WHAT: The 11th Annual Korea Times Korean Music Festival
WHERE: Los Angeles, CA, Hollywood Bowl
WHEN: Saturday, April 27, 2013 || 6pm
PRICES: $25-$300
LINEUP: YOON DO HYUN Band, BMK, Im Tae Kyung, Gukkasten, Heyee, Kim Bum Ryong, Oh Jung Hae, Jo Sung Mo, ZE:A, Jewelry, Blush, Beast, BTOB (more to be announced)

To find out more about the festival, click HERE or HERE.

When we walked in, the restaurant only had 2 other tables full, the place was quite huge and I could only see a sea of empty tables. It was only 11:35 though so that was understandable. We were quickly greeted by a smiley, energetic Korean girl who brought us to our table. 

I love these potatoes. These dishes are always my favorite part of a Korean meal. These tasted standard – like any other Korean restaurant.

bibimbap $8.99

For just $8.99 you get a main and an “appy”. I got the bibimbap with the Korean sushi (I forgot what it was callled). The portion was huge! It tasted really good but it could’ve used more hot sauce.

japchae $8.99

Another combination was the pork bone soup and the Japchae. The soup was so addicting even though there was MSG in it, and there were 3 big juicy pork bones. The portion was huge again, it came with rice, but everyone was too stuffed to eat it. The japchae was perfect, and they were being stingy with the beef. The portion was good as it was just an appy.

yaki udon $8.99

assorted tempura

The last combination was the yakiudon with the assorted tempura. It was another HUGE portion and had huge chunks of chicken in it. It tasted as great as if it were from a Japanese restaurant. The tempura was the only miss of the meal. The veggies were way too oily , but I enjoyed the pumpkin and beans without the batter.

Everyone enjoyed the meal a lot. For $8.99 for each set, it was the best deal around for Korean food. Portions were huge, food tasted great and the friendly service was top notch. We’ll definitely be back to satisfy our Korean cravings.

I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK, 2006
(Ssa-i-bo-geu-ji-man-gwen-chan-a)
dir. Chan-wook Park
Starring: Su-jeong Lim, Rain
4.1/5

Very recently, one of my co-workers at the library was let go. She was one of my favorite people to work with and always had cool suggestions for movies to watch, especially Korean cinema – particularly, the quirky or cheesy ones that were still overwhelmingly adorable and entertaining. In honor of her, I will be reviewing my favorite Korean film, I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK.

The film focuses on Cha Young-goon, a young woman who is sent to a mental institution for harming herself because she thinks she is part robot. She also talks to inanimate objects and wears her deceased grandmother’s dentures (oh, and the grandma used to think she was a mouse. Kind of doomed from the start for Young-goon, huh?). She runs into many patients in the ward, but falls for Il-sun, a young man who enjoys ping pong and soul stealing.

The film was an absolute delight. Everything about it was quirky and silly, but still an enjoyable way to portray love, especially in a place as hopeless as a mental institution. Each of the characters have their own special qualities that make them as unique as the maladies they suffer from.

Favorite thing: I actually saw a clip of this film on television years before I actually saw the film. I spent a lot of time Googling Asian films with a girl putting oven mitts on her feet and rubbing them together while her boyfriend sings her into an almost drug-induced trance. Goes to show how memorable this movie will be.

Worst thing: Su-jeon Lim is probably the only person in the world who can pull off that haircut. I learned that the hard way and had to tell people that my bangs were an inch long because I hiccupped while cutting my hair.

Should you watch it? Definitely. It’s not your typical mental hospital movie.

