Contemporary Korean

Fat man tell us about this most amazing contemporary Korean food.
Check it out

http://www.fatmanseoul.com/2009/09/16/w-gourmet-contemporary-korean/

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julie and julia

http://www.julieandjulia.com/
for the trailer

This is a fun Movie . Must for a foodie

Julia Child (August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American chef, author and television personality. She introduced French cuisine and cooking techniques to the American mainstream through her many cookbooks and television programs, notably The French Chef which premiered in 1963. Her most well-known cookbook is Mastering the Art of French Cooking, published in 1961.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Child

http://www.biography.com/articles/Julia-Child-9246767

WATCH the original Julia Child
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWmvfUKwBrg

this is great
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3u1ljheBtY&NR=1

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National Organic Week

check out
http://www.organicsupermarket.ie/news/
for all your organic needs

National Organic Week 2009 - Events Listing

http://www.bordbia.ie/aboutfood/organicfood/Pages/NationalOrganicWeek2009-EventsListing.aspx

Is organic worth it?

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/pricewatch/2009/0914/1224254469124.html

Despite the recession and a belief that they’re more expensive, sales of organic food are up 16 per cent on last year – and that’s on top of price-cutting and increased competition, writes CONOR POPE

IT’S BEEN a tough year for organic food producers. As if convincing people to spend a little more on food in the middle of a full-blown depression wasn’t hard enough, they’ve also had to combat a headline-generating scientific report which was published this summer casting doubt on the nutritional benefits of their produce.

Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, acting at the behest of the British government’s Food Standards Agency, found that consumers were paying higher prices for organic food partly because they believed it had health benefits. After carrying out a review of 162 scientific papers published over 50 years, however, the researchers found there to be no significant difference.

“A small number of differences in nutrient content were found to exist between organically and conventionally produced foodstuffs, but these are unlikely to be of any public health relevance,” says Alan Dangour, one of the report’s authors. “Our review indicates that there is currently no evidence to support the selection of organically over conventionally produced foods on the basis of nutritional superiority.”

Organic food campaigners immediately countered by saying the researchers did not take into account the health effects of pesticides and other contaminants found in some foods. They highlighted the fact that the absence of pesticides is the single most important reason why people in Ireland continue to be drawn towards organic food in the face of downturns and downbeat scientific assessments.

At least the organic producers will be able to draw breath and bask in some positive publicity this week as National Organic Food Week continues.

Lorcan Bourke heads up Bord Bia’s Organic Marketing Development Group. Given his brief, it is hardly surprising that he neatly sidesteps questions over organic food’s nutritional superiority and value for money.

“All I can really say is that there are a lot of studies and a lot of very contradictory findings. The only thing I can say with any degree of certainty is that the number one reason people tell us they buy organic is the pesticide issue. It is the most regulated area of farming and consumers are buying into the ‘free from’ aspect.”

But it must be tough to convince people to buy organic when they are struggling to make ends meet in many aspects of their lives?

In the UK there has been a sharp rate of decline in the popularity of organic food over the last 18 months as people concentrate on budget shops. One of the problems in the UK has been the fickle nature of organic buyers, while Irish shoppers tend to become hardened converts, Britain’s are more prone to dip in and out of the sector, Bourke says.

There is, Burke accepts, a degree of price sensitivity on evidence now. People who would have happily paid up to 25 per cent more for food because it was organic are now saying that price gaps of more than 10 per cent are a big turn off. There is, however, “a strong cohort who will pay whatever is necessary for organic food”.

That cohort is keeping the sector in Ireland surprisingly buoyant. According to new research from Bord Bia, the value of organic sales in Ireland increased by 13 per cent in the year to July. In the first seven months of this year sales reached €124 million compared to €104 million over the same period last year – a 16 per cent rise.

The research also showed that 73 per cent of Irish grocery shoppers purchased an organic product in the last month, with fruit, vegetables and dairy products accounting for the most popular purchased categories.

But how much more are people prepared to pay for organic food? Bord Bia asked that question last year and found that 47 per cent of all consumers would “definitely” or “probably” buy organic if a 10 per cent premium is charged but, if the price differential between organic and conventional produce is any bigger, interest tails off dramatically.

“The big problem now across the board is that there is less money in people’s pockets. People have lost their jobs and that forces them to make real decisions at the point of sale,” says Burke.

Darren Grant is an ex-Dell worker who opened the Organic Supermarket in Blackrock, Co Dublin in July last year “on the day the recession was announced”.

