Seoul Eats: November 2008

, by Daniel Gray

In Seoul Living,

Seoul Tourist Tips: Confusing Subway Transfers.

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, by Daniel Gray

In comic, Itaewon

CLOSED: Ola! Mario Italian Restaurant in Itaewon

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, by Daniel Gray

In cooking, mandu

Want pie? Can't get pie?

Pie is good. We like pie. Piiiieeeee.

As you’ve probably noticed, there is a lack of pie in Korea.

Fear not friends, there are some alternatives.

Want pumpkin pie but can’t get hold of any before tomorrow (American Thanksgiving)? Want to impress your other Expat friends at a pot-luck Thanksgiving get together?

If you have a toaster oven then you can make these pumpkin pie wontons instead.

To make 16 of these little treats, you’ll need:

* 1 cup canned pumpkin
* 2 tablespoons maple syrup (can substitute honey in a pinch)
* 3 tablespoons brown sugar
* 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (see recipe for pumpkin pie spice below)
* 16 packaged wonton (mandu) wrappers
* granulated sugar, for dusting
* ground cinnamon, for dusting
* cooking spray (you can use oil or butter on a paper towel, or use a pastry brush)

Recipe:
1. Preheat oven to about 204 degrees C.
2. Mix pumpkin, maple syrup, brown sugar, and pumpkin pie spice.
3. Place one wonton wrapper flat on work surface.
4. Spoon 1 Tbsp filling into center. (If you get the bigger wrappers this amount changes, so experiment a little bit.)
5. Moisten edges of wonton with water (or egg) and fold in half to form triangle. If you’re an experienced mandu crafter you can make the pretty edges by hand. You could use a mandu press, or you can make a triangle and then fold the end corners into the middle.
6. Don’t forget to press down on the edges well to seal them.
7. Repeat.
8. Arrange filled wontons on ungreased baking sheet.
9. Lightly coat wontons with nonstick cooking spray and sprinkle each with sugar and cinnamon.
10. Bake until golden, about 16 minutes (my toaster oven takes about 20 minutes)
11. Turn over, spray, sprinkle and bake for two or three more minutes.
12. Set baking sheet on wire rack to cool.
13. Enjoy!

Here is the pumpkin pie spice recipe:

4 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
2 Tsp Ground Ginger
1 Tsp Allspice
1 Tsp Nutmeg

It’s not pie, but it will make you feel nostalgic anyway. It’s tasty and quick to make. I really enjoy them in my lunch box. I hope you like them too.

What’s that you say? You have no canned pumpkin? You have no pumpkin pie filling?
If you have neither one of those you could buy a squash ( from the market, de-seed it, cook it and use the cooked squash instead.

Or you could substitute mashed sweet potatoes, and create a sweet potato pie filling instead. (I bet baked apples would be good too, but you’d have to chop them up well so that they’d fit in the wrapper easily.)

ps. You can find pie in Seoul. Try Tartine, and Costco to start with. I’m sure there are other places as well.

-Lily (aka Lunalil of Funk Seoul Sister)

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, by Lunalil

In nanowrimo,

Nanowrimo Award!

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, by Daniel Gray

In nanowrimo,

I win. Nanowrimo has been defeated. My final Word count 50043

I didn't know if I could do it and I honestly wanted to throw in the towel but I kept going. This month I have kept up my writing duties at Eloquence Magazine, my blog, my radio writing job, and wrote an awful novel.

It's not my best work, but I typed 50043 words using my trusty iBook G4. I was worried that my 4 year old computer was going to give up on me, but it kept on trucking (sorry, but I have to resort to cliches because my brain is...fried.)

I have to give a shout out to my peeps. Carol, thank you so much for being my inspiration. You go girl! We should all congrat Carol on the kickass new job that she got. I would also like give give a giant Whazzup to my writing buddy, Matt. He was the rock I could lean on because his consistent effort kept me squeezing the wine out of my mind grapes.

I also wanna send a What, What to my parents and my family without them I wouldn't have had the material to write about.

Whoa...sorry. haha. I'm absolutely delirious right now. So I think it's time to go to bed. I would also like to thank all people in my life that have inspired me to write. Oh and thank you Tom N Tom's Coffee in Itaewon for existing. Your free internet and palatable coffee have kept me in the game (sorry...my last cliche).

Here is some information on the novel. By no means is it finished and it's quite possible that it will never see the light of day, but the point of National Novel Writing Month is to take the first step in becoming a novelist and that is to write.

Title: Setting Fire to Grasshoppers

Synopsis:

My memories are tied to food so this is a autobiography told through food memories. Stories include running through Korea setting fire to grasshoppers for a mid afternoon snack, how in Korea bananas were worth more than gold, how in the orphanage I thought of America as the land of Hershey's Chocolate and Coca-Cola, and many more.

