Korean Tourism Organization Seoul Trip from PlanetCerritosBlog on Vimeo . My trip to Seoul in Spring 2011 sponsored by KTO. The winner of the first Koreataste.org Blogging Contest was Michael Limbo of Planet Cerrito's Blog . The grand prize was a 4 day 3 night culinary vacation in Seoul where Michael got to go on our famous Night Dining Tour, take a cooking class, and he got meals at some of Korea's top restaurants. Here is his video on his trip. The video really encapsulates Seoul's energy. Great job Michael and thanks for sharing. Dan Come take a cooking class or take a Culinary Tour in Seoul! http://www.ongofood.com Pictures are taken either with my Panasonic DMC-G2 Camera with 20mm Lens or with my iPhone 4G Join the Seoul Eats Facebook Group Page to keep to date with the latest events.

The competition is fierce over at Koreataste.org  and I am really happy to see the number of people posting to win a culinary vacation in Korea.  One contestant Leigh Cooper even made a video on how to make quick kimchi. The video is great and I love her energy. Check it out below. Also, be sure to enter to win a culinary vacation to Korea. It's a 4 day 3 night trip that includes airfare, culinary tours, cooking classes, and meals at fine restaurants! To win, all you have to do is blog about Korean food. Cheers, Dan Come take a cooking class or take a Culinary Tour in Seoul! http://www.ongofood.com Pictures are taken either with my Panasonic DMC-G2 Camera with 20mm Lens or with my iPhone 4G Join the Seoul Eats Facebook Group Page to keep to date with the latest events.

A Taste of Korea: Korean Food Gift Sets When we were approached by KTO to develop prizes for the Koreataste.org Blogging Contest , we were ecstatic. We thought this was a way to show the beauty of Korean culture and cuisine though an physical gift. We wanted to give something that showed off Korean craftsmanship and ingredients because there are things in Korea that can't be found in other parts of the world. These are test shots of the prizes that we have participants for the blogging contest and they are gifts for VIP visitors to Korea. On the top of the box, the hangul, 손맛, literally means "hand taste," but the idea is that the hands can enhance the flavor of a dish. The hands are also the most sensitive instruments for cooking and Korean master chefs can distinguish a taste simply by the texture and feel. It's a skill that requires countless years of experience. Also inside the box, we have wrapped unique Korean ingredients in Korean traditional cloth a...

Samgyeopsal Inception from PlanetCerritosBlog on Vimeo . The Korea Taste Blogging Contest is really taking off one of my favorites is Planet Cerrito who has been teasing this Samgyeopsal Inception video for weeks. It has finally arrived and it is awesome. Help Planet Cerrito by voting for him on his post (the winner will get a culinary vacation to Korea). All you have to do is go HERE and click on the thumbs up. Be sure to check out all the blogger blog posts on Koreataste.org. Come take a cooking class or take a Culinary Tour in Seoul! http://www.ongofood.com

The blogging contest is heating up over at Koreataste.org. When we started the contest on September 5th, there were only 7 people blogging on the site, but now there are close to 200 participants. There are 258 blog posts (as of November 17, 2010). There are even some people making videos! Here's a trailer for Samgyeopsal! Samgyeopsal Trailer 2 from PlanetCerritosBlog on Vimeo . You can see the full Samgyeopsal Inception Movie on the 18th here: http://www.koreataste.org/lang/en/category/en/blogging-en/ Some other great posts I've notice are: Feels Good to be Gangsta: Adventures in eating raw oysters with pork belly. College Entrance Exams: A Day of Rice Cakes and Candy Hanyang Shopping for your Korean convenience The Bulgogi Bully Vs Etiquette Equation And much more. You should go over and vote for your favorite posts because the winner will be flown to Seoul for a culinary vacation! Come take a cooking class or take a Culinary Tour in Seoul! http://www.ongofoo...

Kogi's Famous Mexi-Korean Taco These days I have been helping over at Korea Tourism's Website Koreataste.org to help them get articles for the website. One story I knew that I wanted to get was from the good people over at Kogi: the Mexi-Korean Taco Truck. Luckily, they were receptive to the idea and their creative director Alice Shin was able to contribute a piece to the site. She wrote an article stating that Kogi is not Korean food; It is LA Food. You can see it here: http://www.koreataste.org/lang/en/en/magazine-en/columns-en/kogi-the-food-of-the-people And here is an excerpt: Kogi food is LA food. It’s not fusion; it’s not a gimmick; and it is certainly not a PR-driven endeavor that sprung from the minds of enterprising big thinkers.  It’s food that comes from the gut and the heartbeat of what makes LA, well, LA. Alice, thank you for contributing to the site. Sincerely, Dan

Koreataste.org Blogging Contest One of our sponsors, Koreataste.org is running a blogging contest on their website. All you have to do is to apply to be a blogger and then post stories, pictures, or videos on Korean food, restaurants, or recipes. You can post directly through their wordpress portal or you can e-mail stories directly by sending them to koreataste@knto.or.kr  The top prize is a 4 day 3 night culinary vacation in Korea with an open ticket to come when you would like. Second Prize is a Samsung Galaxy Tab and Third Prize is a Samsung TL500 Camera! There are Honorary Prizes of Korean Gift Food Sets The judging criteria is: 30% Number of posts 20% Total Number of all “Thumbs Up” Votes on the posts per blogger 50% Quality of written posts, photos, and video I heard that not many people have started posting stories on the website yet, so you have a good chance of winning. Go here for more details. 

Sundubu Yesterday I received an e-mail from Helen from Singapore and she wrote: "Dan, I don't know if you remember me, but I came to your kimchi cooking class. During my stay in Korea, I came to love Soondubu stew. Could you send me recipe for it? Thanks, Helen A very useful site for recipes is Koreataste.org . Here is their recipe for sundubu-jjigae. They have many excellent recipes including kimchi , japchae , and Stir-fried Baby Octopus written in a very easy to follow format with pictures. Thank you so much for reading, Dan

My buddy Simon from Eat Your Kimchi is the new editor of Korea Taste : a government website run by KTO (Korea Tourism Organization). I've been writing for the site for some time and I think it's the best government run food site in Korea. Simon has an incredible following on Eat Your Kimchi and I think he'll be able to use it to promote Korean food around the world. Here's what Simon had to say: This is Simon from Eat Your Kimchi . I wanted to use this as an opportunity to announce that I’m going to be volunteering as editor for KoreaTaste.org. Over at Eat Your Kimchi we pretty much only make video posts, and don’t really have any writing on there. That’s too bad, because there are lots of things I’d like to write about, but just don’t have the platform for. So I’m going to be here at KoreaTaste.org writing about one of the best parts about Korea: the food! Sure, I’m no expert at food like ZenKimchi or Seoul Eats or Fat Man Seoul , so I can’t offer any expert advic...