If you are interested in Korean cooking you might've come across the ingredient gochujang, or hot pepper paste. It is used a lot in Korean cooking and after looking up several recipes that mad my mouth water, I had to make some. Gochujang is quite hard to find in the area I live but all it takes is a train ride to London where there are many East Asian supermarkets. However, I decided to check online supermarkets first and after reading the ingredients I discovered that gochujang contained alcohol. Which therefore means it is not halal. I was kinda gutted since I wanted to make my cooking as authentic as possible but instead had to make my own concoction of ketchup and chilli powder as a replacement.
The other day, during my 4 hour break at uni (4 hours is seriously ridiculous) me and friend decided to explore the area around our uni and we came across a Chinese supermarket. They sold gochujang but after checking the ingredients, it wasn't halal. After a little browse around, I came across this:
It's not exactly 'gochujang' but the description was pretty similar. As you can see from the ingredients, no alcohol! I bought a jar and used it the other day to make ramen. Be warned, this stuff is SUPER salty so make sure you adjust your recipe so you don't increase someone's risk of kidney stones like I did. I can't compare the taste but the texture and consistency looks similar to gochujang except this sauce isn't as smooth.
Overall I'm happy with this alternative and will use this more in the future.
Happy cooking! :)
p.s BTS got their 1st win for blood, sweat and tears, wooooo!!
I've just completed my 2nd week of uni and I feel like I'm already slipping. Don't get me wrong, I made friends and I enjoy my lectures but it's the part afterwards: the independent study. After my first day I was on it, I typed up my notes, I had motivation and enthusiasm. But, after that I'm not sure what happened, but I stopped. Now I'm in a position where I have a load of notes to type up in order to catch up. What I think I am struggling with the most is that we aren't told clearly 'this is what you need to do'. It's up to the individual to look up on their online uni account to see what work is available. Even though I do do this I find it a bit tricky to navigate my way around the site, it's a bit messy and confusing. I guess I just need to play around with it and learn to be more independent.
We have already been our first set of coursework which involves writing a portfolio on our start o university. It took me a week to realise what this portfolio is meant to be on and that we should've already started it. To be honest, I still don't really know what a portfolio is, like a collection of your work, I guess?
On Wednesday we had 1 of 4 of our kitchen practicals. We were in groups of 3 and in 2.5 hours we were assigned a recipe, cooked and then completed a sensory analysis on everyone's dishes. The recipe booklet and instructions were uploaded online but I didn't know till the day before because it wasn't stated clearly and it honestly took me about 20 mins to find because I had to open and close so many folders. Once I found it, I read through the booklet at one of the tasks said we had to work out the nutritional content...except we haven't been taught that. So I was in a small panic. The next day, I clarified this with the teacher and told me it's fine, just fill it in after you have been taught it. But know I realised that she didn't mention this to the whole class after our discussion so I'm guessing people are still confused, or maybe it's just me.
I've been busy and stressed with trying to sort out finances and DBS check stuff and I guess a part of me took it as an excuse to slack. I need to get that motivation back quickly.
Just a heads up, there will probably be a lot of cap in this post.
Ahem.
WATCH BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS:
I thought Jungkook was joking when he said they'll be a more mature side to the group since they are all human memes but I WAS WRONG AND UNPREPARED. Their outfits, the dance moves the lyrics were so....sensual. I actually can't, I'm blushing. You know it's intense when it makes a brown person blush.
Anyway lets talk about the graphics and editing. I loved the whole art museum theme and how we saw it throughout. The members where in the museum itself and within the paintings. From the set to the props, everything was so detailed and merged together well.
The song- LOVE LOVE LOVE It's current and the vocals are amazing. All the vocalists improved and when they were singing it was angelic, I mean those HIGH NOTES!!! Honestly, the one thing that I could complain about is Jin's lines, or lack of. He did have a lot of screen time though which I guess helps balance it out but if his one line was at least a solo line and not shared with Jimin then I think it would've been better. I saw a mini clip on twitter of them practising the dance at that part and Jin was at the front which makes me happy since he isn't at the back the whole time. In term of the rappers, THIS IS J-HOPE'S ERA. I love how he got more lines and had a chance to shine like the sunshine he is. Even though RM didn't get many lines (I felt this was ok since he usually has larger parts in other songs and he narrated) he still managed to kill me. I don't know what it is but the way he says chocolate URGH. I was caught off guard because me and my sister were freaking and it suddenly got quiet. Usually it annoys me when this happens but I felt like they made it flow and when the music came back it was smooth. As for Suga, his voice is amazing so he could say anything and I would love it. This isn't about his rap but I really liked his jacket/shirt thing. I don't know if it's just me but I get a bollywood/arabic vibe from it. There's probably a bollywood song that sounds similar but I can't place it. Overall the song is super catchy and it has been stuck in my head since it came out. I have trouble sleeping because the tune is in my head and I feel like dancing.
