The side dish crisis.

The biggest challenge I face when cooking here is preparing the side dishes called banchan 반 찬, this consumes most of my time in the kitchen... And since each meal requires several of them, I always run out of ideas to make. I try to be creative and make them from scratch, but they always end up tasting either too bland, too salty, or overcooked. It's making me frustrated cause I can't seem to get better in making them, even if I copy it straight out of a recipe book! It's time-consuming and tedious to prepare so I usually just buy it in the supermarket, ready-to-serve and conveniently packed. But it's not cheap.. I'm always surprised how expensive it can be for just a little amount! But of course it's so much better than what I would normally make, and Chris would even compliment how good it tasted. He thinks I'm a good cook.... He doesn't know that I just buy it outside.. ^^ Chris wouldn't agree to this if he knew... He thinks the maker of those ready-made side dishes has serious sanitary issues, and he's probably right. But he should know that so many people are also doing the same thing and they're ok. I bet Homeplus or E-mart don't want to deal with any legal problems from their customers with regard to sanitation.. With that thing in mind, we should be ok.

To make up for my wickedness, I still prepare some basic side dishes from time to time. I usually get the inspiration from the restaurants that served them... I just feel sorry for Chris, cause he's the one who has to finish everything when I can't stand my almost 'inedible' cooking!