This is an unofficial review of Gilmok, a restaurant in Los Angeles, which is known as The Corner Place.  I went on vacation last week out west.  I arrived late into Los Angeles and once I got off the plane, my friend drove me directly to Koreatown since I was a bit hungry after a long east to west coast flight.  Since it was a bit late, he decided to take me to Gilmok, which appeared to be another Koreatown restaurant that didn’t look to remarkable.  We walked into the smoky restaurant which of course was a byproduct of kalbi grilling.  But that’s not what caught my attention.

After we ordered and chatted, a big bowl of noodles arrived and it was poured into smaller bowls.  I didn’t think to much of it because I was really hungry for the kalbi.  My friend suggested that I start eating the Dongchimi Guksu (noodles in a cold, pickled radish base soup) because the kalbi was just put onto the grill.  So I naturally picked up my chopsticks and scooped up some noodles.  I knew right away that the noodles were pure ecstasy.  It was simply AWESOME!  The first thing I said to my friend was, “These are amazing!  Better than any kind of Guksu in New York.”  Then I proceeded to say, “How come you’ve never brought me to this place because I’ve come out to LA so many times.”  His response was simply, “You always want In & Out.”  Doh!  C’mon man!

Let me repeat that these noodles were better than anything that I’ve tasted on the east coast.  They were so simple yet so savory and I asked my friend what made it so amazing.  Rumor has it is that there’s a little bit of Sprite poured in.  Just a rumor but hard to tell if there’s really a hint of Sprite.  Who cares because it was outstanding!  If you’re in Koreatown in Los Angeles, go check out Gilmok and order the noodles and kalbi.  You will not be disappointed!  Gilmok is located at 2819 James M Wood Blvd, Los Angeles.

Did you know that a Korean gal is singing out loud on the new hit show of the season?  Jenna Ushkowitz is an adopted Korean girl who was born in Seoul, South Korea and she’s making a big splash on Glee as Tina Cohen-Chang.

Tina is a member of Glee. She is awkward and needs to suppress her stutter before she can take center stage. Her interests include speed-metal, emo-core, cutting off her dolls’ hair, and hangin’ wi’ her speech therapist, Judy.

So who is Jenna?  She was adopted and raised in the Vermont and New York area, where she graduated from a Catholic high school.   She’s no stranger to acting with stints on TV and on Broadway.

It looks like she’s just getting started with the surprise hit Glee.  Best of luck to Jenna!  You can catch Jenna on Wednesday nights on Fox at 9pm EST.

Chuseok is the Korean version of Thanksgiving. During this holiday, the family gives thanks to their ancestors by welcoming the spirits into their houses to taste the ethereal flavors of the year’s harvest. This may sound superstitious, but the real intention is to commemorate the departed. Because without our ancestors, literally, we wouldn’t exist. This is a family holiday and to be invited to a family’s Chuseok celebration is a very special honor. Basically, the family is accepting the guest into their family to not only meet the living relatives that attend, but also the spirits that have passed.

During my first year in Korea I was bestowed this special honor by the Kim family in Gyeong Ju. Jikyeong was a student of mine and we became fast friends and she knew that I was new to Korea and I didn’t have anyone to celebrate this holiday with. I accepted her invitation, but with one request: I wanted to participate in the preparation of the various dishes. This request was met with whimsy because Chuseok is seen by many as the “wife’s burden.” I didn’t know this. I arrived bright and early ready to assist in the kitchen.

What I learned was that the food lacks many of the flavors that Korea is famous for. Garlic and chili peppers are purposely omitted from the Chuseok table for these strong flavors are believed to offend the ancestors. Most of the vegetable dishes such as bean sprouts, spinach, minari (mugwort), eggplant, squash, sweet potatoes and gosari (bracken) were boiled or steamed. Most were flavored with sesame oil and a little salt. I helped Jikyung’s mother prepare seafood soup that was flavored lightly with soybean paste, tofu, vegetables, and squid. I then helped fry some tofu, and three whole dried fish.

After most of the food was prepared, we made “song p’yon.” Song p’yon are crescent-moon shaped rice cake that are filled with sweetened red bean or roasted sesame seed sweetened with honey. These were the most labor intensive, yet fun part of the thanksgiving feast. Mrs. Kim first took rice flour and kneaded it with a little bit of hot water to bring the dough together. The dough then had to sit for an hour or so. With half the flour she mixed it with mugwort, which turned it a dark green color. The other half stayed ghostly white. Jikyeong, Mr. Kim, and I then sat around a low table and took a little rice flour and formed a flattened disk in the palms of our hands. Then we filled with either red bean or sesame seed paste and, by closing our hands, we formed the shape of the crescent moon. It was very important to seal in the filling because they were then steamed until they were soft and pillowy.

