Last week, despite being immensely poor, I decided to treat myself and my man to some lobster. Not a whole lobster of course, I’m not that flush, but some lovely lobster sandwiches which are the new star attraction at Lobster bar in Itaewon. The place is located at the top of the stone stairs just next to Rocky Mountain Tavern. A small cafe with seating for about 12 inside and another 12 outside. It was rather muggy on the day we went, otherwise I would have loved to sit outside and soak up some rays.

The menu is small and efficient with only 4 items. It host three varieties of lobster sandwich and a whole lobster steamed or grilled. I was thrilled to find that despite the small size of the menu they offered 3 different cocktails and I think we all know how much I love the cock-tails. I inquired about the punch and it came highly recommended. I left my cocktail enjoyment in their hands and set about choosing my sandwich.

There are three kinds of sandwich, The Maine, which is lobster with mayo, The Connecticut which is lobster with butter and The Grilled Cheese, which is lobster in a grilled cheese sandwich. We decided to opt for the grilled cheese and the Connecticut, although I’m still itching to try out the Maine one, if anyone fancies taking me?

The punch arrived and I was glad to see it was held in a lovely large jar which justified its 12,000 price tag. The waiter held his breath as I tried my first sip. It was delightful, a fruity dance upon the taste buds with a lovely hit of blackcurrant. He walked away triumphantly as I enjoyed my drink.

The sandwiches were shortly presented in all their glory. The Grilled Cheese (17,000) is really very tasty and filling. Toasted bread, smeared with delicious melted cheese, spinach and plenty of pieces of plump lobster. You get a nice hit of flavour when you bite into it, followed by a spicy finish. It’s very moreish indeed, a bit like crack as Super Hans would say. It comes with salad and fries and they’re also working on getting some fresh corn to accompany it too.

The Connecticut (17,000)  is also exceptionally nice, generous chunks of lobster covered in juicy melted butter and housed in a soft roll. I was very impressed with the amount of lobster that was in it, one is enough to keep you happy. All in all a very good price, some may balk at paying 17,000 for a sandwich but it is lobster after all and they really don’t skimp on the portions.

There is also a tank outside full of live lobsters just waiting to be chosen and win the prize of becoming your dinner. For a mere 49,000, your lobster will be grilled or steamed and served up on a platter. Sadly too rich for my blood, but if anyone needs a date? I’m always available for lobster.

Lobster bar is located at 736-49 Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul. To get there take a train to Itaewon Station (Line 6) Exit 3. Walk straight until you get to the stairs next to Rocky Mountain Tavern. Walk to the top of the stairs, Lobster Bar is on your left. For more information you can call them on 070-8225-3963 or check out their website.

After going for a walk around Namsan park last Sunday, I stumbled across this place. Yes I went for a walk on Sunday morning, it’s shocking I know but I had to get out of the house. It was the end of the 5 days vacation and I had spent the entire day before dying of a hangover and gorging on junk food and if I hadn’t gotten out of the house I would have gone stir crazy. A Sunday morning walk would never usually be my cup of tea so please don’t judge me.

Anyhow we stumbled across Chunk of Cheese, usually I wouldn’t be caught dead on that hill. Not because I’m too cool for school, just that I generally tend to try and avoid hills. Chunk of cheese is, shockingly, a cheese shop. With over 80 different varieties of cheese they have a huge selection which rivals that of Shinsegae and the foreign food mart. Including some rather good English Cheddars.

I’m not sure it’s worth an out and out trip if you live miles away, but if you live around this neck of the woods it will save you going to Itaewon. It will also worth a peek if you are in the area for dinner. They have lots of anti pasti style things too like salami, olives, wine etc. So if you’re hosting a fancy dinner party or wine and cheese evening then this would be the place to go. Sadly I can’t afford to host wine and cheese parties, but I’d certainly like to. I hold out of date hummus and vodka cocktail nights instead. I’m sure they will catch on any day now.

If you want to visit them personally Chunk of Cheese is located at 31-1 Hoenamu-ro, Yongsan-gu. Or you can call them on 02-795-3079 if you want to inquire about a particular cheese. They are also on Y-not Takeout. So if you live locally, you can have your cheese delivered direct to your door, isn’t that amazing!

Caprese is one of my absolute favourite salads and flavour combinations. It’s just so fresh and tasty. So how do you improve on this fresh and tastiness, why you throw in some bread and fry it in butter of course. The crunch of the bread is the perfect combination paired with the juicy tomatoes, sweet basil and salty mozzarella.

