K-Fail: The Microwave

This is the latest installment in a series called "K-Fails", in which Meg does something dumb because she can't speak Korean.

Today's K-fail is an ongoing problem. 

As you may have gathered from a few posts back, I have recently acquired a new microwave. That does not, however, mean that I know how to use it.

I wanted to break it in by making a mug cake. I had slaved away for the better part of an hour in the grocery section of Homeplus looking for ingredients. I hauled them home in my pimpin ajumma cart (see below) and started mixing. It was challenging without measuring cups, but I've made enough of these to be able to guestimate and correct for mistakes. When I deemed the batter satisfactory (despite my lack of vanilla extract), I popped it in the nuker and anxiously awaited that first warm, gooey bite. So, you can imagine my surprise when I pulled it out and it was... the exact same temperature. Puzzled, confused, and sad, I put the mug back in and punched in a few more minutes. When it came back out... same thing. I squinted at the settings knob, pulled up my trusty Google Translate app on my phone, and started translating. Here's what I came up with:

Clockwise from left:
보온: Lagging
약: About
애동: Thaw (the one in orange)
약중: Yakjung
중: Of
중강: DCM
강: River

Yeah. I know. Google Translate's crippling weakness regarding the Korean language aside, I have no idea what any of these could possibly mean. Except thaw. That one's pretty self explanatory.

It took me several tries, but I eventually figured out that if I put it on "yakjung," it will more or less do the trick. I don't know if that is a low setting or if my microwave is just a pansy microwave, but it still takes a loooooong time to cook my mug cake.

This K-Fail is still unresolved, so if any Korean speakers out there would like to chime in and demystify the enigmatic microwave, I would welcome you with open arms.


My pimpin ajumma cart: