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The World Famous (but all too infrequent) If I Had A Minute To Spare Global Caption Competition of Death and Love with a Cherry on Top

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Yes, it has been a while, but fortunately you may all rest easy, the If I Had A Minute To Spare  Global Caption Competition of Love and Death has returned, this time with a cherry on top. They cherry, you ask, is an  extra caption to be competitive about.

We’ll be staying local – as in Ireland wise – with a picture that has graced the front page of both The Irish Times and The Irish Bindependent:

Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are featured. Please provide a line:

 

And your bonus image this week features, again, Nicolas Sarkozy (he’s very photogenic), this time in “conversation” with US President Barack Obama at the G8 summit a while back – I know it’s a little late but I only came across this photo recently.

(In case you are wondering, I think that is China’s Central Bank governer Zhou Xiaochuoan, who appeared in a previous caption competition. I’ve no idea who the black guy between Sarkozy and Obama is)

As always, the winner of the competition will get a free subscription to If I Had A Minute To Spare and a pat on the back from me.

May the best caption win!!!


The Rain Pours

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I am okay with rainy weather. I would rather be soaked to the bone in a downpour than freezing my butt off in sleety-icy rain.

But the rain brings one to notice that it is definitely summer and the months are trucking along. Already my first semester at job #4, in Korea, is nearly over. I have learned so much about myself and what it is like to really be a teacher. Also, I am really proud of my accomplishments at the job.

In life, things seem to putter along quite nicely as well. Although, JH and I still find ourselves at odds with how to spend our weekend time together. There are also a lot of personal developments between us but I don't want to share it yet.

A week vacation is on the horizon, followed by three weeks of camp and then two more weeks of vacation. I am looking forward to a slow down in work life.

Anyways, I hope others out there are enjoying the soothing rain (although at times bothersome) and looking forward to their vacations as well.
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Retro Korean Horror Movie Posters

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Even though Korean cinema has only enjoyed international recognition since recently, the history of the peninsula's cinematographic industry goes back to the early twentieth century. Horror films started to emerge as a genre in the sixties and remained popular until today. As you'll see from the movie posters below, the stories almost invariably centered around a revengeful female ghost who came back among the living to wreck havoc.

The feminity of the ghost characters is not something new and can already be observed in traditional folk stories such as the Janghwa Hongryeon jeon (장화홍련전), a Joseon era story about the gorey vengeance brought upon a village by the ghosts of two sisters. The tale was adapted to the big screen several times, first in 1924 and more recently with the highly popular 2003 movie Tale of Two Sisters.

The traditional explanations are that women are naturally more resentful and that women who died before enjoying the pleasure of marriage would inevitably come back to haunt the living (hence the large number of "Maiden Revenge" themed movies). The "chastity" of the ghost is hinted at by the white gown most of them wear (just as in Japanese horror films such as Ring) while the abundance of their hair symbolizes the large grudge (한) they hold against society. Under the influence of Western hits such as Dracula, the ghost of Korean horror cinema started to gain vampiric characteristics in the 1980's.


처녀귀신 - The Maiden's Ghost - 1967

마녀성 - The Witch Castle - 1968

오공녀의 한 - The revenge of the centipede woman -  1969

사녀의 한 - The revenge of a dead woman - 1970

누나의 한 - Sister's revenge - 1971

옥녀의 한 - The chaste woman's revenge - 1972

정형미인 - 1975
I'm not too sure about the chinese characters on this one as the first two seem to mean orthopedics..
Which would translate as The Orthopedic Beauty?

월녀의 한 - The revenge of the moon girl - 1980


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I fell off of galbi (갈비) for a little bit, because I was eating...

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I fell off of galbi (갈비) for a little bit, because I was eating it so often. Just in time to go home, I have gotten addicted to the 갈매기살 (pork) and 소갈매기살 (beef) at the So rae (서래) restaurants popping up all over Korea. I am so addicted! I want it all the time. I crave this delicious meat. All. The. Time. Like… right now. (T_T)

The REAL 'Four Seasons' of Korea

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Korean's say all kinds of grand things about the Korean peninsula; it is the most beautiful country, has the best, healthiest food, best education system in the world. All kinds of nationalistic ideals, which is great, having pride about your country is only natural, especially after how hard Korea has worked to get where it is today. Yet having pride for your country is different than straight up lying. If I had a dollar for every Korean that has said to me, "Korea has wonderful weather, we have all four seasons!" well, lets just say I would have a lot of dollars. As I sit inside on this warm June afternoon and listen to the downpour outside, I want to call bullshit on you, Korea. Best weather, four seasons? Bullshit. 


If you recall, back in December I was so excited about these so called "four seasons." Now, seven months later, not so much. I have almost lived here for a whole rotation around the sun and can expertly comment on the weather in South Korea... 




