If you’ve been following me on Twitter…you might have guessed that I’ve been a teensy weensy bit stressed lately. I’ve been having a lot of work piled up lately.

Because the books I ordered came in late, I’ve been on a mad-hatter rush to catch up with all my missed readings. Meanwhile, I’ve been hit with a serious case of writer’s block for my essay on Evolution, especially because I’m finding it hard to support my theory without sounding like a close-minded religious fanatic. Add to that the fact that it is the long weekend and all my required interviewees for a school newspaper article due Tuesday morning are out of office, and the fact that coffee does not work for me anymore, it’s no wonder I became one pent-up ball of frustrated stress-cords.

At times like this when I’m having trouble calming down and communicating with God, I do what every girl in my situation would do. Go cry “boo hoo” and freak out at my daddy.

I sent him an email full of exclamation points and expletives. Don’t worry, my dad is cool with expletives because I am very creative with them and he doesn’t know enough English to figure out that they are bad swearing words.

Anyway. My dad has always been the best person to turn to in a situation like this, and he didn’t fail me again. He immediately responded with an email full of broken English, but I got the jest of what he was trying to tell me. Here’s what he said (except I polished up all his weird grammatical errors):

“Dear daughter,

‘Who are you?’ is always more important than ‘What are you doing?’. Don’t live for the sake of doing something, but live for the sake of enjoying a truly meaningful life!

No matter what you are going to do, always remember to pay attention to ‘How is my spiritual, emotional and physical condition? What kind of condition am I in, as I do what I am doing right now?’

An hour’s work in good condition is far better than ten hours’ work in bad condition; and an hour’s pleasant work, in which you are enjoying what you are doing moment by moment, is much better than ten hours’ forced work of stressed yawns!”

My dad hits the nail in the head once again. Why am I making myself more stressed than I need be? Forcing myself to do work under stress is not going to get me anywhere.

Yesterday I took the day off and just let myself…relax. I went to church, I hung out with awesome friends, and I had the most fabulous meal ever with them (which I will blog about soon later). And when I came home, my mind, spirit and body was refreshed, clear as mountain spring water.

And you know what? I sat down in front of my laptop, and I started cranking out my essay again, but this time…I enjoyed what I was doing. And ho, ho, ho! Guess what?! I finished my essay! Woo-hoo!

Never underestimate the power of the mind. When you set your heart to actually enjoy what you are doing instead of merely enduring it, you’ll be pleasantly surprised and how much more effective and efficient you can be.

Maybe that’s why I make good food (in my opinion). Because I enjoy cooking, the passion and delight in me transfers to my food. Today, Mimi joined me for a Korean-Mexican throw-down against Calbi BBQ. And boy, did we ever kick their ass!

We came up with two ideas: A nori taquito, and a Spicy Chicken and Guacamole Tostada. Hang on to your seats, because you’re in for an amazing foodie ride across the continents for the combination of two crazy-delicious cuisines!

Challenge #1: Nori Taquito (inspired by Mimi)

• 2 sheets nori (unsalted)
• 4 slices bacon
• 1/2 cup chopped kimchi
• 1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese
• 1/4 cup diced scallions

Start frying up the bacon until nice and crispy, then toss in the chopped kimchi and fry them up together until the bacon absorbs all the juices from the kimchi and the kimchi gets nice and hot.
Next, lay out the nori and ladle the kimchi-bacon mixture on to the edge of it. Lay on the cheese and scallions, roll the taquitos up.

Bake the taquitos in a 350 degree oven for about 7-8 minutes until nice and toasted.
Now this was really interesting. The filling was HEAVENLY with the salty bacon and kimchi and the sharp cheese, and it tasted great, but the texture of the nori became soggy after sitting about for sometime.
Next time, I’ll stick to plain ol’ tortilla, though the nori concept was really creative. Or I’ll have to eat these immediately after taking them out of the oven to keep the crunchy and dry texture of the nori. I’ll rate these 8/10.

Challenge #2: Spicy Chicken and Guacamole
Tostada

Gochujang marinade:

• 1 tablespoon gochujang
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tsp vinegar
• squeeze of 1/2 lime juice
• 1 tsp honey
• 1-2 tablespoon water to taste

Whisk everything together until smooth. Set aside.

Guacamole (made by dear Mimi):

• 2 small avocados, mashed
• 1 tomato, diced
• 1/2 red onion, diced
• 1 Laughing Cow cheese wedge
• squeeze of lime juice
• cumin
• salt and pepper

Mix everything together. Mash and bash.

The rest of ingredients:

• 4 corn tortillas
• 1 cup grilled chicken
• 1-2 cups fresh baby spinach
• guacamole (see above)
• 1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese
• sprinkle of cayenne powder (optional)

Toss the gochujang marinade with the chicken and the spinach. Set aside for the flavors to meld.

Meanwhile, spray both sides of corn tortilla with oil and bake in a 350 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes, flipping them over half-way until golden and crispy.

Layer the chicken-spinach mixture onto each tostada. Plop a dollop of guacamole over each, sprinkle with goat cheese, and even some cayenne pepper if you’re a spice-loving mama.
Amaaaaaa~aaazing! Hark, is that angels I hear singing in my head while I bit into this? I heard no angels while I was eating Calbi BBQ’s tacos. Heaven is on our side, so I think the judgement is pretty obvious…Mimi and Sophia reigns supreme!!!!

LOVE all the flavors in there. It was funny how our conversation just suddenly stopped as we crunched and munched with silent swoons of delight.
I had a shot of cayenne pepper on top, but Mimi was not much of a spice-loving mama (YET) and left that out.

MOAR! MOAR! my head screamed, though my belly was getting satisfactorily full. Two thumb up, indeed! I give it 10.5/10!! Extra points because I get to share the glory with Mimi!

Yes, yes, I know Calbi BBQ probably don’t give a crap about two college students who claim to make better Korean-Mexican fusion than them, but today, the two of us walked with our heads swelled up with pride like balloons. In our own foodie world, we’re rockers!

Oh, and check this out:
BLOGGER in ACTION!

Okay, everyone, I’ve gotta run and continue catching up with my reading. With such good food inside of my tummy, and having had such a great time with great company, I am now ready to tackle some essays by John Baptist Lamark. Okay, not tackle—‘ enjoy. That’s the key word here!

P.S. Does anyone think 19th century writers are a bunch of pompous know-it-alls trying to squeeze in as many SAT vocabulary words as possible into one page?

Question of the day: What do you do when you think you’re on the verge of freaking out from overloaded stress?

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2. No Longer Me, Myself, and I
3. Killing You Softly…With My Words…
4. Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24: Korean Fusion Street Food BYOB
5. Special Thanksgiving

Tagged as: avocado, bacon, cheese, chicken, gochujang, kimchi, Korea, mexican, nori, salad, tomato, tortilla