Yogurtsoda Gratuitous food and travel.

Happy new year! I bet you’ve got some healthy, active resolutions lined up for 2012, right? Let me derail your plans for a minute. Don’t get me wrong, I’m just as much an advocate for mindful eating and exercise as the next Bay Arean, but moderation is key. When those tofu smoothies and kale chips become tiresome, I present to you: fried spaghetti.

Think of it more as an indulgent snack than a meal. Adapted from a Jamie Oliver recipe, these addictive fritters are best eaten fresh. They’re easy to make, too — perfect for that post-workout reward.

Ingredients:

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
2 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
1 egg
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 dried red chili, crumbled
7 ounces spaghetti
salt and pepper
olive oil

1. Place all your ingredients, apart from the spaghetti and olive oil, into a bowl and mix. Meanwhile, add spaghetti to a pot of salted, boiling water and cook until al dente. Drain the pasta in a colander and rinse under cold water to cool it down. Once the pasta is cool, snip it with scissors into pieces roughly 4 inches long and add them to the bowl. Mix well.

2. Pour a few tablespoons oil into a pan and place over medium-high heat. Using a fork, add piles of the spaghetti mixture to the pan and fry until golden and crisp on both sides. Serve warm.

You know what’s delicious? Hummus. You know what else is delicious? Pizza. Now, hummus and pizza at the same time? Revolutionary.

This Middle Eastern-style pizza takes only a few minutes to assemble, and it’s health-conscious too. I prefer using roasted garlic hummus as the base, and I pre-soak my feta cubes in olive oil flecked with oregano and red pepper flakes for a hit of extra flavor. Feel free to experiment — this recipe can be endlessly customized.

Ingredients:

1 cup hummus, preferably roasted garlic
1/2 tomato, thinly sliced
1/3 cup Kalamata olives, sliced
1/2 cup feta cheese, cubed
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
1 pound whole-wheat pizza dough
all-purpose flour
olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Meanwhile, roll out dough to a 10-inch round on a lightly-floured working surface. Transfer dough to a lightly oiled baking sheet.

2. Spread hummus on pizza dough and top with tomato, olives, and feta. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes in the oven, or until crust is golden.

3. Sprinkle pizza with parsley, drizzle with olive oil, and serve warm.

To be fair, there was no lard used in the making of this dish. I used turkey bacon instead. Please don’t judge me; the end product was still a garlicy plate of fried potato goodness.

Adapted from Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook, this wintery dish is a snap to create and makes a great side. The original recipe uses slab bacon but if you’re cutting down on the fat, use a mixture of turkey bacon and butter, as I did.

Ingredients:

4 slices turkey bacon, chopped into a 1/4-inch dice
2 tablespoons butter
2 Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled, cut in half, then chopped into 1/4-inch thick slices
1 garlic clove, minced
4 sprigs of flat parsley, chopped
salt and pepper

1. Heat a saute pan over medium heat and add the butter until melted. Add the bacon and cook until the fat is rendered and the meat is crispy, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2. Add the potatoes and cook for 15 minutes, stirring and tossing frequently. Add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes, then season with parsley, salt, and pepper. Serve warm.

Heaven is a place where you can eat bibimbap for breakfast, bulgogi for lunch, and banchan all day long. Heaven is Seoul, at least it was for one short, gluttonous day. Melody and I arrived in Incheon International Airport just after dawn, still tired from our stay in Hanoi. We headed straight to Bon, an airport restaurant that was packed even at this early hour. “Aiport” and “restaurant” should rarely be used in the same sentence, but apparently this rule doesn’t apply in Korea.

I ordered a bowl of short rib bibimbap and mixed in some rice, gochujang, and enjoyed my breakfast with side of seaweed soup and kimchi. The short rib was super rich, but the gochujang’s sweet pepper flavor cut right through and woke me up.

Among the many qualities that makes Incheon one of my favorite airports is that it houses a section dedicated to Seoul transit tours. We walked to the tour kiosks, signed up for a day-long tour, and ten minutes later, we were on a small minivan en route to the city center. Our friendly guide, Dambi, explained that since Seoul had just experienced its worst flooding in decades in the previous week, many roads were still closed. The rainy ride to Changdeok Palace took just under an hour.

Built by the Joseon Dynasty in the fourteenth century, Changdeok Palace sits within huge park grounds the palace’s living quarters, pavilions, gates, gardens, and the king’s private residence. Much of the palace was destroyed during the Japanese occupation of Korea, and today, only thirty percent of the palace structures remain.

We spent most of our afternoon at the palace before heading over to Jogyesa Temple, the chief temple of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism. The temple was filled with folks quietly observing their prayers, so we were soon on our way to our next stop: lunch!

Seoul’s hip Insadong neighborhood is filled to the brim with not only fashion and art boutiques, but snack shops and restaurants too. Internet, I was beside myself. So! Much! Korean! Food! I could hardly contain my excitement as we walked into a traditional, mahogany-lined restaurant.

We nibbled on our banchan while we waited for our main dishes to arrive. Sauteed mushrooms, mung bean pancakes, pickled greens, daikon raidish, seasoned mung beans and cabbage kimchi kept me sated until my bulgogi stew arrived.

I’ve never seen this dish in Korean restaurants in the Bay Area. I think of grilled meat when I hear “bulgogi,” but this bulgogi a stew, and a deliciously flavored one at that. The thinly sliced meat was super tender, and sat atop a bed of glass noodles. The broth was light but meaty — a perfect balance.

We finished our meal off with a cold plum juice digestif before we went off to explore Insadong.

We soon headed to Ssamziegil, an artist-designed shopping center showcasing handicrafts, galleries, clothing boutiques, and snack shops. I only wish we had more time here, and after two hours, we’d only scratched the surface. I bought a pair of clear glass earrings and a silver ring before calling it a day. Our ride back to the airport was waiting for us, and we had a flight to catch.

At Incheon, we quickly passed through customs and spent the rest of our time checking out the seaweed, tea, and kimchi-packed duty-free shops. So much good food, so little time. I missed Vietnam already, but I felt that with South Korea, I’d only caught a lightning-quick glimpse. Until I return, I’d like to recreate the dishes I tried in Seoul at home. Do you have any tried and true Korean cookbook recommendations? Drop me a line.

We woke up early on our last day in Hanoi to make the most of the few hours we had left in Vietnam. Despite the sense of urgency, we couldn’t pull ourselves away from the Old Quarter. There was still so much to explore.

We finally made it towards Hoan Kiem Lake and stopped at Hapro Bon Mua for a snack of fresh coconut. Feeling refreshed, we continued along the lake before stopping again at Pho 24, a Ho Chi Minh-based chain with shops around Southeast Asia. Despite the chain status, the pho is actually really good.

Melody and I each had a bowl of beef pho. The rice noodles were cooked to perfection, the beef was tender, and the broth was oh so flavorful. I bought a couple of instant pho bowls from Pho 24 as a souvenir before we headed out. (Instant noodles count as a souvenir, right?)

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring Indira Gandhi park and Hoan Kiem Lake yet again. After all, our flight was leaving in a few hours so we couldn’t venture too far from our hotel.

By dusk we were in a cab heading back to No Bai International Airport. But our trip wasn’t over quite yet. There was still Seoul to be had! Too excited to sleep, I spent our flight daydreaming about kimchi, banchan, jigae and bulgogi. In other words, all of my favorite things.