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Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Food: Korean and Kim Chee Pancake

Hello! I still haven't really had the time to figure out the workings of tabs on Blogger, so I apologize in advance to people that will/have clicked on the "Food" tab.

But I am not going to let that stop me from posting any of my adventures in trying out and/or making of Korean cuisine. Including my first introduction to Korean food, kim chee.

I first tried out kim chee when I was about 14 years old. It was the vinegary bottled stuff that you find in the regular supermarkets. Pale cabbage cause it was sitting in the vinegary mixture for so long, faintly spicy. Not bad, but not great either.

I was later introduced to the fresher, crispier, spicier version and the much more fermented version in my college years while eating out late with friends after many study sessions. These, I absolutely came to love! There's something about biting into the saltiness and spiciness of the cabbage that woke my senses (and cleared my nostrils) and made my mouth water. Truly heaven.

Kim Chee Pancake aka Kim Chee Jeon

On one of my traipses through town, I discovered a Korean bar/restaurant that, from what I was told, served up tasty Korean dishes and flavored soju. A friend had just gotten married so while we were spending time with the bridal party, we decided to go to this restaurant. Here they served the yummiest watermelon soju and...something called "kim chee pancakes" or "kim chee jeon"! Fresh kim chee, in my favorite breakfast food, what's not to love?

Let me just say that korean pancake versus a regular buttermilk or batter pancake is way different.

Korean pancakes are:
- savory
- incorporate a meat, seafood or vegetable
- involves no butter
- no milk
- crispier
- served as an appetizer (or what we would call a "pupu" in Hawaii)

It was absolutely delicious! I wanted to know how to make it, it was just that good.

Now I've seen these pancakes cooked different ways. An ahjumma ("Aunty" or "lady" in Korean) had shown me how to cook her green onion pancake in a little nook in one of the Korean markets I frequent. It involved flour, green onion, sesame oil and egg. Very easy.

But I wanted spicy pancakes, I wanted the kim chee pancake that I had that one time! I was on a mission to find the recipe, and lo and behold, one of my favorite bloggers, Maangchi, had a very easy recipe. All it took was kim chee, a bit of kim chee juice, flour, oil for frying, chopped onion, salt and sugar.

In the fry pan with a little too much oil. Crispy!

My first attempt was a bit oily, probably because of all the oil I used, but the second attempt was much better. I was ecstatic! It tasted just like the kim chee pancake I had! I was so happy, I ate more than half of the pancakes alone, all by myself. Yup, I was a little piggy! But I was a happy piggy!


I also had a bit of pancake mix on hand, so I used that instead of the flour. I didn't add any other seasoning since it was already pre-seasoned. It was just as delicious! But I noticed that it made the pancakes a little bit fluffier and crispier.

If you ever want to try making your own, I highly recommend it. I had to pay $10 for just a little dish that I had to share. Make your own, make it the way you want it, and you can decide if you want to share it! =) The recipe is in the link above. And if you want to check out more Korean recipes, I highly suggest Maangchi's site.

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Buzz Korea on Facebook

If you're a Facebooker and you love Korea, and it's culture and entertainment, the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) has a page on there that is great for little news, tidbits of information and contests.

I found out about KTO through their website and the Touch Korea campaign (a campaign that features a contest where people can enter to win a trip to Korea by doing all these little activities such as sing a song about Korea or post places you would like to go in hopes of generating further interest in their country). I kinda forgot about it until a friend of mine sent me an e-mail about their Miss Flower Music Tour a couple of weeks back. Then I noticed they have a Facebook page and went to "like" their page.

If you're looking for an extra dose of Korea in your life and if you want to hear about new contests first, I highly recommend you signing up for Facebook and finding "Buzz Korea" and "like" their page.

Song Seung Hyun In New Musical

Song Seung Hyun in Jack the Ripper

For fans in Asia, this will come as no big news since promotions have already begun. But for the rest of the world, FT Island's bassist and rapper, Song Seung Hyun, has been cast in another musical called "Summer Snow". He will be playing a lovable character named "Jin Ha". Bright, easy going, funny and quick witted. This will be the Korean re-enactment of the 2000 Japanese drama of the same name which had starred one of my favorite Japanese actors, Oguri Shun. =)

Oguri Shun
If you keep up with FT Island or Korean entertainment, you'll remember that Seung Hyun had just wrapped up performances and promotions for his first musical, Jack the Ripper, earlier this year. With performances for FT Island's Asia concert tour currently underway, Seung Hyun starting the musical in April and lead vocalist Lee Hong Ki participating in the international version of "We Got Married" also starting in April, it looks like plans for another FT Island comeback won't happen until late 2013. For now, fans like myself, will have to keep checking their Twitter accounts for any new updates!