Ingredients

1 ball of Mozzarella sliced

1 tomato

6 basil leaves

1/2 an avocado

1 fresh baguette

A drizzle of olive oil

A drizzle of balsamic vinegar

A pinch of salt & pepper

A knob of butter

Directions

1. Slice your tomatoes and then put them in a bowl with a little olive oil, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and and some salt and pepper and leave them to marinate for 5-10 minutes. Doing this turns tomatoes from okay into amazing. Always do this when you make salads!

2. Slice the mozzarella and avocado too, and set aside. Then take your lovely bread and slice it in half. Then build your sandwich, tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, then avocado and press the bread down to make sure it’s sealed.

3. Put the knob of butter in a frying pan and put it on a low heat. Try and keep the butter in the middle then put your sandwich on top of it. Fry for a few minutes making sure it doesn’t burn. After a few minutes flip the sandwich over and do the other side. You may want to add more butter if the pan is a little dry. Cook for another few minutes until the sandwich is golden brown on both sides and the cheese has melted a little in the middle. Then serve and enjoy. I recommend making two as you will definitely want to eat another one!

These are just a little something I knocked up with the left over pastry from the quiche. But I always used to make them when I was child. Growing up we didn’t have the well stocked kitchen that we have now. So what I would make all depended on what was available in the cupboards. We always seemed to have the stuff to make these though, plus they were my dad’s favourites. There is nothing better than a cheese straw coated in delicious dip. I think I shall be making them more often!

Ingredients

Pastry (see recipe here)

4 tablespoons of parmesan cheese

50g of grated cheddar

1 beaten egg

Directions

1. Sprinkle the parmesan cheese on your rolled out pastry then cut into strips.

2. Preheat the oven to 2o0 degrees then put them on a baking paper lined tray

3. Brush the straws with beaten egg and sprinkle on the cheddar.

4. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until they are golden brown and snap when broken. Serve with a delicious home-made dip.

So this week I have been a very happy camper indeed. Not just because I still have a whole shelf in my fridge dedicated to the chocolate I brought back from home, but also because I have 400g of goats cheese. I really can’t begin to tell you how much I love goats cheese. It is certainly up in my top 3. Obviously in Korea goats cheese is expensive and hard to find, right? Wrong. Goats cheese is easy to find is you contact the amazingly awesome people at Waeg Farm. A fabulous farm full of goats that make the milk that makes the cheese. Hurrah. No more trips to Hong Kong just to get that goaty goodness. Check out their website for details on how to order yours.

Since I had this premium ingredient I felt compelled to really do it some justice and make something proper out of it, however tempting it was just to eat it smeared on the Fat Boyfriend’s sourdough and have it topped with onion jam. No, no, no an ingredient of this caliber deserved it’s own recipe. I recently made the most magnificent tart whilst I was at home. If you’re a fan of my facebook page I’m sure you would have seen it. It was pure culinary perfection but really it was just shop bought puff pastry with a a few of my favourite ingredients thrown on top. A treat for the taste buds but ever so easy, any novice could knock one up in 10 minutes. But for this I decided I would go the whole hog and make my own pastry. Yes, I could have just walked to Itaewon and bought some pre-made, and yes I did think about it, but that’s not really fair to you now readers is it. So even though I’m crap at making pastry I gave it my best shot and it actually turned out great. Paul Hollywood you are a legend!

Ingredients

Short crust pastry (Paul Hollywood’s recipe)

250g of flour

125g of cubed butter (chilled)

50ml cold water

2 egg yolks

A pinch of salt

Filling 

300ml of cream

3 eggs

100g of cheddar cheese

75g of goats cheese

3 rashers of bacon

1 onion

1 bunch of spinach

Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions

1. Start by making the pastry. Put the flour and salt in a bowl and mix. Then add the butter cubes in and rub together using your finger tips until it forms a bread crumb like texture.

2. Add the egg yolks and start to mix with your hands, before slowly adding the water and mix until it comes together to form a ball. Do not overwork the pastry, as soon as it’s a ball, press it down to form a disk with your fingers, wrap it in cling-film, and put it in the fridge for 2-3 hours to chill.

3. When the pastry has had it’s rest, roll it out on a floured surface. Make sure you roll it out so it’s large enough to fit in your tin. Put the pastry in your tin, press it down so it’s nice and snug and leave an overhang over the edges.

4. Bake in the oven at 180 for about 15 minutes until the pastry has cooked and its golden brown. Trim the edges and leave to cool.

