The Start Of Something New

It may only be March, but 2012 has already been a busy year for me...

Tomorrow starts a brand new adventure as I begin my work as director for Latt Children's Theatre's latest show. This year to celebrate our tenth anniversary we're going back to where we began and remounting our first and most popular show, The Little Dragon.

 

Latt is the only English language repertory musical theatre for children in Korea and I've been fortunate enough to spend most of the last decade dressing up in rather silly costumes and strutting around the its stage. This time I get to work behind the scenes and bring the whole thing together - A challenge, but one I am looking forward to. The next six weeks are going to be very interesting.

 

High Street Market Goes Green

This weekend there's a chance for you to indulge in some healthier foods down at High Street Market in Itaewon...

I've never tried almond cheese and my curiosity has been piqued, so I may well head down there to sample Chef Colette's goodies. Sounds vegan-tastic!

Beautiful Books In Itaewon

Good news for Yongsan based book worms - The Beautiful Store have opened up a used book shop in Itaewon!



There's a whole wall dedicated to English language books, plus small French, German and Japanese sections.

 

And with a little careful browsing you could end up with some interesting tomes for your shelves...

 

If you fancy picking up a few secondhand books or perhaps donating a few of your own then you'll find the book shop in the building in-between the IP Boutique Hotel and the Itaewon Global Village Centre. Head east out of Itaewon station and if you reach High Street Market then you've gone too far. The shop is on the third floor of the Ansung Tower building.

 

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all and sundry. May your pots be filled with kimchi, your pockets filled with won and your fridge filled with Andong Soju. 

Goodbye 2011

And so we come to the end of another year. As I write this it is already 2012 in Korea, but back in good old Blighty we are stuck firmly in the past waiting for the last few hours of 2011 to waste away into nothingness and for the brand new year to take us into the future.

It has been a rather odd twelve months filled with much happiness, much strangeness and many different jobs. I've bounced around from performer to translator to writer to director and it has been fun to find myself in all sorts of new places doing jobs that I never managed I would be doing just a year ago.

2012 will bring many more challenges and plenty of uncertainty, but I'm looking forward to stretching myself into many different shapes and seeing whether I bend or break.

Thanks to all who have stopped by here to stare at photos or read my rumblings, you are all very welcome and I thank you for taking the time to visit.

Here's to endings and beginnings, and to the hope that 2012 will bring many exciting adventures to all of us.

Goodbye 2011, hello future...

Party, Party, Party!

It's December and my end of year party schedule is in full swing...

Last night I headed down to a Wedding Hall in Yeoksam-dong to celebrate the ending of 2011 with a bunch of bloggers and the lovely folks at Nanoomi and TNM.

 

There was a great spread put on to feed the hungry netizens who attended, plus live music from Magic Donkey and a number of "interesting" interpretations of various songs by some of the bloggers present.

It was great fun to meet up with the various Nanoomi bloggers who attended, and it provided a wonderful opportunity to come together to produce our own animal themed Christmas poses.



I've chosen the "startled badger", Joe from ZenKimchi has settled for "worried mongoose", whereas Martina and Simon from Eat Your Kimchi have settled for "rabid hamster" and "confused giraffe". Thanks to the lovely Shanna from Hanguk Drama for the photo.

A great night spent with genuinely lovely people. Plus I won a strange looking plastic ball and an adobe mug and mousepad for being able to spell the word "reader". A good end to 2011!

Ranger Ajosshi

Earlier this month I had a chance to meet up with the one and only Qi Ranger for his Your Neck Of The Woods video series. We spent a very pleasant afternoon gorging ourselves at the OKitchen and then wandering around the neighbourhood. Watch it if you dare (WARNING - contains me).

Busy

I've been a little lax on posting this month. Too many things to do and not enough energy to blog about them. Then again I'm not quite sure how interesting my ramblings on the finer points of subtitle formatting  and children's theatre would be to you all.