Despite his poor timing, he says business has boomed through the bust. “We have seen a 45 per cent increase in trade in the last year. People have started to realise the true value of food and, instead of buying expensive ready meals, they are buying the raw ingredients.”

The store has an organic version of everything and claims to be the only exclusively organic supermarket in the State. “We want to bring organic food to the masses. In the past it was seen as elitist,” says Grant.

The buyers at Lidl and Aldi would hardly agree and for quite some time both discount stores have shown a healthy appetite to increase the range of organic foods to be found on their shelves. Both stores recognise there is a market for organic produce and both are prepared to sell at comparatively low prices to bring people through their doors.

TO MARK NATIONAL ORGANIC WEEK, Lidl has gone a step further and slashed the price of its organic food. Its organic carrots are €0.85 a kilo compared with a normal price of €1.66 while dozens of other items are selling at half price in the store for the rest of the week.

While Aldi hasn’t gone quite as far as Lidl this week, it is still selling organic food at knock-down prices and cheap as chips organic vegetables are also on offer in Tesco where price-matching with the German discounters seems to be the order of the day.

The Organic Supermarket may not be able to quite match the big boys price for price, but it does bring something unique to market. “Our lettuce is picked at 6am in Wicklow and on our shelves at 8am, so it’s as fresh as it can be and there’s no food miles to worry about either,” says Gran

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Wild garlic, broad-leaved garlic,

In Season is Wild Garlic a beautiful white flower with a lovely leaf great for salads and stews . With a wonderful aroma of garlic from it . The best thing of all about the wonderful plant its free . It grows everywhere at the minute . Use in the place of spinach in pies or on pizza.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramsons

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Canadian Press

http://www.thestar.com/fpLarge/video/607103

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Seoul Eats Brings Us Rice Cake Competition

Image from here

Think of this as the Iron Chef for rice cake. The winner will not only get fame, they will also win 2,000,000 won. You heard me correctly. 2 million won. The Second Place winner will win 1 million won, Third Place 500,000, and fourth 300,000. Not bad huh?

For more Info Check out Seoul Eats here

Tteok (pronounced [t͈ʌk]) (also spelled ddeock, duk, dduk, ddeog, or thuck) is a Korean cake made with glutinous rice flour (also known as sweet rice or chapssal), by steaming. Normal rice flour can be used for some kinds of tteok. There are hundreds of different kinds of tteok eaten year round. In Korea it is customary to eat tteok guk (tteok soup) on New Year's Day and sweet tteok at weddings and on birthdays. It is often considered a celebratory food and can range from rather elaborate versions with nuts and fruits down to the plain-flavored tteok used in home cooking. Some common ingredients for many kinds of tteok are mung bean, red bean, and sweet red bean paste, Korean mugwort, jujube and other dried fruits, sesame seeds and oil, sugar, andpine nuts.

http://encyclopedia.vbxml.net/Ddeok

Image from here

If only I was still in the country for this I would so be there.
Here is a Video on how to make Rice cake
http://www.maangchi.com/recipes/gyungdan

My Favourite 송편

http://www.maangchi.com/recipes/songpyeon

http://www.kimchibulgogi.com/sweet-rice-powder-cake-recipe/

These Are really cute
http://mykoreankitchen.com/2007/02/02/strawberry-rice-cakes-for-my-valentine/

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David Chang

David Chang is a noted American chef. He is chef/owner of Momofuku Noodle Bar, Momofuku Ko and Momofuku Ssäm Bar in New York City.^[1]
His Parents are Korean .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Chang

He taught English in Japan for a short while
.
His first restaurant and most famous Momofuku he see it as fast food.
http://www.momofuku.com/

Deluxe bo ssam dinner package from Momofuku.

