Korean Garlic Snack Koreans love their garlic (end their speling arrors^^).

District: Vintage Cafeteria in Jongno 3-ga I'm always suspicious of the new big, shiny restaurants in the busy areas of Seoul. The trainwrecks are often they are the punchline of the pun: "What do you get when you combine a cafe, wine bar, Italian restaurant, beer, desserts, and waffles?" It was cold out and District was open, so I went in with my friends for a quick lunch. I was pleasantly surprised at their menu: shrimp pizza with truffle oil, chicken and broccoli cream spaghetti, and salad with fresh pineapple. Their citron ice tea has flavorful globes of frozen yuja orange- very refreshing and creative. Also, bottles of wine and alcohol aren't too expensive either (both start at 30,000). On top of that, the atmosphere is open and well decorated. Maybe restaurants are finally starting to get it: good food in a nice atmosphere at a decent price = business. Oh, just one little thing: they need to work a bit on service. Cute doesn't mean efficient. District:...

Jubilee Chocolatier I recommend going to Jubilee Chocolatier for a hot mug of their hot chocolate. They use high grade chocolate and they froth it up using their steam wand. It is delicious. Directions go out Jonggak Station( Subway Line 1) exit 4 and walk towards the river. It's on the corner. 전화 : 02-734-7337 주소 : 서울시 종로구 관철동 288 교원빌딩   *영업시간 - 평일 Open 7:30 ~ Close 23:00 - 금,토 Open 7:30 ~ Close 24:00

Finding White Balance I never knew how hard it was to do food styling until I started working on a new project to photograph 150 Korean foods and make them look good. Lighting is important and so is the color of the food. Every minuscule little detail must be in place. And the worst part of the whole thing is that often you have to use less seasoning to make the colors show through. Also, lots of the dishes have a bit of oil sprayed on it so they don't taste good (but it adds shine). Plus, you have to take tons of shots so by the time you are done, you're not in the mood to eat it anyway. Here are some of our test shots (sorry, I can't show the final ones). Dan Bibimbap Kimchi Fried Rice

Noodle Soup So, I'm curious: where did you eat over the weekend? Anyplace good or bad? I hope you all had a great weekend. Mine was pretty busy with different meetings and cooking classes. I was fortunate to meet Mr. Jolly-Lebey, who is a well known food critic in France. He was a very kind and insightful man and he really liked the restaurants that we went to. I also had mugwort noodle soup at a place across from KTO. I don't remember the name of the place, but it was in a seafood broth and flavored with beef. Very nice. I went to Mamacitas- a new Mexican Place opening over in Apgujeong. The place has promise and they have good tequila. I had coffee and dessert with Mr. Benjamin Joineau at his restaurant, Le Saint Ex. He has excellent espresso and his apple tart was perfect with it. Le Saint Ex is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year so he has many dinner specials and contests this month. I visited Story of the Blue Star in Insadong- my favorite makgeolli place ...

Poop Bread! Filled with creamy, mashed red bean Happy Monday everyone! Sorry, but this picture was just screaming for a disgusting byline. I have suggested they fill the bread with chocolate, but they just gave me a look that said, but "we always fill them with red bean. Melted chocolate wouldn't taste good." I guess they didn't get my joke.

Faucher Family Christmas Lights in Delaware Dude! See! Delaware is famous! The Faucher Family in Delaware have built extravagant Christmas lights setups for 25 years now and every year my family would drive though the neighborhoods of Wilmington, Delaware to see all the lights. The brightest was this house and now they are being featured in Gizmodo!  They use 1,000,000 lights. It costs them $82,320 to light their house for the month according to Houselogic (find out how they do the math at their site). Merry Christmas everyone and yay for Delaware! Come take a cooking class or take a Culinary Tour in Seoul! http://www.ongofood.com

Hiphop Kimbap I don't know how my buddy Robyn over at Serious Eats finds all this cool stuff, but I'm glad that she does. Here is a video with rappers dressed up as kimbap telling everyone how awesome it is. I especially love the part when they are in Kwangjang Market having narcotic kimbap (mayak kimbap). HIPHOP KIMBOB from Seo on Vimeo . Come take a cooking class or take a Culinary Tour in Seoul! http://www.ongofood.com

Vinofest 1.0 with Wine Chops at Jazzy M.A.S.  My friend Travis of Winechops is hosting a wine festival on Friday, December 17th at 5pm at Jazzy M.A.S. There will be over 70 wines for only 35,000 won. This is the special offer price for friends of Seoul Eats and for O'ngo Food and to get it, you have to put the special sign-up code "ONGO". If you were at the Thanksgiving Party, then you know that Travis was the guy selling wine. You can find more information about the party here: http://winechops.com/special/vinofest-1-0-invitation/ Come take a cooking class or take a Culinary Tour in Seoul! http://www.ongofood.com

Accidentally stumbled into this gallery (couldn't resist the food imagery), I ended up talking to the artists and found out the concept and enjoyed sharing ideas about food and culture. Artists: Choi mi yeon (최미연) Graduation exhibition titled: Face of Food Concept/theme: Using food as a base to observer, comment, reflect on herself and of others around her. Not to get too art geeky, but one of the most powerful things anyone from any culture and background can understand and personally relate to are taste . From the moment we are conscious we harbor and personalize these flavors into preferences. With that as a common denominator, she investigates people and different personalities that are showcased through these preferences. I won't go into anymore detail, but if you are interested in seeing more of her work, please take a look at her blog and I believe she is going to have another show in the Spring. Stay tuned. blog.naver.com/myfood1210 Choi mi yeon (최미연) Face of Food ...

Poom Seoul's Shitake Mushroom stuffed with shrimp Originally published in the December 2010 issue of Seoul Magazine. Reprinted with permission Poom Seoul: Transcendent Cuisine You don’t have to reinvent the wheel- especially when you have top-notch ingredients and a perfect location. Located on Namsan mountain, Poom overlooks the majesty of Seoul from the center. The journey to the restaurant makes you adequately aware of what season it is and sets the mood for the meal. You have to walk down to enter the restaurant- ironic as it is on a mountain. It opens into a minimalistic space full of light from the large bay windows. The style of Poom is evident. Rustic pottery and bronze chopsticks and spoons juxtaposed with western-style tables draped with white tablecloth. Even the barley tea was served in glass wine glasses. You don’t order your meal when you get to Poom, because you have to make the reservation with your order 1 day in advance. I had decided to order the reg...

Winter means hotteok for me. I like to wait until my face feels like it will shatter into infinite pieces and my fingertips feel like guitar knobs. Then I will get a fried hot disk of leavened dough filled with sugar, cinnamon and bits of ground peanut. The first time I did this, the hot caramel oozed out on my first bite and burnt the roof of my mouth and then burned my fingers as it dripped down. It's the most delicious napalm you can ever have. My favorite place to get it is on street food street outside Jongno 3-ga exit 6. There are different types of hotteok. One that is white and crispy, another that is yellow and pillowy (the dough has cornstarch to make it crispy), and a third that is chewy and white (made from sweet, sticky rice). It's an amazing treat and something that I think is quintessentially Korean. Hotteok A Hotteok vendor in Jongno 3-ga