Source: Yahoo!


Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Lee Hong Ki is Getting Married?!

FT Island's Lee Hong Ki and Japanese Actress Fujii Mina

That's the latest news folks! Don't worry, the nuptials aren't real. FT Island's lead vocalist will be getting hitched on the popular Korean show, "We Got Married". He will be part of the International version of the show as the husband to Japanese actress Fujii Mina (25 years old).

Hong Ki has once said that he doesn't care about how old a woman is, as long as she is innocent looking and "voluptuous". Oh really? Geez, he doesn't sound like a boy anymore, sounds like he's a grown man now.

The first episode kicks off the first week of April, but they will have a live press conference promoting the event on YouTube on March 28th, so be on the lookout for that.

Let's see who is better at a relationship. After watching Choi Jong Hun on the second season of the Romantic and the Idol, one could tell his dating style was earnest. (Yeah, I think that's a good word for it, so I'll leave it at that.) Even though I have watched both Lee Hong Ki and Choi Jong Hun on Mnet Scandal (a dating show where the stars were paired up with pretty "normal" women for one week), this will be the first time that one of them will be in a "relationship" for more than a few days.

If you've ever seen Hong Ki on Mnet Scandal, you would have seen that he loves to eat hot pot and to feed his women (probably cause he was always hungry, lol). He was romantic on his dates, but when he was with friends, he tended to relax and forget that he had someone by his side. (Pool games are a total distraction for him.)

Rumours have circulated, well, more said by the band members themselves, that Hong Ki is ace at dating girls. Their company is always trying to keep things hush hush about his personal life. Let's see if his sweet demeanor extends to another culture. And let's hope that she teaches him some forms of honorifics (Japanese polite speak) because fans know that Hong Ki is very casual when he speaks. (And I don't mean he's rude, just that he's Hong Ki and he happens to speak that way.) It will be very interesting!

Fans in South Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan, India and Australia will be able to catch the international version on TV. The rest of the world will have to find alternate means of viewing. If I find one, I will let you all know.

NOTE: Check out my reviews on the episodes! I'll be updating this blog throughout the series!
Source: Korea.com

Review: FT Island's New Japanese Single "You Are My Life"

Here I go again, FT Islanding up my blog! For fans and Pri's, the next musical chapter in these 5 treasures' career is coming up very soon. They will be releasing a new Japanese single called, "You Are My Life".

It's soft rock ballad that starts off with leader Choi Jong Hun on the piano and moving throughout. Mixed with Seung Hyun's rock chords on guitar, Jae Jin's back-up harmonies and Hong Ki's vocals carrying the simple melodic line, it's certainly touching and sentimental. "Listen to my heart...Even till this day, even when you are far away from me...You are my life..." (Sorry, my Japanese is a little rusty. I still have a hard time gathering gists of songs in Japanese, especially slow songs because they break up the syllables. And it's been years since I tried to speak semi-fluently. I'll try to post the English subs when they're available.)

I, for one, love this song. Not just because it's FT Island and Lee Hong Ki, but I like the types of songs that you can listen to and know the theme of the song just by listening to the music. Even though it's in a different language, it touches your soul.

Here's the video released by Warner Music Japan. All right's to them and FT Island. I wish they sold the music on iTunes in the States, but this will have to do.


On sale March 27, 2013!

SHINee Covers Day

I have a friend who does these cool drum covers of songs from various artists. He posts them on to YouTube from time to time. He's a music teacher, so this is his way of sharing his love of music. He often gets requests for K-Pop songs from followers or friends, and he just posted a SHINee one called "Dream Girl". He never used to like K-Pop, but I don't know if it's because he never knew about it, or was only into American Pop, like I was. If you like K-Pop or SHINee, check it out below. Enjoy!


