Today is Lunar New Year’s — Seol in Korean — a day when everybody gets a year older and eats rice cake soup for good luck. The white, moon-shaped cakes traditionally symbolize purity and prosperity, but for me growing up, getting to eat ddukguk was just a delicious expression of motherly love.

I was a picky eater as a child, but I’ve always loved rice cakes. Because the cake rolls come prepackaged and sliced into thin oval coins, there is usually only one random, fat chunk from the end. And whenever my mom made ddukguk, she would fish through the pot with her ladle, looking for that big chunk to give to me. And when I’m home, she still does.

With Ben and I out in Korea on our own, I’m the one who cooks the ddukguk. Yesterday we picked up a bag of rice cakes from a specialty store around the corner, and even before I dumped them in the broth, I saw the chunk. Ben let me have it.

I’m an alpha cook. I enjoy cooking and I like to be in charge in the kitchen.

However, on very rare occasions, I relinquish control and let Ben cook dinner. But even then, he has to put up with me watching closely over his shoulder and offering unsolicited and usually unwanted advice.

Tonight he quickly threw together some eggs, a few handfuls of spinach and some cheddar cheese to create a perfectly light dinner, which we ate with a baguette from our neighborhood bakery.

And with some marked self-control, I was even able to keep my nagging to a minimum. Isn’t he lucky?

Today’s breakfast consisted of toast, a smear of butter, a 3-minute egg and some sea salt and pepper. Not a bad way to start the weekend.

Finding good food is a top priority when Ben and I travel. It puts you in touch with the country’s culture and connects you with its people. I, unfortunately, don’t read or speak any Japanese (except for a handful of vocabulary) but Ben buckled down a couple of months before our trip and learned enough to get us around comfortably, order food, and even ask for recommendations. Here’s a collection of some of our favorite meals in Tokyo.

first dinner in Tokyo

curry dog taiyaki -- better than it sounds

my favorite thing we ate -- New Year's ozoni

we searched hard for this one -- ichigo mochi

grilled buns with various fillings

New Year's festival food -- candied strawberry

not just any old steamed potato

street cart okinomiyaki

5am breakfast at Tsukiji Fish Market -- uni, toro, and tamago

still warm sweet potato mochi in kawagoe

the best salmon onigiri I've ever eaten

second breakfast of the day -- strawberry and chestnut mochi

one of many, many crepes

our last lunch -- pretty and delicious

These meals anchor all the good memories we made in Tokyo. We’ve always had great food experiences while traveling in Japan, and this trip was no different.

Happy New Year, friends!

Ben and I just got back from a fantastic winter trip to Japan where we spent the better part of the week wandering the streets of Tokyo and eating everything we could get our hands on. A photo-filled post of all the deliciousness we encountered is coming, but I wanted to dedicate one to the wonderful breakfast we had each morning before we started our day.

Before heading back to our hotel every night, we would stop at a convenience store (AMPMs dominated our block) and pick up some juice and a container of yogurt. Ben would get up early in the morning and walk up the street to the neighborhood Doutor coffee shop and pick us up some coffee and occasionally a muffin to supplement our convenience store finds.

It was the perfect way to start each morning; we fell in love with Japanese yogurt and were delighted to find drip coffee and grapefruit juice — two things that are difficult to come by in Korea.

Maybe Japanese yogurt only tastes this good if you’re on vacation… but we’re pretty sure it would be awesome anytime.

When this cheesecake store opened in our neighborhood Hyundai Department Store, there was always a line of customers. Ben and I made a mental note to come back and try it sometime when the wait wasn’t so long.

It’s been about a year now and we finally remembered to give it a chance. Cino’s is originally a Japanese chain. Unlike their American counterparts, these desserts are actually cake (no cream cheese filling) and, matching Asian tastes, light and barely sweetened. The consistency was like foam, almost dissolving on our tongues.

Out of all the Asian-style cheesecakes we’ve had over the past year or so, this is by far the best — but I’m not sure we would wait in line for it.

early morning jagalchi fish market

octopus (octopi?)

breakfast of blue crab soup

banchan

more fish

unagi

ho dduk at the PIFF plaza

Back in September, Ben and I caught the KTX and took a quick weekend trip down to Busan. Even though the weather was still hot, tourist season was over so the beaches were gloriously uncrowded. We spent two days wandering around the city, checking out Jagalchi Fish Market (the largest in the country), eating fresh seafood for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and relaxing on the beach.

We didn’t even mind the pungent smell of raw fish basking in the hot afternoon sun.

brownie and milk tea

kimchi jjigae

grilled shellfish at seoraksan

more milk tea at mmmg cafe

breakfast at the frying pan

french fry covered hot dog

Fall is always short and sweet wherever I live, whether it’s Wisconsin or Seoul. It’s unfortunate since it’s my favorite season, but winter is definitely here and we’re ready for it. Bring on the clementines, persimmons and vendors selling freshly roasted chestnuts! And here’s hoping that our next post won’t take me another month!