2015 Travels: South Korea and Thailand

My layover in Guangzhong, China.

Hello everyone!

It's been a while since I've blogged but I wanted to document my travels this May to South Korea and Thailand. About two years back I traveled to Taiwan and I documented through photos and the daily doings I did.

This time around (seeing how extremeeeeeely time-consuming it was last time to provide a detailed photographic and written account of my day-to-day), I will be writing about the different themes or thoughts I've had during this trip. My posts will be extremely honest and they are only my opinion and thoughts. I say this in case you find them offensive because I will be brutally honest and vulnerable about my feelings.

My Asia trip came quite spontaneously and it was my "Eat, Pray, Love" moment during a time of quarter-century-and-then-some-age-crisis. I was feeling quite burnt out with life. The beauty of travel is that it expands your heart and mind. There's something about experiencing newness and culture that's different from your own.

Here's some misconceptions that I did come to realize by going on this trip:

• No such thing as leaving your problems behind:
  I came on this trip to escape in a way. There was a lot going on. I have this flight-or-fight syndrome dealing with problems and more often than not, I choose flight - at least for a little while until I can gather my thoughts. Usually it's to a cafe or quirky bookstore across the street; this time, a plane. But then I realized once I landed, that though I flew an ocean away to leave my problems, they came with me nonetheless. It's because these problems ARE me. Some things just take time.
  
• Homesickness:
  Though traveling has brought me lots of joy, it has also given me an appreciation for my hometown Seattle. I'm not ready to go back yet but I've begun to realize that I love the place where I've grown up. 

This trip has definitely been of different flavor than my last. Maybe it just comes with being older. It's a strange thought on how we can use money to buy food, clothing and accessories or even use our physical bodies to experience exciting adventures such as zip-lining or hiking. We find ourselves capable of many things as human beings but life and time are things we cannot control. They are sometimes the most important.

We can plan all sort of things with our lives yet we can not plan growth. You cannot just gain experience just because you want to. There are things that can only be done and gained by time. A broken heart can only be healed by time.





Happy Readings,

Nina

Moist Chocolate Muffins

Rainy Saturdays definitely bring out the culinary in me. That and hunger. I'm not much of a baker, I prefer to cook because cooking makes sense to me. Baking has steps and an invisible equation to it and the most infuriating about baking for me is that I don't know if I have gotten it right until it's out of the oven! And when it's out of the oven, it's almost too late! Cooking makes more sense to me. I taste as I cook and immediately know if I want to add some sugar or some spice. I can explore, create, be daring and adventurous all at once.

I will say this month has been kind to me. I have stretched out my baking muscles and if I have ever found a friend in the baking world, I would have to say it would be muffins. Muffins are quite simple and I love the fact that I can play around with the fruit choice or mixture and it'll still come out delicious! It's almost like cooking! (Almost.)

Always a good time for CHOCOLATE TIME!

I got this recipe (tweaked based on users' comments) from Allrecipes.com - a really great site that I use consistently and which also allows you to modify serving sizes and will recalculate portions for you.http://allrecipes.com/recipe/moist-chocolate-muffins/

Recipe makes 12 muffins


Ingredients


Chocolate Mixture

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup of mini chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Mixture

• 1 egg
• 1 cup vanilla greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup milk or chocolate milk*
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup of mini chocolate chips

Banana Crumb Muffin

What does a rainy Saturday, overly ripe bananas and a cabin-fevered girl bring together? Banana muffins of course!

I based this recipe (with tweaks from other users' input) on the "Banana Crumb Muffins" on Allrecipes.com: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/banana-crumb-muffins/

Recipe makes 12 muffins

Batter

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 bananas, mashed
• 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 canola oil
• 1 egg

Crumb Mixture 

• 2 tbs all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tbs butter

A New Year of New Beginnings

Hello 2014!

It's amazing how quickly 2014 has snuck up on me and how quickly things have, and can, change in a year. From making my first batch of rice to overcoming my fear of baking, I am so excited for all the fun experiences that 2014 has in store for me. 

I hope you enjoy the new look to my blog and check in regularly on my kitchen adventures as I experiment on what worked and what didn't. 

Happy Tastings!


Much love,
Nina

Girls' Night at a Tom Douglas' restaurant called Lola, which had these amazing sugared-cinnamon donuts with a side of vanilla mascapone and raspberry sauce. I also had my first taste of a Shirley Temple Black or also known as a "Dirty Shirley" - delicious!

第十七天: Day 17 // Exploration of Hualien

After a morning tour, it was time to check out :( 

I was quite sad because the place was very beautiful and I wouldn't have mind staying there for many weeks :)

Me and Katherine

第十落天: Day 16 Part II

We took a 45-min trail around the mountains, where much of the marble and unique gems can be found and extracted. As we walked, I could see these huge rocks with smooth surfaces by the river. It was like pebbles you found on the beach but the size of houses.

第十落天: Day 16 // New Adventures

We said goodbye to Toy who left 5 in the morning to go back to Bangkok. The weekend had gone by too fast but we joked that the whole lot of us would one day appear in front of his door and go "SURPRISE!"

Half an hour later we left for the train station for a family trip to Hualien, the northeastern part of Taiwan. It was time for another adventure.