Package 350 dollars for 8-10 people
Bo Ssam with sauces, Lettuce and rice
choose 4 seasonal Items
10 pork buns
cole slaw
sweet potato puree
brussels sprouts
azuli beans with bacon
kimchi apples
collard greens
Blondie pie

Bo Ssam is one of my favourite thing to call in on a Sunday
http://macs-foodkorea.blogspot.com/2008/06/bo-sam.html
http://macs-foodkorea.blogspot.com/2009/02/calling-in-bo-sam.html


Here he talks for an hour with Charlie Rose
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/9181


More Reading here -here
http://gothamist.com/2008/03/17/the_new_yorker.php

Chang opened Momofuku Noodle Bar in 2004 after having an epiphany: "Why can't I cook something simple? I'm not an awesome cook—I just want to make noodles." MacFarquhar writes, "The idea of Noodle Bar from the start was to take the humblest meal—a bowl of noodles, a pork bun—and, with a combination of obsessive devotion and four-star technique, turn it into something amazing."

http://newyork.seriouseats.com/2008/03/david-chang-as-he-opens-momofuku-ko.html

Mr. Chang was born in northern Virginia, where his father, an immigrant from South Korea, worked in the restaurant industry, eventually opening a restaurant. His family wanted Mr. Chang to go into law or finance, but he studied religion in college and graduated with no particular goal. In his early 20's, he lived in London, taught English in Japan and had a variety of jobs in New York, from bussing tables to working in the finance industry. Finally, he enrolled in culinary school. He worked at Mercer Kitchen in Manhattan, then got a job in the kitchen at Craft after agreeing to answer phones for a month. After two years at Craft, he returned to Japan and worked at a small soba shop, then at a restaurant in the Tokyo Park Hyatt, followed by a year at Café Boulud in New York. Saying he was ''completely dissatisfied with the whole fine dining scene'' and its pretentiousness, he decided to open his own restaurant -- working with his Momofuku partner and co-chef, Joaquin Baca.

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/david_chang_chef/index.html
David Chang Cooks With Marta Stewart
Here

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Pigs

Maybe some nice Sam gyup sal

LIKE style on the runway, style for pigs is changeable. With their abundant fat, the curly-haired Mangalitsa pigs of Hungary were all the rage a century ago. But as time went on, they became has-beens.

Now that succulent pork is back in fashion, the Mangalitsa — saved from near extinction on a farm here at the edge of Hungary’s bleak and barren Great Plain — are making a comeback.

Text from the NEW YORK TIMES here

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Kyung Hyes Amazing Apple Jam

My Friend Kyung hye sent me over the most amazing Apple jam She tells me there is Apples, sugar, Lemon juice and cinnamon. I cant stop eating it . Thank you Kyung Hye (Hope I spelled your name right )

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Ballymaloe cooking school In Gourmet

http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2008/05/ballymaloecookeryschool

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I like this

Obamas to Plant Vegetable Garden at White House

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/20/dining/20garden.html?ref=dining

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Pig head for sale Korean Market in Photos

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My last Weekend April 4th

So I am leaving Korea April 10th to go to cooking school. I am going to Ballymaloe school in Cork In Ireland. I start April 20th I am going to try and keep blogging . And will probably rename the blog A food journey in Korea-Ireland-
So I am having my final weekend party in Suncheon Info here
Suggestions what I should try and eat for the next 3 weeks would be good and what to cook would also be nice . This is the Final stretch.

T

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Pineapple sage

I was wondering in class today when I came across a plant in the window its called Pineapple sage . It smelled so good.

Salvia elegans, commonly called Pineapple sage, is a perennial shrub native to oak and pine scrub forests at 6,000-9000 ft. in the highlands of Mexico and Guatemala.^[1] It has tubular red flowers and an attractive scent to the leaves that is similar to pineapple. It produces numerous erect leafy stems and flowers in the late autumn. The red flowers are attractive to hummingbirds and butterflies. In a highland temperate forest in central Mexico, pineapple sage was found to be one of the three most-visited species by hummingbirds.^{[2]
From here}

^{What could you cook with this? . I found these Ideas.}

Walnut & pineapple sage paste

2 cups walnuts, 2 cups (packed) p. sage leaves, 3 cloves garlic, 1/3 to 1/2 cup walnut oil. It's wonderful on pork and chicken. I also sauteed some leeks in butter, added white wine and the walnut/p. sage paste and used it as a topping for grilled salmon: heavenly! From here

You can fry the leaves and serve as an appetizer: dip them in egg thinned with water and olive oil, dip in flour, fry quickly in oil, salt and pepper. from here

Here is lots of great Ideas http://www.nefffamilyfarm.com/PineappleSage.html

Pineapple Sage Salsa
2 cups fresh pineapple cut into 1/2" pieces
1/2 cup sweet red pepper
1/4 cup onion, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon chipolte pepper, crushed (hot chili powder can be substituted)
1/4 cup pineapple sage flowers, coarsely chopped

Note: To get 1/4 cup of flowers, you'll need 20 or more flower stems of pineapple sage. It's a bit tedious, but you need to pluck the tiny, bright red flowers one-by-one. It's okay of you end up with a little bit of the sepals (the green stuff around the base of the flower.)