Excerpt: Setting fire to Grasshoppers

Everyone would perk their ears up at the sound of the fruit vendor yell out "banana" and mothers would get their wallets ready. They knew that they had to keep up appearances. They could not have one family getting bananas without a fight. Mothers would save up special money to buy bananas in order to keep up with the other families. If one family consistently bought bananas, they would shame the other neighbors. Mothers had to buy bananas occasionally just so they wouldn’t lose face.

4Comments

, by Daniel Gray

In Food, hongdae

Hongdae Restaurant Recommendations

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, by Daniel Gray

In korean food,

Er, what's that in my tea?

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, by Lunalil

In american food, video

The Great Philadelphia Hotdog Launcher

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, by Daniel Gray

In american food, events

Thanksgiving in Seoul 2008 Roundup

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, by Daniel Gray

In korea, seoul

I am looking for an Intern

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, by Daniel Gray

In events, Itaewon

SUJI'S ITAEWON, SEOUL, KOREA - THANKSGIVING TURKEY BUFFET

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, by Daniel Gray

In korea, seoul

Clothing and Household Items Donation Drive

From November 17th to the 28th the Itaewon/Hannam and Ichon Global Village Centers will be collecting clothing and various household items to donate to the Yongsan-gu Beautiful Store. As it is now getting quite cold and the Christmas season is fast approaching this is a good time of year to donate to the less-fortunate. The Beautiful Store is a non-profit organization that collects high quality used clothing and household items and then sells them at VERY affordable prices for those families that might otherwise have difficulty purchasing the things they need. So, if you have any extra clothing or household items that you are no longer using please bring them in to the center so that we can make a big donation to them.

Once all the items have been collected and sent in, there will be a special event held at the Yongsan Beautiful Store during which all the items will be on sale. This special sale event will take place on Friday, December 12th and we also need volunteers to help out on this day. Please let us know if you are interested in this volunteer opportunity. Most of the customers will be Korean and it would be a good chance to practice your Korean language skills!

The following items are accepted for donation:
Clothes, shoes, hats, bags, books, CDs, bowls, kitchen utensils, children’s goods, accessories, small furniture items, works of art, small sports items, etc.

The following items are NOT accepted for donation:
Large furniture items (wardrobes, beds, sofas, etc.), broken home appliances, items that require installation (eg. air conditioners, water purifiers), old bedding etc.

Drop off items at : The Itaewon/Hannam Global Village Center
5F Hannam Bldg., 737-37 Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul
　　　　 (Subway Line 6 Itaewon Station, Exit 2, straight 100m, Hannam Bldg. is on your left, look for the Buy-the-way convenience store)

*Please drop off items during working hours only (9am to 6pm Monday to Friday).

To volunteer on sale day please contact:
ㅇ Sarah Jang at (02)796-2459~60 or sarahjang@sba.seoul.kr

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, by Daniel Gray

In random web, video

Bruce Lee plays Ping Pong with FREAKING NUNCHUCKS

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, by Daniel Gray

In farm-raised salmon, wild salmon

WILD SALMON!

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, by Egbert

In events, seoul

Every Second Sunday Book Release Party

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, by Daniel Gray

In kimchi, korean food

Kimjang: A Special Kimchi Making Event

“Kimjang” is a kimchi making event where kimchi is made in preparation for winter. In the past, kimchi was the only vegetable that many families could eat during the coldest 3-4 months. As you probably know, kimchi is the ubiquitous food in Korean cuisine. It is served with every Korean meal and many Koreans won't consider a meal complete unless it has kimchi.

Kimchi is a very labor-intensive food to make so many neighbors would divide up the different parts of the kimchi making process and then make a huge batch for the entire village. This event, kimjang, was a way to survive the harsh winters, build ties with neighbors, and an important social event that embraced the idea of “pumasi”: the Korean spirit of helping each other.

These days few people make their own kimchi. Many people will order it from kimchi companies and then have it delivered. However, this is impossible for the less fortunate in Korea so every year many organizations will organize Kimjangs and donate the kimchi.

Paul Hussey and Sarah Jang of the Itaewon/Hannam Global Village Center organized a group of expatriates to go to the Yongsan District Office Kimjang festival. This year the organizers helped to make 50,000 heads of kimchi for charity. There were a group of about 30 expatriates from different parts of the world. There were French, American, Indian, Canadian, Japanese, and Chinese people that came to help make kimchi. This group joined the thousand or so Korean volunteers.

