Food Failure

One of my New Year's Resolutions this year was to cook more and eat out less. (Why do I even bother?) So, here we are, well into winter in Toronto-land and we're getting a little bored of being cooped-up inside all the time due to the cold.  In order to remedy our bored-ness and winter-blues, we're doing what we did last year: We're eating. A lot. And--wouldn't you know--the food we're eating is usually of the nearby-restaurant variety. 

And just like that: my resolution of cooking all of our meals at home has flown right out the window. 

Usually the weekend is the most tempting time for us to go out for a bite, as laziness is just what we do on weekends. This past weekend was, of course, no exception. On Saturday, we went to Kensington Market to grab some of the best Korean food the city has to offer (in our opinion) at Ka Chi. 

Ken had his usual bibimbap and I had the doenjang jjigae. It was worth every bite and penny. (I've been away from Korea long enough to start enjoying the food again and not feeling the urge to gag whenever I lay eyes on a bowl of kimchi.)

 After we had Korean, we decided that now we would take our resolution seriously. Since we were already in Kensington, we thought it would be a good idea to do some grocery shopping so we wouldn't be tempted to go out to eat again the next day.

 We were successful in our grocery shopping, but we failed miserably in our resolution yet again on Sunday...

...when we decided to try the new gourmet grilled cheese place that just opened up the street from us a couple of weeks ago. Yes. Gourmet grilled cheese. And, in case you were wondering, I had the "Toronto" grilled cheese (which included two "sliders" from neighborhoods of my choice) and Ken had the "Beijing" grilled cheese. Both were amazing and I really hate (love) that this place is so close to our building. 

Number of restaurant outings this weekend? Two. Number of grocery shopping sprees? One. Number of meals cooked at home? Zero. (Unless you count breakfasts, but throwing bread in the toaster doesn't really count, does it?)

We're weak, weak people.

Oohhh February...

2011 thus far has been filled with lots of snowy, freezing-your-face-off kinds of days and I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a hardcore case of February Blues at the moment. (February is my most dreaded month of the year because I'm so, so over winter by this point.... If I see one more snowflake I might throw up in disgust.)

In order to keep our spirits up during this time of brutal weather, Ken and I resolved to bundle up and venture out to visit a new restaurant and/or coffee shop at least once a week, just to give us something to look forward to every now and then and to help us enjoy life in Toronto (in spite of it being an icier version of hell on earth). We've found a number of gems during our new weekly assignment, and most of them are a stone's throw away from our living room window (which is dangerous for our wallets during those lazy, I-don't-feel-like-cooking days... which are frequent). Here are a few of our recent discoveries:

Korean Food. Wha--?

It's been almost a year since we left Korea and I hadn't the slightest craving for anything even remotely Korean... until a few weeks ago.

Thankfully, we only had to walk a few blocks to Korea Town where we were met with Kimbop-Chungoos galore to satisfy such random cravings. (Although the mounds of snow piled on the sidewalk made the walk long and treacherous and perhaps not totally worth it.)

It was a yummy dinner that made my little heart miss Korea a teensy bit. I was also pleasantly reminded that Korean makes for really great winter food (the red pepper paste is particularly... warming, if nothing else). Would you believe we actually devoured four bowls of kimchi? I never thought I'd live to see the day.... Suffice it to say, we've now had our Korean-food-fill for the next year.

Burgers.  Not just any burgers, mind you. Craft Burgers. 

Organic, fancy-shmancy deliciousness. (I tried my burger with avocado, gorgonzola cheese, and rosemary-garlic mayonnaise... aaaand my mouth is watering at the very memory.) 

This place is amazing and I'm pretty sure it's the best burger I've ever had. What's even more amazing? It's literally a two-minute walk from our apartment. (Dangerously convenient.)

Coffee. I'd been moaning and groaning about the lack of good coffee shops in our area for the past nine months of living here only to discover there's a great place five minutes up the street (and I won't be winning any awards for my observation skills).  

Tiny, artsy and maybe the best macchiato I've ever had. They also have a stack of magazines and board games available for their patrons, which I thought was a nice little touch. (I'm going to make this place my Saturday morning ritual.) 

We've been to a few more mentionable places over the past couple of weeks but we forgot to haul our camera along for those excursions, and because a picture is worth a thousand words (and because we now have a camera worth using) I'll provide more on the subject another time. 

As for the rest of our free time during these awful winter months: It's been spent watching lots of movies and episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (me, not Ken), wasting time on the computer, and playing lots of card games and board games.

 Some a little more thought-provoking than others....

As you can see, I'm running low on subject matter, so I shall also re-mention this little guy who is now occupying the rest of our free time:

We are in serious danger of becoming weird dog people, but it can't be helped. (To prove my point, here's a little Flickr album I created just for Bubba.)

He's had a number of naughty-as-heck moments this week, but he's really sweet most of the time.

Of course, it helps that he's really cute. (If he were ugly, he would have been thrown out the window days ago.)

That's all I've got, people. It's been a slow winter, but things are good... and boy am I ever looking forward to spring. 

Where Am I?

"Time flies by when you're having fun."

I hate that phrase, but there it is, in all of its annoyingly accurate glory. I've been in America for a little over a month now and it feels like I've only been in the western half of the world for approximately one week.

I spent my first week and a half here in the States visiting friends and family in the freezing-my-snot cold state of Michigan, then meandered to warmer temperatures (but only slightly) down south to the great city of Nashvegas. I spent nearly three weeks in the 'ville, eating lots of Mexican food, shopping until my bank account was practically in the red, catching up on recent movie releases, hanging out with the coolest cats in town, and dancing my bootie off to some great tunes at some pretty sketchy places. It was a good time without question and I'm already feeling the pang of separation after being away from Music City USA after only a day and a half.

I made the long drive back to Michigan yesterday, and stepped out of the eight-hour bonding time with my car and Interstates 65 & 69 into sub-zero temperatures. Seriously. The thermometer seemed to be screaming ZERO at me, as it stared me down through the pile of snow that was peacefully resting on top of it. That's right ladies and gents, it was zero degrees in the middle of a sunny afternoon. Welcome to Michigan. I hate my life.

Now I'm sitting at my parents' house, spending quality time with their computer--er--them, before I make the long journey back to Korea. And it's true; I've made yet another impulsive decision to return to Korea on Tuesday, February the thirteenth, in spite of the sappy, I-have-to-leave-Korea post I had written way back in October. What can I say? I change my mind on a dime (or on an offer of a hefty salary).

I have so many things I could say at the moment, but I have such little patience to actually say them. In short: Home is great and I've missed it and will continue to miss it terribly... but just not enough to stick around. I don't know why, but the need to wander, to explore, and to be completely unconventional in most of my major life decisions has never left me. I'm beginning to wonder if it ever will. But I don't care at the moment because I'm bored and I want to watch Letterman. So that's what I'm going to do.

Much love to you all.