Macaroni Market 3.0

It's been a long while since I last managed to find the time to go to Macaroni Market in Itaewon, today I managed to sneak in for lunch expecting a dose of their delightful mac and cheese... but was met with an altogether different menu.

The owners are still the same, but the chefs at the Market are all new, with Leo Kang (trained under Gordon Ramsey) leading the charge. They have switched into brasserie mode, lowered their prices (a little), offer a selection of reasonably priced wines (by the glass, half bottle and bottle) and have lunch and dinner fixed price menus, as well as a wide a la carte selection.



Before I talk about the food I feel I must mention that I'm on good terms with the owner/manager and he's always happy to talk to me about his restaurant. He was also kind enough to give me a glass of wine and 10% off the bill. So take my ramblings with a pinch of salt if you must, but I'll do my best to be fair and honest about today's lunch.

There are two lunch menus on offer: 18,000 won for soup/salad, pasta/sandwich of the day, dessert and 23,000 won for soup/salad, meat/fish of the day, dessert. I decided to go for the onion soup and linguine with chicken and artichokes in a cream sauce.



To start, the complimentary bread basket. Good texture, a little soft on the outside, but not a bad little loaf. Greatly enhanced by the normal and anchovy butter provided.



Next up, a French classic: Onion soup topped with a crouton and emmental cheese. Stick to the ribs hearty fare perfect for a winter lunchtime starter. For some reason my first mouthful contained what tasted like a whole peppercorn, but the rest of the soup was unaffected and helped remove the chill from my bones.



The linguine followed, the combination of tender bite sized pieces of chicken with the soft artichoke was a real winner. The pasta was very lightly dressed with the cream sauce, a good example to some of the hideous restaurants where your spaghetti is left to drown in a half litre of cream. A very pleasant pasta dish.



And to finish... Vanilla crème brûlée with raspberry sorbet. Certainly the star of the meal, this cute little burnt custard was slick with vanilla seeds and complimented beautifully by the scoop of sorbet on top.

To find more on Macaroni Market take a look here, here or here. You can visit their website here or give them a call on 02 749 9181.

WARNING: May Contain Improvised Dance

This won't be everyone's cup of tea, but for those of you who are interested in experimental theatre and dance in Seoul, I have some good news.

"Awesome Butoh Warrior" Jeremy Neideck is back in Korea for a few weeks making some interesting theatre with Korean artists.

He has just finished a week of workshops and is now embarking on rehearsals proper. So for those of you interested, here's a glimpse at what he's been working on...

Best North Korean Pasta Place Ever

Sometimes you find the oddest things on twitter. With thanks to @Mardhiahs...

It reminds me of eating spaghetti in Seoul 10 years ago.

Seonyudo

A photo from Seonyu island in the middle of the Han river. An absolutely beautiful place to visit in the autumn (or pretty much anytime of year).

An Unmissable Movie

I can't help but be excited by Shim Hyung-rae's new film, "The Last Godfather". His last cinematic effort, D-War, was a joyously bad sci-fi epic and his comedy take on the mafia looks like it will be even more entertaining.

From the trailer it seems as if he's trying to add a Charlie Chaplin feel to his creation, but if the slapstick is that old and the jokes that unfunny then I'm not sure if even the presence of Harvey Keitel will be able to save the film.

A quick look on imdb tells me that two of the creators of Garfield The Movie, Cheaper By The Dozen (the Steve Martin remake), as well as Daddy Day Camp (starring Cuba Gooding Jr. and directed by Wonder Years star Fred Savage) have made revisions on the script, so we'll be in safe hands when it comes to laughs, won't we?

I really want to see "The Last Godfather" and I sincerely hope that it will turn out to be a fantastic knockabout comedy. However, the little I have seen, has not got my hopes up and I'm prepared for the worst...

At least with a Shim Hyung-rae film, you're guaranteed a good laugh one way or the other.

I'll just leave you with the film's storyline, as found on imdb: "A Mafia boss trains his mentally impaired son as his successor."

Thanks for all the good times Mr. Shim...

Fishy Heaven On A Plate

This tasty little fellow is part of the OKitchen 2 seafood plate. Nine delicious morsels of underwater goodness...

The seafood plate comes with specific instructions: Start bottom right and work your way through the schezuan pepper sauce, the okra and perilla leaf sauce and then onto the tasty yet unidentifiable brown sauce. Head up a level and chow down on the crispy crab with squid ink, then the piece of salmon belly and on to the top row. Then it's pickled herring on the right, sweet and sour mackerel in the middle and fish with caviar on a blini. Finally tackle the spicy red one on the left of the middle row - Sea squirt with sesame oil and chili...

My love for OKitchen 2 grows each time I visit.

Geek Sweets

Sometimes kids just really want to chew on a keyboard and Lotte has the perfect solution.



Featuring all your favourite keys, 아이조아, is a delicious blueberry and apple flavour treat for the geekiest of sweet lovers. Fancy sucking on an escape button? Have a hankering for a taste of F1 or F4? Not to mention a delicious alt or tab key!



1,000 won buys you your own jelly keyboard substitute. Thank you Lotte for serving the computer addicted candy consuming masses.

Sir Ken Robinson and His Pictures

Nothing to do with Korea, but still worth watching if you're in anyway involved in education... Sir Ken Robinson gives his take on the education system and the problems children face.

Dinosaurs, the Korea Times and the Ajosshi

Last month I managed to catch the tail end of the HiSeoul Festival at Jamsu bridge. There were quite a few interesting performers about, but the best of the bunch were Close Act with their "Saurus" performance.



Nothing quite like a bunch of screeching dinosaurs to charm a crowd.



These Dutch performers knew how to work the audience and despite their threatening behaviour festival goers flocked round them.



This is Close Act's second time in Korea and I hope they have the opportunity to come back. Top notch giant puppetry...



As an added bonus if you look closely at this Korea Times snapshot, you can see me loitering in the bottom left hand corner. I'm the 외국인 with the 라면 머리.

Five Fools and Future Adventures

It has been a fair few weeks since I last posted. I've been busy rehearsing for our show "Five Fools". We open in just under two weeks, so as usual there's too much to do and very little time to blog.



This will be my last show with the Latt Children's Theatre family (at least for a while) and it will be strange to move on after eight years (with a six month sabbatical in the middle). As of March 2011 I'll be a free man (save for a trip to the Edinburgh International Festival as translator/surtitle supervisor for a production of The Tempest), so if any of you have any acting work on offer then please do drop me a line.



It's strange to think that I get paid a decent wage for doing the things I love. I've spent the past month or so learning to juggle clubs, play the piano accordion and relearn the clarinet. I get paid to dance, to sing and to mess about on stage.



There are few jobs where you get to dress up like someone on the Sgt. Pepper album cover and even fewer jobs where juggling in the toilets is deemed socially acceptable.



I'll miss this place when I leave, but it'll be good to start a new adventure and try out a few new things. As for now I'm just enjoying the madness of rehearsals and looking forward to a final few months on stage with this company



At least I have fabulously ridiculous facial hair, a ukulele by my side and dreams of a successful season.

Drop by and see our show if you like, it's the only circus themed English language children's musical in town and you'll get to see me wielding a clarinet as the Musician, a Takarazuka style Ringmaster, a Clown who may well be suffering from severe concussion, an incredibly acrobatic Strongman and our new star who is mute due to a rather large case of stage fright.