5. Cut the bacon into chunks and fry in a pan. Thinly slice the onion and add to a corner of the pan. When the onion and bacon is almost done, make a space and add the spinach leaves and cook until wilted.

6. To assemble the quiche, first add the cheddar cheese, then the bacon and onions, then the spinach and top with the goats cheese. Whisk the eggs and cream together then season with the salt, pepper and paprika, you could also add a pinch of mixed herbs. Pour the the filling into the quiche almost to the top. Pop in the oven and bake at 170 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until the custard has set in the middle. Allow to cool slightly before removing from the pan and serving. Can be enjoyed hot or cold.

You can also switch the ingredients up a bit, I added tomatoes to my second quiche.

I whipped up this lovely apple coleslaw after I received my WWOOF box of organic goodies. The apple is such an amazing addition that I now will not make coleslaw without it. I have actually made it about three time since. The Fat Boyfriend and I can’t get enough of it, we are both sneaking to the fridge and eating it by the spoonful. I mix things up depending on what’s cheapest, but I generally like to use a red onion or a red cabbage to give it a bit of color. You can also add cheese. I love cheesy coleslaw but cheesy apple coleslaw is insane. Smeared on some french bread and roast chicken it’s divine.

Ingredients

1/2 a small cabbage (red or green)

1/2  onion (red or white)

1/2 a carrot

1 apple

100g of grated cheddar (optional but delicious)

300ml of mayonnaise

3 tablespoons of sweet chili sauce

1/2 a teaspoon of celery salt

1/2 a teaspoon of black pepper

Directions

1. Finely shred the cabbage and onion and put into a bowl.

2. Grate in the carrot and apple and mix with the cabbage and onion.

3. Stir in the mayo and make sure everything is coated. Use less or more as desired.

3. Stir in the sweet chili sauce and grated cheese if using.

4. Season with celery salt and black pepper to taste. Voilà the best coleslaw you will ever eat!

So one of the joys of long haul flights is that the change in air pressure can cause a toothache to rear its ugly head. So after a trip to the dentist I have been confined to eating soft foods this past week. Nothing beats a good bowl of soup so I stopped by my local mart and grabbed a couple of the green squash and a bag of sweet potatoes. I knew the soup could be knocked up in an hour but I was craving bread. I didn’t have the time or inclination to go to the bakery to pick one up and neither did I want to wait over 2 hours myself to let one rise. I had bought the Paul Hollywood book for the Fat Boyfriend for Christmas as he has recently taken up baking. I was flipping through and found this soda bread recipe which is super quick and easy because it has no rise time. Hurrah dinner was saved and an hour and a half later I was enjoying a delicious bowl of soup with a slice or three of homemade bread smothered in butter.

Ingredients

Soup

2 kabocha squash

4 small sweet potatoes

1 onion

3 cloves of garlic

1 litre of chicken or vegetable stock

1 tablespoon of curry powder

1 teaspoon of cumin

500ml of milk or coconut milk (optional)

Soda bread

500g/9oz  of plain white flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp salt

420ml/15fl oz buttermilk (make by putting 1 tablespoon of lemon juice into regular milk and waiting 5 minutes)

1/2 a red onion

100g of cheddar cheese

1 tablespoon of mixed herbs

Extra flour for dusting

Directions

Soup

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Cut the squash into pieces and discard the seeds. Although you can roast them with a little oil and salt if you like and have them as a crunchy snack.

2. Cut the sweet potatoes in half and arrange on a tray with the squash. Drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle on a little salt. Bake in the oven for about 30 – 40 minutes until they are soft.

3. Meanwhile finely chop the onion and garlic and fry off in a little olive oil in a large saucepan. When the squash has cooked remove the flesh from the skin and add to the pan with your onions. If you like to eat the skin, sprinkle with a little spice or seasoning add a touch more oil and pop them back in the oven for another 10-20 minutes until they are crispy. I find them more addictive than crisps! Peel the sweet  potatoes or just pop them in the pan with their skins on. I left mine on because all the goodness is in the skin and because  I’m lazy.

4. Turn the heat on and add the curry powder and cumin and cook for a minute or two before adding the stock. Bring to the boil and cook for 10 minutes to bring it together before blending. Once you have blended it, add the milk or coconut milk until you reach your desired consistency. Reheat and season to taste.