It has been a funny old year. I've gone from being a full time performer to a freelance writer/director in the past eight months. The children's book series I've been writing is into the illustration stage, so I get to marvel with delight at how my ideas are being transformed on the page and in the next couple of months I'll be working with a composer on the songs for the books. It's all very, very new and all very, very exciting. I've got other projects lined up for next year, but they're still under wraps, at least until contracts are signed and announcements are made.

In other news I should be filming a documentary with KBS in the coming weeks. They want to bring together a group of foreigners to eat Korean food around the peninsula. I'm not quite sure what to expect or where exactly we'll be going, but it'll be fun exploring the country with a few fellow foreign foodies.

As the year winds down I'm looking forward to some robust Korean cuisine. Soups, stews and teas to warm the stomach and the spirit.



UPDATE: Looks like I'm dropping out of the KBS documentary. Too many schedule clashes and not enough money to turn my life upside down... Ah well, it gives me more time for Christmas shopping and watching Tintin.

Blurry Heavenly Goodness

I've been rushed off my feet these past couple of weeks doing many things paid and unpaid that allow me to survive. The rest of my adventures in Jeju are coming, but first a short detour into deliciousness.

Dinner at the OKitchen in Itaewon is always a delight and with my father arriving in Seoul for a few days was a good excuse to pay a visit...



The Seafood Plate:

Top row left to right - herring, mackerel, flatfish ceviche (with lime and coriander).
Centre row left to right - crispy gizzard shad skin, oyster, sea squirt.
Bottom row left to right - flatfish, pacific saury with seaweed, grey mullet with schezuan pepper.

The seafood plate at the OKitchen is always a delight. There are old favourites that often appear alongside exciting seasonal oddities. The flatfish ceviche and the crispy gizzard shad skin are my favourites, though the oyster was highly praised by my dining companions.

 

Beef tongue with assorted pickles and a jeotgal dressing.

The thin strip of tongue mixed with the radishy fermented dressing was tasty, but nothing compared to the small circle of confit tongue topped with mustard seeds. Heavenly mustardy fatty goodness.

 

Goat cheese and sweet pumpkin tart with three citrus dressing.

Garnished with a gorgeous radish from the OKitchen farm, this cinnamon scented slice of tart was perfectly pared with a lemon, orange and grapefruit dressing.

 

Potato gnocchi with pesto.

Simple, tasty, chewy parcels of potato goodness lathered in pesto and sprinkled with cheese. Perfect for a cold November night.

 

Bayleaf sorbet.

The OKitchen refuses to rest on its laurels, producing a light and sweet palate cleanser.

 

Pork belly confit with persimmon (half dried, grilled and gastric), parsnip purée.

The star of the show. I'm not sure why more people aren't doing this. Pork and persimmon are a match made in heaven. Plus the OKitchen is possibly the only place in Korea that offers parsnip in any way, shape or form.

 

A trio of desserts.

All magnificent, with special praise going to the omija sorbet. These photos may be blurry, but the food, as always, was heavenly. OKitchen remains my favourite restaurant in Seoul and gives incredible quality and variety for ridiculously cheap prices. Visit their website here.

Too Much To Bear

To finish off our first day of Jeju exploration, we headed to the Teddy Bear Museum on the south side of the island. A chance to dry off, warm up and enjoy the thousands of bears and bear related exhibits at this quirky yet adorable place.

 

The museum has plenty of antique bears and a huge number of plush ursines from the last 100 years, but the stand out exhibits are the bear related art works...

 

Whether you're in the mood for a little Van Gogh.



Celebrating a royal wedding.

 

Reliving The Seven Year Itch.

 

Or celebrating the fashion industry.

 

They also have a couple of traditional Korean tableaux, including a wedding scene...

 

And the famous women divers of Jeju.

 

It's still good to see old friends on display and the museum is well worth checking out if you want to see a furry Mona Lisa or a Louis Vuitton clad teddy.

 

Plus in recent years they've installed their own special theatre so that you too can experience Elvis Bearsly live in concert. He's a class act!

In the interests of transparency I should tell you that my trip to Jeju was kindly paid for and provided by Korea.net and KOCIS, but all views expressed in this post are entirely my own. Much more to come...