burners in this room, but sometimes my husband uses one when he makes ramen noodles late at night so the delicious smell doesn't wake the children. What a guy. Those are ripe persimmons on the counter. We live near a town that's famous for persimmons. They are delicious.
Here's an awesome luxury: behold the kimchi refrigerator! This thing is amazing. It keeps kimchi crisp and fresh and ensures the milk and butter in our main fridge don’t taste like spicy garlic. Now that I think about it, there might be a market somewhere for kimchi butter? It might be good on toast.
My Kitchen Must-Haves:
When we lived in China, we didn’t have easy access to familiar ingredients. I used to haul all kinds of things in our suitcases and make random delicacies from scratch. Here in Korea we have access to anything. I no longer have to choke down my homemade cheese products. (hahaha.) I also don't have to bring things from America. There are still some items that aren’t common like certain spices (cloves, allspice) and ingredients I can’t find easily like molasses. We order whatever we can’t purchase in the store from a website that imports directly from America. Right now the expat “essentials” in our kitchen are non-sugary cereals and root beer for root beer floats. Root beer floats are a date night luxury. We are really spoiled, I know.
It's tempting to get swept up in the ease of our city life. Our kitchen has appliances I haven’t even touched (hello, vegetable sanitizer!). I can order groceries and have them delivered the next day (or in four days if they’re imported). I don’t take these things lightly. In fact sometimes I feel guilty about the excess. But I’m learning to just be thankful and use what I’ve been given to bless others—not only with stuff, but also with my time.
Oatmeal Banana Cookies
by Kara | TakingRoute.net
Alright guys, don’t laugh at this “recipe.” I was going to share a kimchi recipe, but we don't measure here, so that makes it hard to replicate. (If you want Korean food recipes, let me know! I can send you links.) If you’re a parent, you know it can be hard to come up with a variety of healthy snacks that children will actually eat. Especially because children eat 100 snacks a day. This recipe is a hit with the seven and under crowd.
- 1 very ripe, smashed banana
- 1 cup of oat flour (you can grind oats in the blender to make flour if you need to)
Thoroughly combine the flour and banana and then add any mix-ins you want (raisins, cinnamon, chocolate chips, nuts)
Scoop onto a cookie sheet, flatten, and bake until the cookies set and the bottoms are golden. I know these sound strange, but they're oddly satisfying. Three cheers for healthy snacks that are filling so children will stay out of the pantry for more than ten minutes. Happy snacking!
Related posts you might enjoy:
This Global Life | Day 4: South Korea (a day in the life with Kara)
Episode 14: Extending Hospitality Cross-Culturally with Julie