Bread

1. To make the bread Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt.

3. Grate in the onion, cheese and herbs if using, then mix again.

3.  Add the buttermilk and mix until a sticky dough forms.

4. Lightly flour a work surface and tip the dough onto it.

5. Gently roll and fold the dough a couple of times to bring the mixture together. Do not knead.

6. Shape the dough into a ball. Flatten the ball gently with your hand. Score the dough with a deep cross dividing it into quarters. Dust the bread with flour.

7. Place onto a baking tray lined with baking parchment and bake for 30 minutes at 200C/400F/Gas 6. The loaf should be golden-brown.

8. Leave to cool on a wire rack. This is best eaten on the day of baking. Thanks Paul!

I went to a potluck la few weeks ago and decided to make these for one of my dishes. It’s growing cold and I thought these would be just the ticket to keep everyone nice and warm. Thanks to dear old Costco and their giant sized portions of everything, I had plenty of cream cheese and bacon in the fridge. I threw in a little cheddar and some spring onions for good measure and had a nice tasty little treat on my hands. They were so nice I made them again just for us the next day.

Ingredients

1kg of potatoes

3 or 4 rashers of bacon

200g of cream cheese

150g of grated cheddar (or any hard cheese you have)

6 spring onions

1 tablespoon of ranch mix or onion powder

1 teaspoon of mixed herbs

1 teaspoon of garlic powder.

A pinch of salt and pepper

Directions

1. Score a line in the top of the potatoes and bake them in the oven for about an hour at 190 degrees Celsius. Korean potatoes are generally pretty damn small so an hour should be ample time. If you are using big baking potatoes from home then you could go up to two hours.

2. When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, cut them in half length ways and scoop out all the potato in the middle and put it in a mixing bowl so only the skins remain.

3. Add the cream cheese to the scooped out potato and mix together. Add in the grated cheese, herbs, ranch mix, salt, and pepper to the bowl and combine.

4. Cut the bacon into small pieces then fry on a high heat until they are crispy. Then add into the cheese and potato mixture. Then cut or slice the spring onion into little pieces and stir into the mixture too.

5. Spoon the cheese and potato mixture back into the potato skins until they are all full. You will find that it all fits nicely despite the extra ingredients you added.

6. Put the potatoes back into the oven for another 15 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius to give them a nice crispy topping and enjoy. Voilà the unhealthy way to enjoy potatoes.

If you are anything like me then you are obsessed with the mozzarella sticks from Lotteria. What could be finer than a delicious soft and gooey piece of cheese, coated in golden bread crumbs and deep-fried to perfection. Yes I realise they do not belong to the gourmet culinary arts but by God are they yummy! You can pick these babies up in plenty of supermarkets, but it’s also fairly easy to have a go at making them yourself. The cheese texture isn’t quite the same but it is good and the results are delicious. Niall declared after finishing the batch that he wouldn’t mind having them again next weekend. High praise indeed.

Ingredients

6 string cheeses

100-150g of panko crumbs

1 egg (beaten)

4 tablespoons of flour

1 teaspoon of mixed herbs

1 teaspoon of paprika

Directions

1. Cut the cheese sticks in half then put them on a baking sheet and pop them into the freezer for about 20 minutes to firm up. Meanwhile mix the panko crumbs, mixed herbs, and paprika together.

2. Roll the frozen cheese sticks in seasoned flour.

3. Dip the floured sticks into the beaten egg.

4. Roll the sticks in the panko crumbs so they are completely coated. Then put them back onto the baking sheet and put them back in the freezer for 30 minutes-1 hour.

5. Pour enough oil into your frying pan so that the bottom is coated, then heat on a medium heat. When the oil is hot, fry the cheese sticks on one side for a minute or two, before turning them over to brown the other side. When they are golden brown, remove from the pan and enjoy. I served mine with my delicious homemade salsa.

I have been lusting after a BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger for months now. For so long I have lusted over the joy of a juicy patty of meat, smothered with melted cheese, topped with salty crisp bacon, tangy BBQ sauce, and housed in a delicious soft bun. But after eating various burgers my craving just wasn’t satisfied. Yes, I could have just visited Burger B in Hongdae, but I’m a very lazy girl, and feel Hongdae is just too far to go for food. I live in HBC (Haebangchon) which is actually better known to residents as Ham Burger Central. Our street is actually littered with places selling burgers. There is Burgermine of course, all you can eat burgers but no matter how many I ate, I wasn’t quite satisfied. Phillies, which I will say do a great burger and almost hit the spot but not quite. The restaurant  that changes it’s name one a month, currently named Bombs Burger, Indigo and Hungry Dog, but none of these restaurants meet my meat needs. I moved on to Jacoby’s. Jacoby’s has become a phenomenon in the last year after it was shown on a Korean drama, most nights of the week there is an endless queue of Koreans desperate to eat there. But I have never rated it, they are so over-hyped for a mediocre burger. I’ll take the one at Phillies any day of the week. So I did the only thing a fat lazy girl could do and decided to make my own. I came, I saw, and I conquered. They were exquisite and I couldn’t be happier. I scarfed down two in a matter of minutes. Every need was met and I am now sated for the time being.