And just in case you haven't gotten enough of SHINee, here's a cover my friend did on one of their other hits, "Sherlock".(Clue + Note)



Funny how he knows about all these K-Pop artists. He has some KARA and T-Ara on his channel, too. He posted once that he recognized a K-Pop song while he was out eating with his family at a restaurant. Who does that? I told him he was "K-Popified", lol. Goes to show how much the Hallyu wave and K-Pop has spread.

Sources: Xymbalreborn's YouTube Channel. All rights to the covers go to Xymbalreborn. All rights to the music and music videos of SHINee go to SM Entertainment.

Monday, March 11, 2013

Review: The Romantic and Idol Season 2 Finale



It's been one heck of an interesting second season and finally it came down to this. What happened with the quadrangle that was Minhyuk, Yewon, Jonghun and Jiwon?

After a brief tease at the beginning of all the idols at the airport waiting to go back to Seoul, the show got into the final day.

Before the final selections, each idol could go on a free (as long as agreed upon mutually) date with a person of their choice. Here's the pairings:

Minhyuk and Jiwon (They got paired up first)
Kevin was a no show (He had to go back to Seoul for a "schedule")
G.Na and Eunyoung were paired with N
Jonghun and Yewon


Jonghun and Yewon
Jonghun is up pretty much up at the crack of dawn for his date with Yewon. Of course he would want to spend as much time as he could with her! But Yewon is late. Seriously late. She keeps him waiting for about an hour and a half. When she finally does appear, she asks him if he's been waiting long. And he responds that he's only been waiting for an hour and a half! Whether he was exaggerating or not, we'll never know. But oh my god....how insensitive of Yewon in the first place.

They finally set off on bikes and head into town where they visit a cute little cafe that overlooks the ocean. There they sit down at a little cafe and enjoy the view of the sparkling ocean in front of them. After they enjoy a little drink and some additional primping on Yewon's part, they went outside to take couple photos at a little stone wall overlooking the ocean. Soon after they take off on scooters to a lighthouse. If you've ever seen "Heartstrings"/"You've Fallen For Me" starring Jung Yong Hwa of CNBlue and Park Shin Hye, you'll recognize this is the same lighthouse from episode 1.

The Threesome, G.Na, N and Eunyoung
Since Kevin had to return to Seoul for a performance/appearance, these three were stuck together. Seems like they didn't want to stay home, so they ended up going to a museum to kill some time. Then they sit down at a cafe and start a bit of grilling on Eunyoung's interviewing skills. Cut to Eunyoung's interview with the PD's where she says that if N were not to choose her, if she ever saw him again, she wouldn't acknowledge him. And she would say she wanted Vixx's Ken to come on the show instead.

Minhyuk and Jiwon
Out of all the couples, I must say that Minhyuk and Jiwon looked like they were having a blast together. They went out to what looked like a ranch and spent time horseback riding and talking in the meadows. Jiwon is curious about Minhyuk's feelings and he admits that he told Yewon the night before that his feelings had changed a bit in the past couple of days. Both felt that Yewon was just as confused as Minhyuk was about their feelings. Minhyuk is confident that Yewon will pick him and he feels that he should just go where his heart leads him in the end.

Jiwon is still confused as well. She has a tough decision between N and Minhyuk. One makes her feel like they are just siblings, the other seems more of a grown man to her that she can relate to.

FINAL SELECTION DAY
As the group heads into final selections, tensions are high. It's the moment of truth, that everyone has been waiting for....

First up is...G.Na. (Oo boy...)
As the four men come up to her out of all of them G.Na looks nervous not wanting to look at them. Jonghun looks pensive like he's about to puke.

As the PD's countdown ends, one by one the men leave. But....Jonghun hesitated? And...it's only for a moment as he turns away regretfully. G.Na is stunned. She began to cry silently and says that the show really is cruel.

Next is Eunyoung
As all four men near her you can see the look of surprise on her face when she sees all four. Then the countdown begins. And at the end, as with G.Na, all the men turn to leave. But, sweetie Kevin turns back and gives Eunyoung a hug. Now that's a man!

We're finally left with the two young maidens who most of the men we're vying for.

Yewon is first.
At the end of the countdown Jonghun and Minhyuk are the only ones left. Not surprising. She asks them both what it was about her that they found so interesting. Jonghun is honest and said from the moment her first laid eyes on her, it was only her and no one else. Minhyuk agreed that even though they had their uncomfortable moments, he still felt attracted to her.