The album- I can honestly say I loved EVERY song in this album. It was nice how each member had a solo track each but my favourites were MAMA by J-hope and Awake by Jin. I like MAMA because I like upbeat songs and I think the style suited J-hope well. Even though I'm not a huge fan of slow song and ballads I really like Awake, maybe because of Jin's voice? The song is just relaxing to me. Regardless, all the solo tracks were all beautiful. Even without knowing about the meaningful lyrics, you could still feel the emotion from every single member. Just a point worth mentioning, who knew V could sing that high? Also in the album were the tracks Cypher pt 4 which featured the rappers and Lost which involved the vocalists. Personally, I liked Lost a *tiny* bit more. However, I liked how Cypher pt 4 was something unexpected since it didn't sound like the other parts but the lyrics were still SAVAGE. 2!3! has such cute lyrics. My favourite song from the album is Blood, Sweat and Tears and in joint 2nd would be Am I Wrong and 21st century girl. I loved the intro and interlude (damn this means there's a second part) but out of the two, the intro is my favourite since J-hope gets to showcase all his talents and his wish came true, which was to do the intro. I think this album really shows how talented each and every member is and how versatile BTS are as a whole. It's a different sound but they still KILLED IT. Perfect way to start a new era.
One of the things that makes me really happy is that WINGS was #1 in several countries, including the UK! That's right, the land that seems to be unknown to kpop idols/agencies had a kpop album as #1 on iTunes. Hopefully this increases the chance of Kcon London. Also, I love the idea that people might be browsing iTunes or something and they see Wings, get curious so they check it out and they become a fan. It's amazing how big of a fandom we are now.
I'm SO EXCITED for this whole promotion period and how Bighit and BTS will spoil us. I'm hoping for lots variety shows too, as long as the boys are healthy though. Health comes first.
Enjoy the rest of your day :)
Because I'm a bit weird I'm going to put this here again (just hit 11 million views!):
It was a normal day, I was just going through my subscription box several because I was putting off doing revision. Then I am across THIS video. The thumbnail included 3 youtubers the I was subscribed to and I was looking to waste time so I clicked the video.
BTS dope was the first video they showed and my reaction was basically the same as Lilly's. I didn't even wait to finish the video and searched it up myself and watched the whole thing myself. I've heard of kpop before but never looked it up until then I got sucked in so fast. I love upbeat music, rap and dancing so I was IN. I watched Dope 10 times that day and when I was telling my sister she thought I was crazy (until I showed her the video and slowly sucked her in too). I was so hyped you won't believe I showed my sisters, mum, cousins, aunts and all my friends. I was like THE WORLD MUST KNOW. I've never fangirled over an artist or group so I was kind of freaking out because I wasn't the type but after a month or so of denial and watching every bangtan bomb, mv and other videos, I finally accepted that I had surpassed fangirl status and I was now trash.
In terms of biases, I don't really have one. When I first watched Dope and Jungkook appeared I was like WOAH but then I watched War of hormone and I was bias wrecked by V before I even knew what bias wrecking was. After getting to know their personality and what dorks they are I couldn't pick a favourite. I applaud the people who can stay loyal to one member, jut remember to appreciate all the members. If you struggle, you could be like my friend and have a new bias every week. They are all bias wreckers of my non-existent bias list.
After a few months, I started branching out to other groups like EXO and now the list of groups I stan continues to grow. 'EXO next door' was what actually lead me to kdramas such as 'Descendants of the sun'. Honestly, my sister is more into kdramas than I am since I don't have the time to watch them. However, when V and Minho's drama, 'Hwarang', comes out I will make my life about it.
Before I even got into kpop I had heard a lot of things about k-beauty from youtubers like Bubzbeauty and Michelle Phan but that obsession also took off due to how cute the packaging was and how innovative they were. I'm actually looking more into this as I suffer from acne and hyperigmentation and am slowly incorporating Korean skincare in my routine. I recommend watching Gothamista and Joankeem if you want to know more.
Lastly, the food. If you like cooking, Maangchi is the lady you need. That's literally all I have to say because you need to make it/eat it to know. One thing that bugs me though is that gochujang is used a lot in Korean cooking and I'm still in search for a halal one, if it exists.
I just want to finish off by sharing the video that started it all. I can't believe this was at 24 million views when I first watched this and now it's nearly at 100 million.
I've only been into this for a year but I don't think I'm leaving anytime soon...
