Picnicking

Stuart and I started a food blog—He Cooks, She Eats. We’ll focus on making (and in my case, eating) food that is gluten free, vegetarian, and made with ingredients easily found in South Korea. We’re lucky that our parents send us care packages with specialty foods, but we’ll always tell you how we sourced our ingredients. 

Enjoy!

hcse:

One thing Stuart and I miss most about living in the states is easy access to green spaces. Seoul has a number of great parks—in fact, one of the first times we hung out was at a picnic with friends at Olympic Park on Children’s day. However, Maseok has no parks and the playing fields at our schools are nothing but dusty, dirty expanses—no grass in sight.

When Stuart found a park near the river yesterday on a bike ride, he immediately decided we should take advantage of the new spring weather and pack a picnic. He woke up early this morning to bake (gluten free!) bread and sammich fixins. Other than the bread mix, all items can be found in Korean grocery stores. We like Lotte Mart for its dairy selection and surprising finds like limes and rosemary. They also carry a cheap bubbly wine that works well for mimosas and a Cote de Rhone that while not cheap, is delicious…But! Back to the matter at hand!

I didn’t think to take any prep photos, but I trust most of you can figure out how to slice up an onion. Here’s what we brought:

Sliced cucumbers, red onions (!!), and tomatoes

Avocado and fresh mozzarella. Avocados are finally back in the stores here. You’ll pay more for them than you would even at home, but if you’re like me you’ll agree that these creamy favorites are worth an extra buck or two. Fresh mozzarella (straight from Italy!) is readily available at many big grocery stores like Lotte Mart and Emart. Don’t bother to buy it in Itaewon; you’ll pay a lot more for the same product. One of our favorite appetizers is a basil-less Caprese salad of mozz, tomato, olive oil, balsamic, s&p. 

Stuart also whipped up some boursin a few minutes before we left. Until recently, the only boursin I’d ever had came in a plastic container at the store. While I still love the no muss-no fuss aspect of pre-made boursin, it’s surprisingly easy to make it at home. You need:

• A soft cheese. Boursin is best with goat cheese but I’ve never seen that here. Good alternatives are cream cheese and fromage blanc. Today he used fromage blanc (Lotte mart) and leftover homemade ricotta. It’s best to leave the cheese out for a bit before you mix in the other ingredients.
• Pressed garlic. If, like us, you’re unafraid of garlic breath, use as much as your heart desires.
• Parsley. Other fresh herbs are also good, but parsley is easy to find and relatively cheap here. It adds nice texture, flavor, and color to the dish. 

Put all ingredients in a bowl and stir together with a fork/spoon. The result should be well-integrated, creamy, garlicky, and generally delicious. It’s excellent stuffed in a chicken breast, topped over bread, or with fresh vegetables. 

Mashida! GF roll, boursin, tomatoes, red onions, spinach (easily found but you do need to wash it!), salt and pepper. 

We had enough bread for us to have 4 mini-sandwiches each. True to my childhood roots, my favorite just had tomato, mayo, onions, and spinach. It reminded me of summers spent eating tomato-mayo sandwiches at the beach and letting the juice run down my forearms before wiping my face off and sprinting back down to the water. 

Gratuitous picture of my very cute boyfriend sporting some impressively fluffy hair.

Picnic staple: WINE

Cheers, y’all. Like my new shades? I left my others at my apartment and had to pick these up on the way to the park since my eyes are hyper-sensitive. I cannot function without sunglasses. 

The park was situated beneath an overpass, who’d’ve thunk it? I thought it was a great use of space that otherwise could have become little more than a junkyard. The park had exercise equipment (a common sight in Korea), benches, raised picnic platforms, a badminton field, and a few large-scale sculptures.  

After our feast and a nap we stopped for coffees at this swanky coffee shop on the river. 

I can’t wait to have another picnic here soon. 

Thanks for reading!