We then set the Chuseok table. The food was arranged on two low tables upon bronze plates. The fish was laid in the center with the fish all facing east. To the northeast section we set the plate of song p’yon. Below the fish we placed seven plates of boiled vegetables: bean sprouts, eggplant, mushrooms, squash, sweet potato, gosari, and minari. Below the vegetables we put out the fresh fruit of Autumn. As high as gravity would allow we stacked plums, red grapes, apples, oranges, pears, and cham-wei: Korean melon. And then we placed three bowls of rice to the left, three bowls for soup on the right, three pairs of bronze chopsticks and three spoons, three small bronze wine cups, and one large bronze bowl which sat at the center of the table. Interestingly, the settings are the opposite of how they would normally be set, because the ancestors are in a world opposite to that of the living.

Mr. Kim and his daughter Jikyeong got dressed in their traditional garbs, hanboks, and solemnly entered the room. Mrs. Kim and I were asked to leave the room and we watched from the side. Mr. Kim and Jikyeong stood in front of the dinner table and then bowed three times, prostrating themselves all the way to the ground. Mr. Kim then poured a little rice wine from a pear shaped, long necked decanter into the large bronze bowl that sat at the center of the table, took a pair of bronze chops and tapped them three times into the bottom of the bowl.

A sonorous resonance filled the room. He then moved the three sets of chopsticks from their place setting to three different dishes. He sat one set of chopsticks on the fried fish, another on the bean sprouts, and the last set on the song p’yon. He then backed away from the table and he and Jikyeong again bowed three times. When he rose, he carefully lit incense and poured some wine into each of the small wine cups. He again tapped the bronze chopsticks three times. Then the pair reverently sat down as the scent of the incense filled the room.

When they felt it was time, they slowly rose again and bowed three times. Mr. Kim moved the metal chopsticks to three different dishes. This time he moved one set to the eggplant, another to a different fish, and the third to the minari. They bowed again and then sat before the table setting. They repeated this one last time and as the last echo of the chopsticks left the room, the ceremony was finished.

The ceremony is a beautiful progression to behold and one that has significance needs explanation to be understood. Koreans believe their ancestors live a mirrored existence, so the table settings of the rice bowl, soup, and chopsticks and spoon are the opposite from the living. The first pouring of rice wine is to welcome the ancestor into their home, the second pour is to say, “enjoy the food” and the third is to say good-bye and to go in peace. During the ceremony no living creature is allowed to be killed because- not even a fly- because it could be the spirit of the ancestor that has arrived to enjoy the meal. Koreans believe their ancestors will devour the spirit of the food but could be offended by strong flavors, so the feast is prepared as simply and naturally as possible. Everything red on the table is to the west and everything white to the east. The tops of the fruit is pared off on the end so the visiting ancestors can easily enjoy the food.

After the ceremony is finished, it is then time for the living to feast on the physical food on the table; it is a period of delicious celebration. Most families will then make large bowls of bibimbap (rice mixed with various vegetables) and share in eating the side dishes and fruit.

Not every Chuseok is the same. Some families have many more settings for each ancestor they wish to thank, and a new setting could be added for a new member that has recently passed away.

And the idea of the celebration is not superstition; it is about respect and commeration. In America, we give thanks to a distant god, but Koreans give thanks to something more tangible. Where would we be without our parents and our grandparents?

If you are asked to join in on this festivity, accept it with humility and honor. You are not only being introduced to not only the living members of the family, but also those who look over them.

Daniel Gray
(chusuk is also spelled chuseok)

Daniel Gray is a writer and food consultant living in Seoul, South Korea. His blog, www.seouleats.com has been featured in the New York Times, Gourmet Magazine’s Diary of a Foodie, Andrew Zimmern’s Bizarre Foods, and other media.

Korean men in their 30s and 40s live on soju (rice liquor) and fresh bacon while Korean women live on ramen, instant noodles, and coffee, a study has found.

According to a report released Tuesday by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute under the Ministry of Health & Welfare, men aged 30 to 49 get most of their calories in the summertime from rice, followed by soju, ramen, pork and fresh bacon. The study was conducted on 983 households and 2,454 individuals nationwide, from June 27, 2005 to July 15.

According to the study, women in the same age group got most of their calories from rice, followed by ramen, pork, coffee and noodles. For men, the average intake per day in 2005 was 2400 calories.

Men in their 30s and 40s attained 814 calories or 33.9 percent of their daily intake from rice. A further 128.7 calories or 5.3 percent was attained by soju, 84.7 calories or 3.5 percent by ramen, 77.2 calories or 3.2 percent from pork and 61.5 calories or 2.5 percent from fresh bacon.

