The Bizarre Adventures of Doctor Who

Holiday Dinner

Two days before Christmas arrived after countless adventures and working at the library, Lila's earned herself a day to herself. She's got a boiling cauldron of goodies cooking on the stove top and it's perfect for the unforgiving cold outside her windows. Since it's only her this year, Lila's opted to make an untraditional dinner to celebrate the holidays rather than fight for a frozen turkey that she couldn't defrost in a timely matter.

Her holiday dish's something that comes from her time as a navy brat moving between bases.

A dish she learnt to make during a short time she was in South Korea with her family with what they had around them in addition to specific ingredients of Korean origins.

Some she couldn't find easily, so what she couldn't get for her dish, she used Japanese flavors instead.

The dish's called 'Budae Jjigae' or in English, 'Army Stew.'

Traditionally, the dish's made with plenty of canned meat found on army bases on top of Korean additions, but Lila opted to do half-and-half, leaning mostly towards freshly cooked meats. Must make some healthy choices before the end of the year, she thought.

She used spam for her dish, but she drew out excess salt from the low sodium version, so it wasn't too salty but still added to the dish before cutting them into thin slices.

Couldn't find Korean styled sausages, so Lila went with smoked kielbasa cut like the small sausages she would've used.

There wasn't watercress at the store, so Lila used green onions for her stew and for garnishing.

She wanted to celebrate this week, so she added some seasoned pull pork in lieu of hotdogs.

Bean curds, cut thinly, lightly fried to replicate the rice cakes that Lila couldn't find and thinly sliced silky tofu to add to the boiling cauldron.

Couldn't forget a handful of enoki and shiitake mushrooms to go along with the large block of chicken ramen and sweet potato noodles added later.

There's plenty of goodies in the bubbling cauldron of a deep pot, as Lila's carefully stirring them with her long chopsticks, making sure she doesn't accidentally break up the tofu as the porous pressed curd absorbed the broth.

For cheese, since she couldn't find the American styled cheese, Lila opted for the English version of sliced cheddar, a little sharp but she tempered it as she went.

Her 'flat' smelled heavily of the spices and peppers in her broth as it came to a boil, behind her, she's got white sticky rice prepared to eat the budae jjage with, as done when she ate it the first time.

Knowing her brothers, they'd add their own additions to the pot.

Billy adding oysters and Ethan putting some freshly shelled shrimp in with them, knowing her dad, he'd add some kimchi.

Always said kimchi's good for them and stood by the claim when he noted ever since he spent time in South Korea and consumed a large amount of kimchi during that time, their dad never gotten sick, at all.

Lila wasn't fond of the fermented dish, a little too strong for her taste, but their dad loves it. Always kept a jar of it on the ships he works on whenever he docks at the South Korean base. Never store bought, always from a local shop he knows. He claimed it tasted better, but Lila wasn't going to question him, as she had no frame of reference.

Elsewhere, Theodore's busied with his own plans. He absolutely didn't want to spend the day with Hammond, not that it'd matter as Hammond's doing what Hammond does best and that's working. Odette's busied finishing work of her own, while Hamon's taken a trip to Gallifrey.