As the PD's push Yewon to make a decision, she haltingly walks towards...Minhyuk. Jonghun stands on the side with his face turned away, his jaw set in a hard line. I will never forget that look. It was such a look of hurt, and yet, you could see his pride in tatters in the expression on his face.

As Minhyuk and Yewon embraced, Jonghun walked silently away.



Jiwon is the last one and as two men come up to her she is obviously disappointed not to see Minyuk. And at the end of the countdown....she shakes both of their hands and decides not to choose either N or Kevin. Ouch.

As they all gather back at the bus, all greet Minhyuk and Yewon with cheers and applause. All except for Jonghun who is already sitting on the bus by himself. At least one couple paired up.

My take on this show/season...meh..

It was excruciating to watch. I am an FT Island fan, and it was hard for me to watch Jonghun go through the dating process. Even though I am already taken, I was still caught up in the melodrama of fangirling. I hoped he would find someone he liked. I truly wanted him to be happy. But I hated the fact that he seemed to end up wasting his time on Yewon who didn't return his affections. I also felt he could have been more...understanding and flexible. He didn't really seem to care about other people's feelings at times, and that was hard to watch. I understand that he was just trying to be true to his heart, but sometimes the heart has to remain open.

I felt bad for G.Na and Eunyoung. Both left their hearts out in the open. And both were rejected.

I wished Kevin threw himself into the experience more despite all the little pairings.

And as for the Jonghun/Minhyuk/G.Na/Yewon/Jiwon pentatrangle, what a mess. I was really rooting for Minhyuk and Jiwon because they looked so cute together. They seemed to match personalities. Yewon I just found dang irritating. Who forces someone to do aegyo when they're not comfortable?

Well, at least someone paired up...

Hope you enjoyed reading my reviews! Sorry this one was so late. I had a hard time writing this up. And I was also really sick the past couple of weeks.

With that, I hope you enjoyed the videos on this post. I felt it really suited the theme well. Remember, I don't own them, all rights go to the owners.

If you want to see the season in full, dramacrazy.net has this and the first season.

Keep coming back to read my blog, thank you for your support!





Happy Birthday to FT Island's Choi Jong Hun!

Happy birthday Jong Hunnie! Or rather, at the end of this post, happy belated birthday. =D

FT Island's fearless, studious leader celebrated his 23rd birthday on March 7th. (And that's 24th birthday if you're counting in Korean years. When you're born in Korea, your actual birth day is when they start to count the years.)

To commemorate the event, I found a video FT Island's "Sadeul Cheorum"/"Like Birds" music video. And a video from FT Island's Winter Night in Yokohama concert back in 2011. (At least, I think that's when it's from.)



He's shown his "romantic" side, with his heart on his sleeve and full of determination on the show the Romantic and the Idol Season 2, now see the charismatic rocker, musical side of this man that all of FT Island fans have come to love.





This video is actually one of my favorites. I have grown up playing and singing this song at different performances. And he brings a totally different feel to it that I totally appreciate.

Happy birthday Jong Hun, and many more! Rock on!

(All credits to FT Island and FNC Entertainment)

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

G.Na's Fiery Comeback

G.Na's sexy new concept.




I have become a fan of G.Na the idol (not singer, now) ever since I've seen her on the second season of the Romantic and Idol. (A/N: Most of my reviews are up for the season. Sorry, still missing the finale. I hope to do it this week to cap it all off. Plus, I don't like to leave loose ends.)


She was absolutely endearing on the Romantic and Idol. She had a mature charm about her, and a natural style and beauty that I think comes with age.

There have been hints about her comeback this spring, so I've been on the lookout for it. Finally, AllKpop released her first and second teaser photos from her agency, Cube Entertainment.

She's donned a sexy look with a new haircut and super bright red hair that adds an accent to her fair skin.

G.Na sporting a new fiery red 'do and hearts.
I was interested to see just what the theme to her title track(s) will be and it looks like it will be a love song! Hmm...According to the article I read, her next track is entitled "Oops!" and it is about being in love with a younger man! Hmm...for those of you that were following her on the Romantic and Idol, you know that she had her eye on FT Island's leader, Choi Jong Hun. Throughout the 4 days there she seemed to always get paired up with him. It was as if fate threw them together.