Name: Yoon Siyoon

Born: September 26, 1986 in Incheon as Yoon Donggoo

Hight / Weight: 178cm / 68kg

Movies:

• Gosa/ Death bell 2 (2010)
• One hundred percent/ Mr. perfect (2011)

Dramas:

• High kick trough the roof (2009)
• Baking King, Kim Takgoo (2010)
• Once upon the time in Saengchori – cameo (2010)
• Me too, flower! (2011)
• High kick 3: Te revenge of the short legged – cameo (2012)
• Flower boy next door (2013)

OST or other songs:

• Bubi bubi – Going to you                                                           
  
• Bubi bubi – Fall asleep when he wakes up
• Baking king, Kim Takgoo – Only you

Music video appearance:

• Kim Dongryul – Lonely voyage (2009)                                 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yAZMxixTVs
• Park Hyoshin – I promise you                                                http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnFyo1eEYqw

Name: Park Shin Hye

Born: February 18, 1990 in Gwangju

Hight / Weight: 163cm / 45kg

Twitter: http://twitter.com/ssinz

Movies: 

• Love phobia (2006)
• Evil twin (2007)
• Cyrano Agency (2010)
• Miracle in cell nr.7 (2012)

Dramas: 

• Stairway to heaven (2003)
• Nonstop 4 – cameo (2003)
• Boom (2004)
• Not alone (2004)
• Cute or crazy (2005)
• Seoul 1945 (2006)
• Tree of heaven (2006)
• Loving Sue (2006)
• Biecheonmu (2006)
• Goong S (2007)
• Several questions that make us happy (2007)
• Kimcheed radish cubes (2007)
• Youre beautiful (2009)
• My girlfriend is gumiho – cameo (2010)
• High kick trough the roof – cameo (2010)
• Heartstrings (2011)
• Hayate the combat butler (2011 – Taiwanese)
• The king of dramas – cameo (2012)
• Flower boy next door (2013)

Music videos appearance:

• Lee Seunghwan – Sarang ha ya no – Do you love? (2001)
• Lee Seunghwan – Ggot – Flower (2003)
• Furtune Cookie – Fake love song (2004)
• Kim Jongkook – Pyun ji – Letter (2006)
• 45RPM – Saechimtteki (2008)
• Taegoon – Call me (2009)
• Taegoon – Super star (2009)
• Lee Seunggi – Alone in love (2012)
• So Jisub – 6 o`clock…sport field (2013)

OST songs:

• Tree of Heaven – Prayer
• Youre beautiful – Lovely day, Withouth a word
• Cyrano Agency – It was you ft. Lee Minjung
• Heartstrings – The day we fall in love, I will forget you
• Flower boy next door – Pitch black

why it was an amazing afternoon:
1. the sun was SHINING

2. nothing beats traipsing around a relatively empty museum on a weekday afternoon with not a care in the world

3. lunch was YUM:

despite having been to charlotte street on multiple occasions, i never noticed koba which is located just off charlotte street on rathbone street. we had planned to have korean food for lunch and had kim chee at holborn in mind, but it was my korean hallmate who suggested that we try koba instead. i am so happy we had that conversation about good korean restaurants over hall breakfast that morning, because it was YUMMY.

we were all excited when we got seated at our table and checked out the lunch menu because it was really extensive – many places tend to have fewer items on their “set lunch” menus, but koba is different. they seem to have nearly everything korean that you would possibly want to eat (at least for me) and it was the kind of menu where there was something for everyone, which is great!

their specialty seems to be their barbequed meats and so it was the “beef lunch barbeque” that I opted for. it came with a side dish with the usual mixed korean appetisers, soup, salad, a baby bowl of bibimbap (it was REALLY baby-sized; more on this later) and meat to be barbequed; there was plenty to eat and i was a very happy bunny.
i’ll start with the bibimbap – it was delicious and the ingredients were fresh and generously heaped on top of the rice. the amount of chilli sauce that the waiter added was also perfect – it was very tasty and satisfying. my only qualm was that when they described the bibimbap in the menu as a “small pot bibimbap”, they really meant it – it was TINY and if not for the fact that i was taking small mouthfuls to savour it, it would probably have been gone in 2-3 mouthfuls! but i’m not complaining;the star of the set is probably meant to be the meat anyway.

moving on to the beef, they gave a very generous 12 slices with the set. they were sliced thinly so if you are looking for something thick, its probably better to order it off the a la carte menu. they bring it to the table raw, and the waiter helps you cook the slices on the stove in front of you. 

