I’ve been spending a lot of time this week in facebook group chats with the other teachers heading to Korea soon, and someone recently posted a story of how one guy arrived in Korea only to be sent home because he weighed 30lbs more than he listed on his application. Questionable veracity or not, this story alarms me due to my recent “I may not be able to eat this in Korea so I should eat as much of it as possible now” mentality.
Seeing as the fare involved in my eat-fest is usually cheese, cupcakes, and Mexican food–which are notably the kind of foods that could easily leave me tipping the scales to a much heavier weight than they were a few months ago when I filled out my application– I have been drinking green smoothies for breakfast to try to counteract the other muffin-top inducing morsels I’ve been desperately scarfing so Korea doesn’t turn me away.
To no avail, my waistline might add.
Ah well, there’s only a few more weeks of justified binging and so I’m simply enjoying the process of crossing the last few items off my Santa Barbara Bucket List, most of which include the mass consumption of wine, clam chowder, and cupcakes. I’ve also been eating at all my favorite restaurants one last time and in the last week alone I’ve dined out for Thai, Mexican, Cajun, Seafood, Dessert, and Wine (yes, there was a night when I had wine for dinner; don’t judge). I wish I had taken pictures to entice you with, but I was too busy stuffing my face.
Last Sunday, a few friends and I popped into Kunin and crossed another winery off the list of my quest to taste wine at every establishment on the Santa Barbara Urban Wine Trail. I still have quite a few wineries to go, so I might just have to sacrifice my liver and my sobriety in a last ditch effort to visit them all in one day. It will probably hurt the next day, but it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make for such a worthy cause.
After our wine taste we drove out onto Stearns Wharf and witnessed one of the most stunning sunsets I’ve seen in Santa Barbara recently. The entire sky was a pink hue and the soft pastels framed the palm trees lining the waterfront. Unfortunately I didn’t get a photo of the pink sky along the waterfront but from the end of the wharf I was able to capture a pretty amazing view of the harbor from across the water.
After we finished marveling at how lucky we are to live here amongst such natural beauty, we ducked inside the humble Shellfish Company and pulled up a stool at the bar to order up clam chowder and seafood pasta. We watched the poor live crabs climbing on top of each other trying to build a crab tower to escape out the top of the holding tank, only to see one served up on a plate steaming fresh and topped with an onion ring. I couldn’t help but think of that scene from The Little Mermaid… poor Sebastian. Eh, but my mouth was still watering.
We laughed about the shenanigans from the previous night, toasted to another successful weekend, and planned our Girls Night Bachelor Viewing & Cupcake Tasting for the following night. Yes, that really happened, and it was amaze balls. I’ll tell you about it soon.
In the meanwhile, I think it’s time to invest in some maternity stretch-waist pants.
God, I’m really going to miss this place.
I totally binged when I went home to California. Mexican food, wine and cheese were high on my list! The Mexican food here (Seoul) is actually decent….not authentic…but better then you’d expect so at least there is always that to fall back on in times of need 🙂 As time goes on more and more foreign products have started becoming available as well! Woo woo!
Well that’s good to know! Only it almost makes me feel guilty then for trying to eat a year’s worth of Mexican food in 2 weeks… But it really doesn’t get any better than a burrito from southern CA. 🙂
I definitely did that when I went back to the U.S. for two weeks- I ate sooo much Chipotle, Mexican, Lebanese and so many burgers… all of my favorite things I can’t get here in France. That chowder looks amazing by the way!
Ooh, yes I don’t imagine there’s too much middle eastern food in Korea. I wonder if they’ll have good hummus? It’s funny that the food situation is one of my biggest concerns for this move–forget language and cultural barriers, I want me some cheese! haha
Green smoothies are the best!!
Indeed! Actually yet another thing I probably won’t be able to make in Korea. Le sigh… What’s your fave green smoothie recipe?
Yeah, that is one thing I would sorely miss. I began with one recipe a couple years back, but now just have a hodgepodge of things I throw in there. Starting with a water base, I toss in a big handful of spinach, kale, strawberries, blueberries, beets, a banana, plain yogurt, and orange juice. Mmmmm. Yours?
I’m addicted to green smoothies!
Me too! I found this website that is having a 30 day challenge and every 5 days they give you a shopping list and each day is a new green smoothie recipe. It’s getting me to try lots of new combinations and there have been some really tasty ones! Today had mint in it, it was *almost* like drinking a mojito! 😉
Oh my god, that sounds amazing! what’s the website? I must try! So far, I’ve been buying them in a juice shop next to work…
Add yourself to this facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/30daygreensmoothiechallenge/
You can sign up to receive the actual emails for the February challenge if you want, but they post a list of all the shopping lists and recipes at the top of the facebook page so you can just look at that if you want. Some yummy stuff!