The first thing that needed to be made were the buns. If I had been to Costco I would have just bought some, but we hadn’t, and you can’t get decent sized buns anywhere else. So I had no choice to make my own. I tried to cheat and found a no rise recipe, and, despite being delicious with melted butter, they were more like scones. My lovely fiancé Niall managed to find this recipe online at allrecipes.com and made these buns. They came out perfectly, which just goes to show you don’t have to be a great cook to make good bread. In fact I think it helps if you are not as you are more scrupulous when it comes to following the recipe!

Ingredients 

1 cup milk

1 cup water

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon white sugar

5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 (.25 ounce) envelope active dry yeast

1 egg yolk

1 tablespoon water

1/2 teaspoons salt

Sesame seeds for decoration

Directions 

1. Combine the milk, 1 cup of water, butter, sugar and salt in a saucepan. Bring to a boil then remove from the heat and let stand until lukewarm. If the mixture is too hot, it will kill the yeast.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the flour and yeast. Pour in wet ingredients and stir until the dough starts to pull together. If you have a stand mixer, use the dough hook to mix for about 8 minutes. If not, knead the dough on a floured surface for about 10 minutes. Place the dough in a greased bowl, turning to coat. Cover and let stand until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
3. Punch down the dough and divide into 12 portions They should be a little larger than a golf ball. Make tight balls out of the dough by pulling the dough tightly around and pinching it at the bottom. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or aluminum foil. After the rolls sit for a minute and relax, flatten each ball with the palm of your hand until it is 3 to 4 inches wide. You may want to oil your hand first. Set rolls aside until they double in size, about 20 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Mix together the egg yolk and 1 tablespoon of water in a cup or small bowl. Brush onto the tops of the rolls and sprinkle with the sesame seeds. Position 2 oven racks so they are not too close to the top or bottom of the oven.
5. Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove the rolls from the oven and return them to different shelves so each one spends a little time on the top. Continue to bake for another 5 to 10 minutes, or until nicely browned on the top and bottom.

My next job was to make the burgers. I popped over to my local butcher, and chose the cheapest wedge of beef he had and had him grind it up for me. It had a great ratio of fat to meat so was perfect. I like to to add breadcrumbs to my mixture too, probably because my mum does so that’s the way I have always done it.

Ingredients

600g of ground beef

1/2 an onion

1 1/2 slices of bread

2 cloves of garlic

1/2 a teaspoon of salt

1/2 a teaspoon of  black pepper

1 teaspoon of mixed herbs (parsley, rosemary, oregano, thyme, whatever you have…)

1 egg yolk

Directions

Finely chop the onion and garlic and fry off in a little oil for a few minutes just to cook out the raw taste from the onions, then set aside and leave to cool. Meanwhile make the bread into bread crumbs. Put the ground beef in a bowl then add the breadcrumbs. Add the salt, pepper, and mixed herbs. When the onions have cooled add to the bowl and mix everything together thoroughly. Add the egg yolk and mix again, then form into patties. Wrap the patties in clingfilm and leave in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour. If you are not using them all straight away, they will keep in the fridge for a couple of days, or you can put them in the freezer. Fry them in a pan, pop them under the grill or dust down your barbecue. Cook them to your liking with is medium – well for me.

Lastly I had to make the Chips, you can’t have a burger without chips. It would be sacrilege. I have been making Heston Blumenthal’s famed triple cooked chips for the past 2 weeks now. Yes they are somewhat time consuming, but they are well worth the extra effort. If you are spending a lazy Sunday on the sofa watching back to back episodes of Project Runway like I am then, it’s a good way to use your time. I followed Heston’s directions to the latter except I used soy bean oil as its very cheap here, and I just used the biggest potatoes I could find. They turned out well even if they weren’t exactly the kind we get back home.

Ingredients

1kg of potatoes peeled and cut into chips

Oil for frying

Salt

Directions