It was a cold morning on November 19th. The temperature was minus 7 degrees Celsius. Kimjang season starts when the temperature is around this temperature because the best kimchi matures at around 5 degrees Celsius.

At the festival everyone was asked to put on plastic smocks, cloth gloves, pink rubber gloves, and a hair net. Then we sat down before piles of red vegetables. It was freshly made kimchi sauce, which consisted of red pepper powder mixed with garlic, ginger, shrimp paste, slivers of turnip, and green onion.

We sat and tried to stay warm over cups of hot tea or with hand warmers until the salted heads of cabbage came. A Korean woman yelled something in Korean and everyone looked at her. She demonstrated that we were supposed to take a head of cabbage and open it up. Then we should take the red pepper mix and spread a little bit on each leaf. She took a big, handful and put it on the leaf. It was obviously too much. The woman said something else and then made an "X" sign with her hands and said, “anio.” She then took grabbed a much smaller amount of the kimchi sauce with her finger and thumb, placed, on the leaf. She then folded that leaf over and then did the same for the next. She then said, "OK" and gave us a thumb’s up.

So it was then our turn to do it. It was pretty easy, yet involving. The wilted leaves of the cabbage were easy to lift and to spread the mixture on. It took a bit of time because, evidently, it is very important that each leaf was covered with the red sauce. It seems that wasn't my job well enough, because the woman came over and grabbed my head of kimchi. She shook out most of the filling and then demonstrated how to do it correctly. Apparently, I was adding too much.
The part that we were participating in was only a small part of the entire operation. The event started about 2 days before because the 50,000 heads of cabbage had to have been salted so the turgid leaves would become limp. These heads of cabbage were then rinsed to remove the salt in makeshift streams. Elsewhere there were teams of people making the red kimchi sauce, slicing turnips, and cleaning and slicing green onions. It was a tremendous operation and all of it was going to charity. There was a party atmosphere and many Koreans were so grateful that so many expatriates came to help in their effort.

We each made about 10 heads of kimchi. As the boxes filled up, a volunteer would take them. They they were packaged and sent away. I hope the kimchi we made were delicious.

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, by Daniel Gray

Kimjang Comic

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, by Daniel Gray

In cooking, kimchi

More Pictures from the Kimchi Festival

1Comments

, by Daniel Gray

In cooking, kimchi

It's Kim Jang! Making 50,000 heads of Kimchi for charity

Today is the start of Kimjang which is the kimchi making festival for charity. As you probably know, kimchi is the ubiquitous food in Korea. It is served with every Korean meal and there are those that won't consider a meal complete if it doesn't have kimchi and rice.

Paul Hussey and the Seoul Global center organized a group of people to go to the festival to participate in making kimchi. This year the organizers decided to make 50,000 heads of kimchi. 50,000 heads of KIMCHI! To do this required a tremendous amount of organization and fortitude.

First of all, it was cold. As soon as I got into the cab, the taxi driver told me it is was minus 7 degrees celcius today. The day before it was minus 5. The cold, unforgiving Korean winter came on Sunday -only 3 days ago- and it looks like it's going to stay.

When we got to the festival we were asked to put on plastic smocks, cloth gloves, pink rubber gloves, and a hair net. Then we sat down before piles of red vegetables. It was freshly made kimchi sauce which consisted of red pepper powder mixed with garlic, ginger, shrimp paste, slivers of turnip, and green onion.

We sat and tried to stay warm over cups of hot tea or the hand warmers that we were given until the salted heads of cabbage came. A Korean woman yelled something in Korean and we all looked at her. She demonstrated that we were supposed to take a head of cabbage and open it up. Then we should take the red pepper mix and spread a little bit on each leaf. She took a big, handful and put it on the leaf. It was obviously too much. The woman said something else and then made an "X" sign with her hands and said no. She then took grabbed a much smaller amount with her finger and thumb, placed, on the leaf. She then folded that leaf over and then did the same for the next. She then said, "OK" and gave us a thumbs up.

So it was then our turn to do it. It was pretty easy, yet involving. The wilted leaves of the cabbage were easy to lift and to spread the mixture. It was a bit time intensive because it, apparently, was very important that each leaf was covered. I apparently wasn't my job well enough, because the woman came over and grabbed my head of kimchi. She shook out most of my filling and then demonstrated how to do it correctly. Apparently, I was adding way too much red pepper filling.

So on a cold Wednesday morning, I made kimchi with many other members of the global center. It was fun to meet people from all over the world as we all worked together for a common cause. There were people from Spain, Dubai, Japan, China, America, and Canada among us.

We each made about 10 heads of kimchi. Volunteers would then pack these in plastic lined boxes and they would be packaged up and sent away. I hope the kimchi I made was delicious.

Dan