I hope it will be a hit! Stay tuned for her comeback and with her new track to be released on Korea's version of Valentines Day, "White Day", on March 14th!

Source: AllKPop

Monday, March 4, 2013

Happy Birthday Lee Hong Ki!

If you're a Primadonna or even a good fan of FT Island, you'll know that today, March 2nd, marked another special day. Lead vocalist Lee Hong Ki turned 23 (I hope I did the math right) today!

Although no birthday plans were seen or announced (to my knowledge anyways), it looked like it was work as usual as he had tweeted that they were hard at work on a new song. I won't translate it literally because I don't think he wanted to be working on his birthday, haha. But if you follow him, he tweeted it that night and there's a cute pic of him in his hoodie.

이 홍기 생일을 축하합니다!
おたんじょび おめでとう!

Sorry, didn't have a very good photo of him in my library. Sigh, this will have to do. It's at least recent, at the beginning of the year. Thick glasses and all, still かこいい!



Friday, March 1, 2013

BB What?

I've often wondered how Korean women have such beautiful skin. Is it the water they drink? Their diet? Are they just born with good skin genes? Combination of all the above? I couldn't be sure. But I know one thing I can be sure of is that their makeup lines certainly help in up keeping their skin with that beautiful translucent fair glow.

I researched a bunch of product lines. All claiming to be all natural and healthy for your skin. Now, some will say that putting any type of silicone or dimethicone in a cream is not healthy, but I honestly don't know how else you would be able to have any cream adhere smoothly onto skin.

After googling lines such as Étude House, Missha, Nature Republic and The Face Shop, I decided to finally try it for myself.

The simplest way to tackle this, I felt, was to go with the most popular product out on the market, the beneficial Bb cream. The "bb" stands for "blemish balm" or "beauty balm". Full of moisturizers, sunscreen and vitamins (depending on the line), doctors used to give these creams to patients who were recovering from laser surgery or burns to soothe and protect their tender skin.

Which to try first? Well, other than trying to order them off the net, I felt it would be easier to go with those that I could try in person first. The Face Shop and Nature Republic are stores nearest to me so I opted to go with them first.

I tried products from The Face Shop first. It was closest to wear I live. They offered several bb creams ranging from heavy to light coverage. I decided to try Lovely Me:Ex bb cream (don't ask me what ex means, I haven't the foggiest) and Magic Cover bb cream. (I also tried a bunch of samples like their aqua and waterproof, but I won't cover them here.)

The Magic Cover bb cream comes in two shades, light and natural beige. I am more of a natural beige. It is light, yet creamy with substance. If you put a bit onto your skin it doesn't run and it's not sticky at all. I learned from the first application that you really do not need a lot. I pumped out what I thought would be a reasonable amount, like a dime sized amount, and it was too much. When I put it on my face I looked as white as a sheet. But, my skin looked really smooth. Really, less is more! The cream has a almost baby oil smell and dries matte. It really covered the redness on my cheeks and some imperfections.

The second product I tried was Lovely Me:Ex bb cream. This brand tailors more towards the younger teen audience. Whereas the Magic Cover bb cream had some moisturizers, wrinkle reducer and SPF 40, this one only had SPF 20. And that's it. The cream is a little loose, but still not runny or sticky. It only comes in one shade, or so I saw, and it's actually the best color match to my skin. It's a natural beige with yellow undertones. The Magic Cover had more pink undertones so it kinda made my skin look gray. The Lovely Me cream smelled mostly like baby powder. It's addicting. I actually found with this cream I had to put more on. If you're looking for good coverage, this cream doesn't cut it. For instance, I have under eye circles, but this barely covers it. What it did do was make my skin look slightly made up and imparted a dewy look to my skin. This eventually fades a bit, but there is still that soft sheen.

I love both of these so far, they really sit well on my skin. And they do not rub off or cake under my glasses. Yes, I'm a dork, I wear glasses. I can switch between the both of them depending on my mood. I imagine you can also layer both with a powder foundation, but being that I don't like a lot of makeup on, I didn't apply any on. I included a side by side comparison of how the products looked on my skin. The left is the Magic Cover and the other is the Lovely Me.

Very cool makeup, I can't wait to head to Nature Republic to try their line!

Hope you liked my ramble, comment if you tried these products or if you had another recommendation on what else to try!