(For more on Toque Diner, click here) Christmas Eve and Christmas Day special menu! Christmas Eve Course - W35,000 + VAT Menu: 1. Open Oysters Po'Boy (fried oysters with remoulade sauce and watercress) 2. French Onion Soup (crouton soaked in homemade French Onion Soup gratinated with Onion Jam and Fried Onion) 3. Caesar Terrine on Seafood Mousse "Disc" with Romaine lettuce 4. Braised Beef-Ricotta Ravioli in Beef Tomato Sauce with Arugula 5. Chicken "Tenderloin Steak" with mushroom Veloute 6. Chocolate-Pear Crepe with Creme Anglaise - Reservation times limited to 6:30PM and 8:30PM Christmas Day Turkey Brunch - W35,000 + VAT Menu includes: Turkey, Stuffing, Gravy, mashed Potato, Cranberry sauce, marinated Veggie Salad, Scrambled Eggs, Bacon Sausage, Oen Sandwich, Cheesecake, Pumpkin Pie, Scone, etc. - Reservations will be taken from 11:00 AM to 10:00PM (buffet table will close down at 10PM) - No set reservation time, but the 12 to 2 PM period is usually the busie...

Christmas is relatively still a new holiday in Korea and it most Koreans do not go out and celebrate it with the same zeal as someone from Europe or America. Businesses have been trying to market the holidays as a major gift giving celebration time, but most Koreans have not taken the bait. The most common gift given among friends during Christmas are Christmas cards. You will see stores all over Korea selling these cards and they are relatively cheap- usually 800 won to 1000 won. They will write a message and give them as a present and for most people this is a thoughtful and welcomed gift. I think this is pretty amazing because I gave a close friend a card in America as a gift, I would not have that friend anymore. And speaking of Christmas cards, I just heard that if you are sending a Card overseas to a loved one, that the Korean post office will give you a discount on shipping. I think this is so adorable and it is one of the nice ways that Korea is trying to help the expatriate co...

The Banana Grill in Hannam Dong-near Danguk University has delicious handmade burgers. the meat is high quality and dripping with savory juices. I had the Mushroom burger today and it was scrumptious. The mushrooms were sliced thin, seasoned, and lightly sauteed and the sweated onions add a bit of sweet. I often complain about buns, but this one was toasted (which is a sign they care The prices are reasonable and you can make it a set with a drink and fries for 3,000 more. Banana Grill: Recommended Seoul B/D 261-6, Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, Korea 02 792 3088

Hello! My name is Amy and I live in the boonies of Korea. I love to cook, eat, bake, and ... eat... Haha... If you aren't from the midwest of the States, "boonies" might be a foreign concept but at home it simply means the rural area of any given state/province. Since I originate in the boonies of Wisconsin... I've adapted pretty well (or so I think!) to the boonies of Korea. Because I love to bake, I've devised some methods of dealing with a toaster oven and given the holiday season, I wanted to share some tips and tricks to baking and cooking in general while living out in the boonies of Korea. These are some pictures of cookies I've baked for the holiday season. Christmas is fast approaching and if you're interested in dusting off that toaster oven that you didn't know what to do with, check out my blog for the recipes, tips, and tricks to baking!! The classic sugar cookies!! (yes, these are actually possible to make with a simple toaster oven...

Tampopo directed by Juzo Itami Ok. I know I talk about this movie all the time and you all have to watch it! Here is one of my favorite scenes. A ramen teacher teaches a student on how to properly eat ramen. You might recognize the student. It's Ken Watanabe from the Last Samurai. Here is the trailer And here is the sexiest way to eat an egg. This is the ultimate food porn scene. Now I know that this is a repost of an older post, but some of my new friends keep asking me about this movie. Dan

I was wondering if you could help out Soo Oh. Does anyone know where she can get her knives sharpened professionally? I just do it myself, so I don't know how to help her. Does anyone know? Thanks, Dan PS. here is her message. Hello! I really enjoy reading your blog, and I was hoping you could help answer a question for me that I can't seem to get answered by anyone I know personally (or if you could open it up to the floor, that would be awesome, too). Where does one get knives professionally sharpened in Seoul? Any recommendations? I hear that the shoe shiners/cobblers can do them, but I don't know if they all do it or if I have to see them with the spinning whetstone or what. The only other info I've found on the Internet is hereabouts, http://tinyurl.com/5r67rn , but I'm pretty uncomfortable with just walking into a restaurant and asking the owners if they could sharpen my santoku. Any thoughts? Thanks, Soo Oh

