The Korean American Coalition – Los Angeles (KAC) is sponsoring a Korean BBQ cook-off on Aug. 8 (Saturday) in the parking lot of the Summit on Sixth Building. They are partnering with Yelp to host the event. The three cook-off judges are: Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold and LA…
Korean gov’t releases English translation of Korean foods
According to the Korea Herald, the Korean Tourism Organization has published a booklet to assist Korean restaurant owners in developing accurate English (as well as Japanese and Chinese) translations of their menu items. It also provides tips on giving their staff basic foreign language training so they can explain the menu items to their customers….
Outside the Box: How to find the best Korean Pears
Photo credit: Jeff Quackenbush, 2008 When buying fruit, there are three general rules of thumb many people use as they pace up and down the the fruit section of the grocery store or farmer’s market. Buy local — the pear grown close to home should taste better than the pear grown thousands of miles away….
Environmentally friendly travel: Carry your own chopsticks
The issue of disposable chopsticks became a huge topic of discussion in “green” circles leading up to the 2008 Summer Olympic games in Beijing. Environmentalists and their media cheerleaders in countries such as China, Taiwan and Japan pushed restaurants to stop providing disposable chopsticks for their clients to reduce waste. Many restaurants in Taipei and…
Get off the couch and into the kitchen to lose weight
Michaell Pollan wrote a The New York Times Magazine article today (published in print Aug. 2) called “Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch.” The questions presented and answered in the eight-page article include: Is there a connection between the increasing popularity of cooking shows on TV and the increased popularity of convenience foods? Do…
The “secret” to making the kalbi video
Most recipes for kalbi (Korean beef ribs) currently published use Western substitutes for pear juice such as corn syrup; apple, kiwi or pineapple juice; or a sweet lemon-lime soft drink such as Sprite. I decided to go “old-school” in my kalbi video, going back to basics because Americans in most areas of the country have…
Ku soju review
Ku Soju Original (SnoothRank: 3/5) (July 2009) My husband dismissively calls soju “sweetened rubbing alcohol,” but I can’t imagine eating Korean food without it. The Merriam-Webster dictionary simply calls soju “Korean vodka.” It is a distilled alcoholic beverage traditionally made with rice but more commonly made with sweet potato, barley, wheat, or tapioca. Soju has…
The Korea Times: Foreign Foodies Generate Strong Following
The Korea Times published an article today about the growing popularity of food blogging, particularly what they call “foreigner food blogging culture.” The article features the three main Korean ex-pat food blogs: Zen Kimchi by Joe McPherson, Seoul Eats by Dave Gray and FatmanSeoul by Jennifer Flinn. All three of these blogs are based in…
Too few old trees in Korea
On July 24, the Chosun Ilbo reported, “Korea’s Oldest National Tree Found in Gangneung,” which is on the northeastern coast of South Korea in Gangwon province. The town is best-known as the birthplace of Confucian scholar Yulgok (1536-1584 C.E.), whose image graces the 5,000 won note, and his mother, Saimdang (1504-1551), whose image graces the…
North Korea opens fast food restaurant in Pyongyang
The Choson Sinbo reports that the reclusive North Korean government is opening a fast food restaurant in Pyongyang. This could be funny, except that this pseudo-western restaurant is going out of its way to pretend that it’s not a pseudo-western restaurant. Samtaeseong’s menu will be difficult for western tourists to interpret since they changed the…