Chili Night

Yesterday I decided I would make chili for our Lost night. Not a big deal. I have all of the supplies to make a big pot of chili, but I thought I would break it down for you as far as price just because it's so surprising to me still.

1. Ground beef--First of all, it comes from Australia. Ground beef from S. Korea is really expensive. They don't eat beef from the US here because they worry about E. coli, etc. Anyway, I only buy it at Costco, so I got about 4 lbs for about $14. So, we'll say it was about $5 for the beef...not too bad.

2. Onion & garlic--these are pretty cheap compared to other foods here. You can't buy a head of dry garlic, though, which is weird to me. You can only find already peeled heads of garlic...not that I'm complaining! We'll say it was about $2 for both...again not too bad.

The following ingredients have to be purchased at an international market:

3. Chili powder--I was surprised to find this for about $4 in a decent sized container at the really nice international market in Itaewon. I stocked up on several spices here a few weeks ago, but I'm still unable to find cumin. So, I'll say the price for the spice in this recipe is negligible.

4. Tomato sauce--2 cans at $2.50 each

5. Tomato paste--1 can at $2.80 each

6. Kidney beans--2 cans at $2.80 each

7. Diced tomatoes--3 cans at about $2 each (I buy these at Costco, too)

8. Toppings--diced onion (negligible), grated cheese (it's about $12 for a baby loaf of cheddar cheese at Costco and we probably used about a 1/8 of it so about $1.50), Fritos ($6 for a small bag).

So, a large pot of chili (enough to feed 10 people) costs about $34.00 to make here in Seoul. And that's why we probably won't have it again until next fall! I will probably never do a price breakdown again, either!

A note about the international markets: There is a large one in Itaewon that has some great products, but it's a long trek for us, so we don't go there very often. There is a small one in our neighborhood. They both sell a lot of the products that you can get at Costco, but they take them out of the package and sell them individually. Nothing is cheap there, though. They do have chocolate chips for about $7 per package. The one in our neighborhood is called "Happy Store". When Kennedy went in for the first time a couple of weeks ago, she was so excited about all of the American food items that she said, "This store has so many things that make me happy. Is that why it's called the Happy Store?"