By Daniel Gray In the last year and a half Korean food has gotten a lot of American media attention. The brash glutton, Anthony Bourdain from the travel channel was the pioneer who brought his show, "No Reservations" to tackle Korean food. Then following his trail a year later was Matt Gross, the Frugal Traveler, from the New York Times. A month ago Travel Channel's Andrew Zimmern of Bizarre foods was here and next month, PBS’s show “Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie” will be here. So what seems to be the attraction? I think it's a snowball effect of many different factors. First of all, there is a growing Korean population in the United States and with that comes an increase in the number of Korean restaurants and grocery stores. American taste buds are changing, so many seek out the spicy and sour. Also, the profile of Korea has been raised in the last decade as it has become a leader in technology and commerce. And since New York City has embraced Korean food and lab...

A quest into the gustatory heart of Seoul by Matt Gross The travel article that Matt Gross wrote on Seoul is now in the International Herald Tribune. You can check out the article here. Dan

Wow, the NYT's story finally got out! I've been saving pictures of the various restaurants and places that Matt, Zen Kimchi , a couple of other bloggers ( ex-pat Jane ) and I went. Here are the pics^^ Dan Here we are at Gaon. Notice the multitude of dishes. Like I've said: the dishwasher is the worst job in Korea. Gaon has awesome jokbal kimchi stew. It's like spicy cream of tomato soup. All the plates at Gaon are designed in house. Spicy Vegetable Salad from Gaon. I am being attacked by Sang Nakchi (live octopus). I call this a Sea Callus. You bite and sea water gets pumped out and then you just keep chewing. It's not my favorite. Live octopus. Seafood Soup. This squid was huge! I'm talking 5 to 6 feet easy. Some sort of shrimp. Eye can see you. Sea Mollusks. Yummmm. Figs The Korean Market at night. Marinated Crab. Very cool people from the market. Stingray Sure they are selling mushrooms^^. Tornado Potatoes. Ginko Nuts Tentacles. Steak in an icecream cone (too...

Written by Matt Gross SOMETIME after midnight on a Sunday, the streets of the Myeongdong neighborhood in Seoul were quiet and cold. The young shoppers who flit from Adidas to Tommy Hilfiger to Club Monaco had gone home to study for December exams, and restaurant workers were setting barrels full of leftovers onto the curb to be picked up by early-morning garbage trucks. The city was going to sleep. But over near the subway station, in a little orange tent, or pojangmacha, a good night’s rest was on no one’s mind, least of all mine. Inside, a semipermanent kitchen was working overtime, cranking out hearty, salty, spicy dishes to warm the air and fill the bellies of the drinkers around plastic tables. Behind me sat a pair of university students practicing Mandarin; to my left were hip-hop hipsters in knee-length Nike parkas discussing, partly in English, how to pick up girls in Tokyo ; before me, a man in late middle age regaled a group of 20-somethings with stories and jokes. On ever...