Cooking Day: Sandwich Rolls

Another Cooking Day at the Inje English Village, and today's recipe? Sandwich Rolls! As mentioned before, the Western cooking recipes we use are slightly adapted to Korean tastes, and what ingredients Korea has to offer.

The original recipe. Luckily, we modified it.

John is unsure of the Sandwich Rolls

I don't know where the first recipe we had came from. It called for a sauce made with mayonnaise and strawberry jam, and for us to spread butter on the bread before spreading the mayo-jam concoction. Thankfully we decided not to use butter, or the mayonnaise/strawberry jam sauce. We changed the sandwich toppings and used ham, cheese, crab, sliced apples. We also changed the spread to just strawberry jam.

Jenny and Mille

I had the students flatten the sandwich bread with a rolling pin to make the bread thinner and easier to roll once finished. One of my students called it "paper bread". Then we would spread the strawberry jam on the bread. At this point I would yell "spread the bread!" to my students because it rhymed and I love things that rhyme. No one found this amusing. 

Mona, Lilly, and Rose enjoying their Sandwich Rolls

Next, we placed a slice of ham on the strawberry jam. I couldn't control my rhyming self so I yelled "ham on the jam!". Same response from my students: nothing. At this point I gave up. Which was a good thing, because I couldn't think of anything that rhymed with apple. Anyways, we added sliced apples, cheese, and pieces of crab sticks to the roll. Then we rolled the bread up like a tortilla or kimbap.

The inside of my Sandwich Roll

The Sandwich Roll was interesting. Like the Chicken Tortillas and Cheese Canapes, it was unique with so many different flavors that shouldn't go together, but it wasn't terrible. I wouldn't recommend making it at home for yourself, but if you find yourself teaching a cooking class that's making this, try it!

Cooking Day: Chicken Tortillas

At the Inje English Village, everyday Friday is cooking day or market day. I have yet to experience a market day, but I want to share the interesting Korean twists that exist with some foods that we make.

Today we made Chicken Tortillas. The basics were there: chicken and tortillas, but then it got a little interesting. We started with the tortilla and spread a spicy Korean chilli sauce on the surface. Next we added lettuce, cucumbers, apples, and chicken. The final touch? Korean mustard sauce. It wasn't bad, just interesting.

Class 3 enjoying cooking class

Koreans like to add unique things in non-traditional Korean food. In the past we made Cheese Canapes. When making the cheese canape, we started with a saltine, spread whipping cream, added a slice of ham and a slice of cheese. Oh that's not all. We also added an apple slice, spread strawberry jam on top of that, and topped it with a chocolate chip. It was an explosion of different flavors and there are no words to describe it's unique taste. Koreans also add corn to almost all pizza, but I actually enjoy this quirk.

A Korean chicken tortilla, sans mustard sauce

First Day of School: Cooking Day

I decided to visit my school, Inje English Village, the next day. It's about a 5 minute walk from my apartment. Fridays are cooking days so I think everything was a little more relaxed than normal. The first class was all boys, about eight years old, and they were terrifying. We played a fun little game called "ask new teacher questions". At one point, all nine boys were crawling on the desk literally yelling questions in my face. The next classes weren't as bad, but I could tell there were going to be a lot of troublemakers, and I am not one that is good with discipline. For myself and for others. Also, the kids call me "Arazue Teacher" which I think is super cute because it sounds more like "Ar-joo Teacha".

Today I also met my two other coworkers, Fathima and Jonlyn (both girls from South Africa). Fathima will be leaving in December, her replacement is an Irish guy. Andrew is leaving in the middle of November and I am his replacement. And Jonlyn isn't leaving until April, so at least I have her around for a while. The teachers of Inje English Village (including myself) make up four of the nine foreigners in Inje.

The Inje English Village is a 'hagwon'. If I understand correctly, a hagwon is like a private academy, and in our school it's an after school program where the kids come after their regular school. In our hagwon there are only foreign teachers, whereas in a public school there is a foreign teacher and a native teacher in the classroom together. I think that our class room sizes are smaller too.