the slices were tender, juicy, marinated well, and had a slight taste of the barbeque, just as they should have! seemed like good quality stuff and so my fears of quality of the meat being compromised since it was a set lunch were unfounded. the salad provided a good balance to the “heat” of the barbeque – the vegetables were fresh and crisp with a light japanese-type (though in this case, i should probably say it was korean) dressing.
i felt that what i ordered was really quite value-for-money, which is always important for students attempting to keep to a budget

my friend ordered the bulgogi (she was dying to get the barbeque set too, but was recovering from a funky stomach illness from eating oysters at brighton – DO NOT EAT RAW OYSTERS BY THE BRIGHTON PIER; you have been warned. In fact I am heading there tomorrow and will be staying far away from them wahahaha but okay, I digress. Back to the korean food.) and she was really satisfied with it too! the serving was generous, and it came with appetisers and soup as well.
here is a picture of her taking a picture of her food before tucking in. #ASIANALERT

my other friend ordered bibimbap and got a nice full-sized bowl (unlike my tiny one – but at least they did mention that it was a “small pot” in the menu), which she was pleased with.

total bill: £28.70 for 3

ambience: neat, clean, modern, bright, airy, generally very pleasant. OH YES and very importantly for korean restaurants that have hot plates/barbeques – there is surprisingly NO heavy smell of barbeque hanging in the air; we walked out of the restaurant smelling as lovely as ever

who i would recommend this to: anyone looking for a place that serves reasonably priced korean food, with an extensive special lunch menu. the tables are well-spaced out and the restaurant does not feel cramped at all. a possible venue for larger groups and a relaxing lunch. there was a steady stream of customers and the tables were filled throughout the time we were there, but it seems like getting a table shouldn’t really be too much of a problem since they are efficient with their service and turnaround time is not long, at least when we were there.

will i return? YES. my new go-to korean place for now. compared to assa (where i used to go for my korean fix), i felt that the environment was nicer: bright, airy, nice-smelling (one does not walk out of assa without the smell of food lingering on your clothes for the rest of the day – best to visit it on a day you’re planning on doing laundry hahaha). if you’re craving some hotpot goodness then assa might still be the place for you though!

PS. the koreans at the table next to us were making loud, satisfied noises (accompanied by satisfied stomach-rubbing – or maybe i was imagining this part) and that is always a sign of good food right? natives giving their stamp of approval!

Koba
11 Rathbone St  London, Greater London W1T 1NA
020 7580 8825
- rach

(For your information when I asked why all of the traffic lights were out the polizei said that the reason the traffic lights weren’t working was that after 7.00pm on a Sunday evening the whole town’s traffic lights get switched off! No I couldn’t believe it either.)

So my translator indicated to turn right and pulled into a rather grubby housing estate that was obviously built for the proles back in the old days – you can tell these prole villas easily the concrete looks as though it could blow away in the wind at any time.

He got out of the car into a sea of small mosquitoes which managed to not only bite the two polizei and himself constantly for the 30 minutes he was out of the car but in the instant he opened the door of the hire car had sneaked in and continued to bite us all at their leisure for the rest of our journey home.

When you get stopped by the police or indeed polizei it’s always a good idea to ask why they have stopped you because as we all know in most civilised countries they can’t just stop you because they don’t like the look of the occupants of the car or the colour of the paint work.

So as documents were exchanged and truths checked my translator asked that all important question, for the first time as it transpired, and the answer, which was soon to be ‘modified,’ was interesting.

First they said that they stopped the car because a lot cars of this model and type were stolen! I asked if that was the case whether the germans crossed the border into the Czech republic to steal Czech registered cars, because the hire car I was driving was a Czech one and so that seemed a reasonable question, it wasn’t sadly and neither was the answer, the answer was drivel and even more fiction than the first excuse. One of the policemen said “that it can happen” I asked how often and the polizei man didn’t seem to know!

My translator is a nice person and instead of telling the german policemen that he was an idiot he asked if they had finished, but they hadn’t. After the disappointment of not capturing the leader of a german car stealing ring who preyed only on Czech cars they turned their attention to the contents of the car, and in this case I really mean passengers!

