Tag Archive: Tips for Living in Korea

Korea, Outback Steakhouse Membership Service has changed

In the past I wrote about these

  1. How to Become a Member at Outback Steakhouse as a Foreigner
  2. How to Eat Efficiently at Outback Steakhouse

However, they changed the rules just last month, and since I continually have some readers wanting information about membership at Outback Steakhouse, I felt like I have to add something to direct them correctly.

The Birthday coupon or Anniversary coupon service ended on December 31st, 2006. Instead, you can get a 10% discount once from January 1st 2007 to June 30th 2007 if you became an online member before December 31st, 2006.

The good news is that if you eat at Outback steakhouse from now on, you can apply for “My Outback Membership Card” (Anyone can apply for it and the restaurant will give it to you on the spot), which will give you a 10% discount all the time and on top of that you will get a 15% discount for 15 days around your birthday or anniversary for an unlimited number of times.

However, to get the discount, you need to register the membership card on the internet first. Here is the registration page in both Korean and English. (Only people with an ID card can apply for it, you have to scroll down to see it.)

Enjoy your meals.

Related Posts

How to Become a Member at Outback Steakhouse as a Foreigner

How to Eat Efficiently at Outback Steakhouse

How to Make Flour Tortillas (with Limited Resources)

Hand made tortilla

Since I speak Korean, I can easily order tortillas from the internet. Though it seemed expensive to me to pay about 4 dollars (US) to get 12 sheets of tortillas, plus pay the delivery cost which is another 4 dollars if I spend less than 40 dollars from that shop.

So I researched a little bit on the weekend to get a very simple tortilla recipe.
Here is the one I found, I altered it a bit in my own way. They were quite good but they weren’t as thin as prepackaged ones. I guess I need a better technique to do so.

Ingredients for 4 wraps

  • White flour 2 cups – I used all purpose flour
  • Starch powder – 2 tbsp
  • Salt – 1 tsp
  • Water 3/4 cup
  • Olive oil – 2 tsp
  • White flour – 2 tbsp (Anti sticky purpose)

Make sure you pour 3/4 cup of water, not 1 and 3/4 cups. There was a incident while my sister was helping me cooking. She doesn’t have much experience with measuring cups like most Koreans, and she poured 1 cup extra on the flour. Thanks to her, I started all the steps over again, and had to cook lots of Buchimgae pancakes to use up the other failed dough whole weekend. I still have 2/3 more to go. :(

Steps

  1. Sieve the flour, salt, starch powder.
  2. Add the water and olive oil.
  3. Kneed the dough. (The recipe I found recommend to leave it like that for about 1 hour in the fridge, but I didn’t have much time to spare, because of the incident I had. So I just kept going to next step without having any break.)
Making tortillas1

4. Divide the dough into 4 pieces.

5. Spread the white flour (2tbsp) on the board.

6. Roll the 4 pieces of the dough lightly on the board into balls. (Separately)

7. Roll one piece of dough with a rolling pin to make a thin round shape. (Repeat this for the rest of them)

8. Preheat the pan for 10 seconds.

9. Add one tortilla sheet and cook it for 20-30 seconds.

10. Turn it over and cook it for 20-30 seconds.

Making tortillas2

If you have a tortilla press, here is a good recipe from Simply RecipesHow to make corn tortillas

Also, if you have better ideas or suggestions to make tortillas with limited resources, I would like to hear about it from you too.:)

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Bulgogi Flavoured Chicken Burrito

Sushi from Homeplus

Whenever I go to Homeplus (big supermarket), there is a corner I always keep an eye on. It is a sushi corner. I often buy sushi at Homeplus. Only when it is cheap though.

Its usual price is 400-600 won each. But sometimes they sell any kind of sushi for 390 won each (US $0.40), like today. So I bought some. This is the picture of my portion and I always get the same stuff. (I bought 2 each of them.)

Homeplus sushi

They are all my favourite.

  • From the top: Red and yellow salmon caviar sushi, shrimp sushi, smoked salmon sushi.

Amongst these, the most expensive sushi is salmon caviar sushi when it is not on sale. I like them best too, because I like the popping feeling when I chew them.
If you go to Homeplus you should try some too. It tastes very good too.

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Inarizushi (Yubu Chobap in Korean) – Instant Version

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How to Keep the Mushrooms fresh in the Fridge

My husband used to complain about the paper bag for mushrooms.
If you go grocery shopping in Korea, there aren’t any paper bags for the mushrooms, only plastic bags are available. If you keep them in a plastic bag, they go bad (slimy feeling) really fast.

I recently found a way to keep the mushrooms fresher in the fridge. You might know already. Anyway, as soon as you get home from grocery shopping, take out all the mushrooms from the plastic bag, wrap the mushrooms with kitchen paper towel, and put them back in to the plastic bag. It is really amazing how this simple thing makes a difference.

mushrooms wrapped with kitchen towel

They stay in good condition for more than a week I think.

If you have any better idea, just let me know it. I can try that too.

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Shiitake mushroom

King Oyster Mushroom

How to Eat Efficiently at Outback Steak House

There are lots of Korean blogs talking about “How to eat cheaply at Outback Steak House.” You may laugh at me, before I went there for the first time, I studied about it for about one hour.
It was worth doing, because as you know it is so expensive to eat there. (especially as their price on the menu doesn’t include VAT.)

Ways to eat efficiently at Outback

1. Go there at lunch time (12-5 pm). They have a good range of lunch time menus, and lunch has more courses included for the price (soup, salad, drinks).

2. Become a member and get a free coupon. Click here to find out how to become a member. Print out the Birthday coupon. (You can get this birthday coupon once a year, but you can use it any time you want.) With this you can get a free appetizer (with one meal minimum purchase). You can choose one amongst Bloomin’ Onion, Coogee Bay Calamari, and Rangeland rib lets.

a) If you choose to have Rangeland rib lets with a free coupon, the real saving starts from now. (If you go there with more than one person that is). Say that you want to use this birthday coupon, and say that you want to add some topping or side menu. such as chicken breast (for only extra 2,900 won -US $3.00) Then it is a smaller version of the Drover’s Platter. You pay only 2,900 won for this great meal. (It is as filling as the other steaks too.)

Combined

Rangeland riblets and chicken breast

Nearly equals

Drover's Platter

b) If you don’t want to bother with this coupon, then order half ribs on the barbie from lunch time set menus, at lunch time of course. Add chicken breast as a side meal. Then it is also a Drover’s Platter. (You will pay 16,400 won before VAT, so you only save 3,500 won. still better than nothing.)

Combined

Half ribs on the barbie and chicken breast

Equals

Drover's Platter

3. Ask for as much bread as you want. It is free with the meals. Also, before you leave the table, ask for take away bread if they haven’t give some to you. (It is also free. When I ask they usually give me 2 loaves of bread in a bag.)

4. If you are having some beverages such as coke, sprite, lemonade , and even fresh juice etc, once you finish it, you can ask for soft drink refills as much as you want. (though you can only ask for a cheaper one like coke, fanta, sprite etc.) But still better than nothing.

By the way, I don’t work for or paid by Outback steak house. I just want you to know this information that most Koreans already know.

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Korea, Outback Steakhouse Membership Service has changed

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