Handmade - Pottery and Fusion Food

 I recently made a trip to the Korean supermarket in Greensboro and came home with some of our favorite things. We were long overdue for an Asian meal.

I decided it would be a Japanese/Korean fusion meal. In the afternoon I made onigiri (Japanese rice balls). At Jeff's suggestion, each had a little dab of Korean soybean paste (Korean version of miso) in the center. The sticky rice was cooked with diced carrot, lotus root, and bits of fried tofu. I substitute chicken broth for dashi. The liquid is also seasoned with soy sauce and sake. They are time consuming to assemble, but are worth the effort. Hopefully with practice, mine will get more attractive looking!

Our main course was bulgogi beef dish with sliced rice cake. I love Korean rice cake. It's like a dense and chewy pasta. It holds up well to spicy foods. We chose our handmade dishes carefully, selecting those made by potters from both Korea, and Japan.

The Last Days of the Seagrove Tour

Jeff brought our guests out to visit some of the potters in the area. Since they fire in wood kilns, the tour focused mainly on the Seagrove potters with wood kilns.

Chad Brown's new wood kiln

Big pots and sculptures at David Stuempfle's

Phil Pollet and Park Yeon Tae

Lee Kyeong Hee at Johnston & Gentithes

Kim Jong Pil and Park Yeon Tae making tea bowls with the clay from our yard.

Tuesday night was a farewell barbecue. Phil Pollet arrived in his Porsche and took each them for a spin around the neighborhood. It was a perfect evening for a sports car ride. Later, everyone gathered on the patio, while Jeff smoked ribs and pork belly. We couldn't find the traditional Korean drink, soju, so out came the vodka and sake. No one seemed to mind ;-).

At some point Jeff's flute appeared and Park Yeon Tae had an impromptu lesson. 

We feasted on eastern and western barbecue, kimchi, mac & cheese, and corn on the cob. 

No one went to bed hungry.

One last group "selfie" at the dining table.

The next morning Jeff and Phil took the group to the airport. The whole week was such an amazing experience. While we are happy to have our house to ourselves again, it was a bittersweet parting. Jeff and I both said we were looking forward to eating food from the good ol' USA, in our pajamas, streaming some television. But in the end what did we make?

Fusion Food!

There was leftover beef bulgogi in the fridge so we stirred fried some veggies as if making bibimbop and rolled it all in flour tortillas. Korean burritos........YUM!

Our life now returns to normal. Well, as normal as a potters life can be. Today we have a kiln to unload... oh yeah, that happened too during the barbecue, everyone pitched in to get the gas kiln loaded and firing. We will have new pots today!