The translator’s wife is Korean and that was obviously something that cheered the other of the two valiant german policemen because after swatting a few more mosquitoes he asked for her passport and trundled off to the van to do more checking.

The translator asked them what they need his wife’s passport for and they said, if you can believe it, that there was a lot of human trafficking in this part of german and they had to be sure that if I wasn’t a very clever and successful car thief then I wasn’t in the business of selling wives at worst or just helping illegals cross international borders.

The translator’s first question was of course who on earth would want to smuggle anyone in the germany? Which didn’t go down well because even though the two young german policemen were fluent English speakers they were still german and of course displayed their entire nations trait for not having even the tiniest spark of a sense of humour.

After being bitten by mosquitoes and subjected to the fantasies of the two german policemen we were eventually allowed to resume our journey.

On the way back to the Czech republic there are a number of long straight, but narrow, roads where german drivers drive at reckless speeds. One such mindless kraut, in a big Mercedes, had discovered just how dangerous speed can be and had hit a very large deer and ended up blocking the entire road.

While the other german drivers organised traffic and put out dozens of cute little red triangles around the accident I thought that it was a shame that the bored policemen weren’t there to direct the traffic though of course you couldn’t fault the organisation of all present (except the driver of the Czech hire car who had had quite enough of germans for the day thank you), but I expect that they were busy looking for clever car thieves or human traffickers.

This didn’t happen in the village sign posted below but for some reason I think that the germans pass a lot of hot air and wind especially the police and it is probably radar controlled so it seemed appropriate to include the picture in this blog.

About the Author

The Cat is one of the most successful feline authors in the history of Catkind. His sharp elegant wit has produced the bestselling book ‘Getting Out – Excerpts from a Cat’s Diary’ and of course the much plagiarised gag of the same name which appears on all of the funniest joke sites on the internet.

Copies of the Cat’s masterpiece of feline literature ‘Getting Out – Excerpts from a Cat’s Diary’ and his latest wonderful book ‘The Cat’s Travelogue’ can be purchased at a bookstore near you or from the internet at Amazon.com and here for the Travelogue The Cat’s Travelogue Paperback Edition or at what The Cat calls his www – wickedly wonderful website here www.thecatsdiary.com where you can not only learn more about me the genius Cat but also play my games they are all paw picked by me and have been described as “exactly what free on-line games should be, fun, free and fantastic.”

I would like to tell you all about something new and rather nice that you can get from the Apple iBooks store, no not ‘Getting Out – Excerpts from a Cat’s Diary’ and his latest wonderful book you have been able to get that for ages, no something else rather wonderful. You can get John Woodcock’s brilliantly illustrated book the first in the series called ‘The Trams of Prague’

This heavily illustrated books created especially for iPads, Pods and Phones called Tram No 6 is the Naughtiest of Trams and it looks amazing.

If you would like to get this exceptional book the easy way, just click on this link:
Trams of Prague – Tram No6 is the Naughtiest of Trams

아아아아!  저는 정말 약속을 지키도 싶은데 요즘 너무 바빴어요.  지난주하고 이번주는 학년을 준비하고있었어요.  하지만 변명을 하지 않아야합니다!!!

삼일절 … 수업이 없어

지난금요일에 한국에 연후였어요.  3월1일에 “삼일절”이에요.  이 날은 한국에 역사적 날를 너무 중요해요.  영어번역은 “삼일적”이 “The March 1st Movement.”이에요.   그래서 난 3월1일부터 3월3일까지 통영에서 친구캍이 가고 결정했어요.

좋아!

통영은 남부 대한민국에 있어요. 버스로 통영에 갔어요.  날씨는 매우 좋아는데 조금 바람이 많이 불었어요.  우리는 여행 준비 잘 안 했어요.   나는 집에 장갑을 잊하고 운동화를 안 신었어요 (우리는 통영에 많이 걸었어요 …. 그래서 발이 아팠어요).

통영의 유명한 음식은 꿀빵이에요. 굿!