Women attained a similar amount of calories as men from rice, ramen, and pork, but instead of soju they attained an average of 38.7 calories per day from coffee.

The average coffee mix has 55 calories. Dr. Jang Young-ae of the Korea Health Industry Development Institute said, “Soju is the second or third largest energy supplier for men over 30. The same result was found from 1999 to 2005.”

Source: Chosun Ilbo

Foodies and Francophiles alike gathered this weekend at P.S.1 Moma for the much anticipated two-day event of affordable haute cuisine hosted by Le Fooding, the provocative French culinary organization from Paris. With 12 chefs, three mixologists, two DJs, and more than 1,000 people in attendance, Le Fooding d’amour marked the organization’s first event ever in the United States.

For the curious reader, Le Fooding (founded in 2000) jumpstarted a culinary movement that elects a more casual approach to food vis-à-vis the strict, egalitarian norms in high-society French dining.

I, for one, was super excited about this event when I first heard about it. Secret codes for purchasing tickets were initially available only on a few sites, and foodies including me were probably scouring the web hourly to track them down. When I did find them, I instantly bought tickets to both nights and started perusing and dreaming about the menu online (click here).

Chefs from Paris like Yves Camdeborde of Le Comptoir du Relais and Inaki Aizpitarte of Le Chateaubriand cooked up a storm of beef dishes that perfumed the air with their smoky fumes. Nevertheless, the food was not strictly limited to French cuisine. Among the NYC representatives was David Chang, featuring his famous Korean dish, Bo Ssam from his restaurant Momofuku Ssam in the East Village.

David Chang, hard at work

Bo Ssam by David Chang, Momofuku Ssam

Despite all the hype, the grand concept behind Le Fooding seemed to have overweighed my actual experience. Long lines formed quickly and traced around endless loops, with guests waiting 30+ minutes (at least!) at each booth. The quality of the food was great, but not mind-blowing, at least for me. Perhaps it has to do with working in a small outdoor kitchen to prepare over a thousand small plates for a crowd of hungry foodies standing in the cold.

Nevertheless, Le Fooding was a fun and hip charity event that really is the first of its kind, and will hopefully return to New York next fall.

Our good friends at Chaos Theory Music notified us that the 4-member band “Seriously” will be coming to New York this Saturday.  Yes! If you haven’t heard of this young rising band, then take a good listen because you’ll really like these fellas. We’ll be at the concert on Saturday night at Uncle Mike’s in New York City. Come join us and get a good glimpse of this up and coming band.

Where: Uncle Mikes, 57 Murray St, NY, NY
When: Saturday, Oct 3rd at 10pm
Tickets: Click Here

We’ll see you at Uncle Mikes!

Have you ever been to a pay-by-the-hour hotel in Seoul?  You guessed it; these hotels are not for taking a nap during a layover but for quick sex and affairs.  These Love Hotels are not exclusive to Korea but are found in many countries.  New York photographer Grace Kim went to Seoul and she brings to light the residue and remnants of these rooms, after they’ve been used.  Her photographs are on display at the Melanie Flood Projects in Brooklyn until October 7th.

“Love hotels in South Korea are commonly known to be where lovers go to carry on secret affairs. I was given access to photograph the rooms of a love hotel in Seoul after couples had checked out and before the rooms had been cleaned. Korean culture has many rules and formalities that have always felt very restrictive to me, so I was intrigued by the idea of being where I shouldn’t be and observing things I shouldn’t be observing — remnants of love affairs that were presumably forbidden as well. Absence of color, like the absence of identity, extracts the bed from their original context and realism, leaving space for personal projections and imagination.”

Did you know Gwyneth Paltrow loves Korean food and one of her favorite restaurants in New York is Korean (HanGawi).  This video below is a bit odd because it’s Gwyneth and her chef friend making the Korean dish bibimbop.  The caveat here is that they add a Japanese accent to their version of bibimbop to make it a Japanese/Korean fusion bibimbop.

Bibimbop is one of the most commonly eaten Korean dishes at restaurants and sometimes made at home.  In NYC, I’m seeing more variations of this fabulous Korean dish with kimchi and bulgogi mixed in or genip (leaf) and bulgogi mixed together.  It’s really a flexible dish that can be mixed and matched in different ways, whether you want it to be vegetarian like Gwyneth or carnivorous like many Korean men.

Here’s Gwyneth’s version of bibimbap that we found on her blog Goop.com.

Bibimbop, which roughly translates to “mix it up,” is essentially a rice bowl that you can adorn with whatever toppings you like. It’s a great vehicle for leftovers—a veritable ‘kitchen sink’ kind-of meal. The key is the Spicy Miso Sauce, which ties all the various parts together.