The  (real) seasons of Korea 


September - early December : Changing leaves, scattered all over the street. Cool, light sweater temperatures, kimchi making season. 
mid December - late March: Frigid, below freezing, snowing, icy, wear ten layers of clothes, huge scarves and warm boots, don't leave your house unless necessary miserable. 
April - May : Blue skies, cherry blossoms and flowers in bloom, warm days, crisp nights, park time!
June - early September - Hot. Rain. Dumping, pouring, never ending rain. flooding, umbrellas, aircon and humidity. Don't expect to dry off much during this season. 


Ok, so maybe there are four of them but they are in no way equal, the good ones last for a mere month or so and the bad ones are SO bad, they make you want to stab someone with an umbrella or smoosh thier face into the black snow until their bodies lie limp (depending on the time of year.)


The weather here is terrible (granted, this is coming from the girl who lived in the desert for 5 years with only three seasons - perfect, hot and FUCKIN hot.) Just when you think its going to be nice for a while, it takes a turn for the worst.  Today there are two tropical storms in the map covering South Korea for the next 10 days and let me just say its hard to look good when your soaking wet with frizzy hair, I don't know how these Korean women do it!

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Ellie Teacher

onedayillflyaway.com

Crave Alert: Naengmyeon

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“Excuse me waiter, my soup is cold… and DELICIOUS!” Ice cold soup could be seen as a serious complaint in any restaurant around the world, but the only complaint that we have is not having enough of it! Naengmyeon is the definition of “refreshing” on a hot summer day. The word naengmyeon actually means “cold noodles,” and the cold dish comes with julienne cucumbers, Asian pear, radishes, cold-boiled beef, and a hard boiled egg to top it all off. The soup is served in a large stainless bowl, and eaters have the option of adding hot mustard or vinegar. The noodles can be served up two ways:

Mul naengmyeon is served with tangy ice cold soup and buckwheat noodles. The soup leaves a nice little zing in your mouth and cools your body all the way down. Yu Chun Chic Naeng Myeon in Los Angeles has perfected the dish and serves their slushy soup with dark, black noodles.

Bibim naengmyeon is the spicy version made with gochujang which is mixed up with all the other ingredients to perfection.  The bibim naengmyeon is prepared without much soup, but is eaten with chilled noodles that are usually chewier than the ones in the mul naengmyun.

Usually the best place to enjoy a good bowl of naengmyeon is at a restaurant that specializes in making the dish since the soup is key. However the next best thing would be to go to your local Korean market and pick up a prepackaged naengmyeon and make it whenever your taste buds crave a bowl.

Tips:

  • Ask for your noodles to be cut to avoid choking.
  • For fun, you can take out the hard-boiled egg yolk and use the egg as a pseudo spoon.
  • If you’re using a prepackaged naengmyeon, we recommend freezing the broth for a bit and then crushing up the iced broth to make a slushy-like soup.
  • For some recipes on how to make bibim naengmyeon, head over to Korean Food Gallery.

Yuchun Chic Naeng Myun
3185 W Olympic Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90006
(213) 382-3815

[Photo of mul naengmyeon from Yuchun: Audrey Yun-Suong; bibim naengmyeon: Maangchi].

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Roy Choi Named New Chef of Beechwood

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Chef Roy Choi, of Kogi Truck fame, has quite the jam-packed schedule. From 8 in the morning to roughly midnight, he’s out on the road, checking his various food trucks, dropping in on his restaurants Chego!, Alibi Room, and A-frame, and well… running his business. In an interview with L.A. Confidential, Choi described his day as “a kind of chaotic clockwork” filled with “traffic, dusk, and the Kogi smell of meat and tortillas.”

Life’s about to get even busier for Choi as he tackles yet another culinary project as new chef of Venice-based restaurant Beechwood. He plans to take Beechwood in a new and exciting direction by complementing casual American fare with creative cocktails and incorporating traditional carnival food favorites. Think coated ice cream bars, candied apples, and frozen bananas, all for grown-ups. If there’s one thing Choi knows, it’s delicious casual fare with a playful bent, so we’re excited to see what’s in store.

[Photo: Mathieu Bitton/L.A. Confidential]

David Choi: ‘I have no intention of going on Glee’

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Most Youtube stars have hopes of one day hitting it big with a record deal or signing contracts with big companies, but for Youtube singer David Choi, that would be the last thing he wants. Despite having his songs played on Korean TV shows and his growing fame around the world, David stays humble and true to his music.

In an interview with Asia One News, David was asked if he would ever consider doing a big project like Glee. Here’s what David said:

I have no intention of going on Glee or anything like that, because I’m not really interested in becoming famous or doing things on TV. That’s not really my goal with music. My goal is to use it as a form of expression and, maybe, people will gain something from it.

He also mentioned that he would accept a record deal if the label would give him complete control, and made sure to he could produce the kind of music he wanted and not feel pressured to change.

David is currently busy overseas on his Asian Pacific + Australia tour which goes on until early July. Ticket information and tour dates are available on David Choi’s website.

Last night, David released a teaser of his new music video for “By My Side.” The full music video, directed by Wong Fu Productions, is set to release on July 5th. Check it out!

[Photo: David Choi's official website]

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