이렇긴 해도, 우리는 통영에 재미있었어요   우리는 통영의 유명한음식을 먹었어요.  이 여행 동안 우리는 다섯 번 접시가 나오는 굴 식사를 먹고 복어국을 먹고 (걱정마세요, 복어국 안 유독했어요 ㅋㅋ) 회/생선 많이 먹었어요.

맛있어…… 아아아 배 아파!

불행하게도, 우리는 토요일밤에 식중독에 걸렸어요 ㅠㅠ … 왜냐하면 우리는 굴을 지나치게 먹었어요

그 다음날, 우리의 배 앞아는데 아침식사는 아직 멍게비빔밥을 먹었어요 (네, 우리는 돼지야! )

우리는 일요일밤에 서울에 돌아왔어요.  한국에 3월3일에 “삼겹살데이”예요.  그래서 삼겹살을 먹었어요.  ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

진짜 돼지!!!

이번 달, 난 정말 살이 빠지야해요

칠레디언

Friday

Had dinner with friends and they made a delicious Taco Bar with some Asian twists in the marinade.

Markel and I brought over Apple Turnovers and Vanilla Ice Cream from Trader Joe’s. YUMM

Saturday

Breakfast–Green Smoothie with Frozen Fruit, Power Greens, and Carrot Juice.

Lunch–Veggie breakfast burritos and Hash Browns!! (All ingredients from Trader Joe’s)

Dinner–Talapia marinated in a basil sauce + brussel sprouts

Spinach salad on the side with a homemade vinaigarette (which was a total fail)

for dessert?  Twix ice Cream bar! YUMMMM

Sunday–Had my typical breakfast of yummy treats at church: Starbucks Coffee and a Bagel.

It was so delicious I ate it before I could take pictures!

Lunch–I made Kimchi fried rice with an Egg over it.  I used a brown rice/veggie mix from trader joe’s to make it healthier.

+ a miso soup to go with it on the side

Dinner–Healthy Tuna melts and a Chinese Chicken Salad from Trader Joe’s <3

안녕하십니다!

나는 매일 블로그를 쓰고 싶어는데 하지만 오늘은 저는 개같이 피곤해요!  (미안해 … 몰랐어요 … 너무 피곤해요 ) 어제밤은 2시30분쯤 잤어요. 왜냐하면 책읽고 드라마를 봤어요.  너는 책을 읽거나 드라마를 보고 좋아해요?

오늘아침, 제 학교에서 걷었어요.  70분이나 걸렸어요.  제 다리가 조금 아팠는데 오늘아침 운동해야헀습니다. 왜냐하면 오늘밤에 시간이 없을 거야.

칠레디언님 너무 심심 >__<

요즘도 학교에 재미없었어요 때문에 봄방학이에요.  그래서 자주 심심해요.  난 때때로 학교에 영어선생님 한 명밖에 없어요.  (그래서 하루종일 한국어를 말해야해요 ㅋㅋㅋ)  어떤 날은 우리학교에 선생님들이 4명이나 있습니다 >__<  이건 괜찮으니 다음 월요일에 1학기를 시작할 거예요

지금 정말 심심해 ㅠㅠ 지에 가고싶어요 … 리카르도씬는 힘내 요 … 30분쯤 남았어요 ㅋㅋㅋ

우리 약속 ❤

다음주 이브로그를 쓰고 더 희망해요.  난 젼제 TOPIK를 준비하고있습니다.  제 “친구”도 TOEFL를 준비해요. 우리는 서로의 언어를 배우고 싶습니다.  (한국어보다 영어가 더 배우고 쉬워요 ㅋㅋㅋ )

화이팅! ㅋ

더 칠레디언

I love their pancakes, which are cold.

I like the sweet rice wrapped in tofu as well, and the bibimbap roll (like sushi) is good too.

Among their hot entrees, fried rice is simple but good, so are the glass noodles. If they have tofu in bean sauce, I always get it.

Opens early and is open till late. A great no-frills meal.

Eat+ for their simply good food.

http://woorijipnyc.com/