When it gets cold, a hot bowl of kimchi chiggae is the best cure. Chiggae is Korean stew and it should come to the table with a rolling boil. The best kimchi for this is sour kimchi. Sour kimchi is just old kimchi that has been fermenting for a long time. The best kimchi chiggae I’ve had was made with kimchi that had been fermenting for three years. Actually, you can get this style at one of my favorite restaurants: O-mori. Now let’s say a Korean family gave you some kimchi last year and it’s been sitting in the corner of your fridge, it is perfect to make your own kimchi chiggae. Everyone has a different recipe. Some people like to use tuna, others like pork, and others just use tofu. The ingredients are fairly simply. You need kimchi, meat, oil, and water. Some people add tofu or green onions, but that’s about it. Everyone says their mother’s chiggae is the best. Now when I first came here, my chiggae was a bit disappointing for some odd reason the ajummas and the moms here have some...

Gluhwien Tonight I'm going to be hosting a quiet New Years celebration. People would probably like to know what is on the menu. My theory on appetizers is that it should be able to be eaten with the fingers with minimal mess and disturbance of conversations. Appetizers should also have a liberally based theme. Also all of this should be done without breaking the bank. The drink that everyone is aching for is gluhwien- the warmed mulled wine. I view gluhwein as a warm Sangria and I think the best food to mix with this would be "slightly Mexican." I have been doing a recipe search for Gluhwien and one the first nugget of information I found is that it literally translate to "Glow Wine"- I think it is perfectly named. Here are the some of the recipes I found. This is from ShanghaiExpat The recipe I use is a little bit different than kilted-txn but is a tried and true recipe passed on through my family. Hmm...I cannot wait to drink this over Christmas! 3/4 cup ...

I started up a group on Facebook for 101.3 eFM. You can search for 101.3 eFM Seoul on facebook to find it. I started the group like last Monday and there are already 132 people in the group. Not bad if I say so myself. I started a discussion entitled, “You have been in Korea too long if…” And I have received a lot of posts on the topic here are some of the best ones so far: This one is from John Simmons: You have been in Korea too long if: a trip to the movies has you craving dried squid. And, here is another one, Pink is your new black. These are from Verena Blaho: You have been in Korea too long if…you cut everything with scissors and you don’t mind toilet paper on the table. These are from Ashley Cheeseman, You take a deep exaggerated in breath and tilt your head to the side when you’re thinking negative thoughts about something. And you bow to everyone you see from a distance as a greeting. And here are some from Young Hong: 1. You have ramyun or a spicy soup when you have a ha...

Michael said that he didn't have any money to buy presents for people this year and Sara answered, "Are you going to creative and give slippers made out of maxipads are you." Now you see why I love working with Sara. She's a cartoon character. She's not human. Listen now! http://tbsefm.seoul.kr/ Dan

While I was at the Millennium Hilton in Seoul, I came across this bizarre exhibit. I wouldn't say it was exactly politically correct, but the idea was kinda inline with the Christmas spirit...I guess. I don't think most of these would fly in the US, especially Papua New Guinea Santa with the machete. Santa the golfer and Santa with a sombrero was cute. Now you might be asking, where is Mrs. Claus. There was only one and she wasn't the traditional Mrs. Claus. Instead it was this: Weird, huh? That's so Korea.

Bistro Corner Barbeque. On Itaewon Hill across from McDonalds there is a new BBQ joint and they are starting to make waves with their smoky barbeque sauce. Their pork burger with pulled pork and coleslaw is finger licking good and if that doesn’t do it for you, they have a full rack of back loin ribs on their menu. It’s a little Texas in Seoul. W6,500-22,000. English speaking staff and menu. PH:792-9282. Here's a link to the different posts I have on the Corner Bistro.

Today I would like to talk about fad diets. Korea is hyper vigilant about weight and fad diets come and go like street fashion. Some of the interesting fad diets I’ve heard of here have been the yogurt diet, the grape diet, the watermelon diet, and, recently, the black garlic diet. Oh, and the timeless one is the kim, kimchi, and rice diet. Now, I believe that the next big diet- and it’s already starting to build up steam is the banana diet. Apparently, a pharmacist in Japan started it for her fat husband and he lost 37 pounds on this diet over the course of a couple weeks. They wrote a book and have since sold over 730,000 copies of it. Then a famous opera singer, Kumiko Mori, in Japan then did this diet and lost 15 pounds in 6 weeks. This was on September 19th and the next day the craze began. And I mean craze! Like there were articles in every magazine and there are little plastic lunch box things that are in the shape of…bananas. It’s just crazy! Well, because of this diet there is...