Combine all these ingredients in a nonmetallic bowl. Cover, then refrigerate for at least 12 hours before using. This allows plenty of time for the flavors to meld.

The salsa is also good as a dip with chips or served on seafood. And believe it or not, it tastes pretty good on ice cream, too! You might consider eliminating the onions, even though they're sweet.

Pineapple Sage Chicken

1/4 C Teriyaki or Tamari Or Soy sauce
1/4 C honey
1/2 C Olive Oil
2 TBS lemon Juice
2 TBS Apple juice
2 tsp ground ginger
Handful of Pineapple Sage leaves chopped
Boneless Chicken Breasts
Marinade chicken in above ingredients. Cook on grill
Serve with Pineapple kabobs

Pineapple sage is extensively used in Mexican traditional medicine, especially for the treatment of anxiety. Although scientific information about these medicinal properties is scarce, a preliminary study on mice found support for the plant potentially having antidepressant and anti-anxiety properties.
From here

I cant wait to try some of these.

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My St Paddys Day recipes in the Korean Herald

So I made it into the Korean Herald bringing Authentic Irish home cooking to Korea. All the Irish out there will be happy to know There is a Paddy's day party here in Suncheon On Saturday In Elvis. Not a PATTY'S DAY AN All Irish Paddy's day full of great craic.
If your in Gwangju go along and watch some Gaelic football. If your Irish why not play.

http://www.koreaherald.co.krCheck this out for the greatest sport in the World
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luQ2Vxez2V4

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The New York Times talk about South Korea, Drinks Are on the Maple Tree

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/06/world/asia/06maple.html?ref=dining

HADONG, South Korea — At this time of year, when frogs begin stirring from their winter sleep and woodpeckers drill for newly active insects, villagers climb the hills around here to collect a treasured elixir: sap from the maple tree known as gorosoe.

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Irish Pubs In the New york times

Here is a nice read ,while getting ready for Paddys day .

www.nytimes.com

“A good pub is a place devoted to conversation, with drink as the lubricant,” Mr. Barich said one evening last week. “In an American bar, the minute you finish your drink they say, ‘Do you want another?’ You’d never see that in a good pub.”

In years past, an Irish pub was a family-run business, and the publican more than likely lived upstairs — an arrangement that created an intimacy across the bar.

“A good publican is a person with character, concerned about the welfare of patrons,” Mr. Barich said. That a barman could aspire to one day own a pub himself made for a system of dues paying that also resulted in better service.

But with trophy pubs now commanding as much as $8 million, a shift has been made to partnerships or corporations that may own and manage several bars. At the same time, more Irish are drinking wine, and drinking at home or in restaurants, chipping away at the social relevance of pubs.

The changes are most pronounced in the countryside, where verdant fields gave way to suburban sprawl in a period of rampant economic growth (now considerably tamed) known as the Celtic Tiger. The farmers who once treated rural pubs as community centers are selling off their fields, or else being frightened away from the barstool by strict drunken driving laws. “The loss of those country pubs signifies a huge change,” Mr. Barich said.

I think I have to love this quote the best and strongly agree.

“Nobody wants drunks in Irish pubs because they’re boring,” he said, “and the last thing you want to be called is boring.”

Instead, traditional pubs foster warmth and fraternity.

“For the couple of hours that you’re in there,” Mr. Kirwan said, “you mesh with this community and your personal troubles are shed.”

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More reading about Korean cooking

This is one of my favourite cooking blogs Kitchen Wench especially because there are a mix of recipes western and Korean. Check out the beautiful photo above of Korean spicy deep fried chicken.
http://www.insanitytheory.net/kitchenwench/

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50 Top food blogs

Some nice reading here in the timesonline (The London times)
Top 50 food blogs
Number one is Orangette

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/real_food/article5561425.ece





Congratulations to The Daily Spud who won the Best Food/Drink Blog Irish Blog Awards

There's a full list of winners here.

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Matthew Amster-Burton Talks about Soondae

A Soondae Supper

Gourmet is talking about Soondae.

I especially like soon dae as it reminds me of black pudding from home . I talked about this before here
http://macs-foodkorea.blogspot.com/2008/05/soon-dae_27.html

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