The Korean Pavilion

So, I waited a LONG time to finally go check out the "Korean Pavilion" in Chapultepec
here in Mexico City,one of the main reasons was that noone really wanted to go with me to see a (not so much for many people) Pavilion...another reason was that I wanted to take good quality pictures, wich I can not take with my cellphone or my mom's digital cam :s and what's the point of going there and not being able to show you what this Pavilion is, right?
Finaly my sister is back in Mexico and who better than her (The photographer) to go with me and check this thing that got me excited everytime I walkpass this place,we went yesterday to have a nice afternoon taking pictures and just walking around in a gorgeous day....until.... WAIT!!! let me tell you a little bit about the "history" of this Pavilion:
The Korean Pavilion was given to Mexico in March 8th 1968 due to the Olympic Games celebrated in Mexico and also to celebrate 100 years of the 1st time Koreans migrate to Mexico. The Pavilion is situated in Chapultepec on the "Parque de la 3a edad (Park of the Third Age)" this Park is meant to entretain/amuse/serve as distraction to the 3rd age people and it was presented by the Embassidor of the Republic of Korea in Mexico (Cho Kyu-Hyung) also the President of the Comitee to celebrate the100 years of the migration of Koreans to Mexico (Dong Soo Suh), the inauguration presented the National Ballet of Korean Dance and also played some traditional music.....ok ok I know this might not be so interesting but I had to talk about the history of the place!!!! not everything is "pretty pictures" ;) so, the important thing here is... It was given to Mexico by the Korean people because of the deep friendship between both countries (as Dong Soo Suh said....)

Anyway... so my sister and I went to this park yesterday, turns out that if you are not over 60 years old you can not have access to the park!!! isn't that crazy?? don't get me wrong I know it is the "Park of the third age" but if I go to the Zoo they will not let me in because im not an animal?? O.o I was so upset because the guard wouldnt let us in, even thou we told him we just wanted to take pics and then would leave and this guard said he couldn't let us in because the park closes at 5pm and it was 4:50 and then asked us to come back another day and that's when my sister asked if we were going to be able to get in the next day and he said NO you need to be over 60 to get in... o.O Pft!! so why would he ask us to come back???? by this point I was so upset that I just wanted to run with my sis' cam and don't let the guard catch me lol.... it was so sad because I really really really wanted to see this Korean Pavilion :( , but my sis took some pics from the outside.... but one day... I'll be 60 (well...maybe haha) and I'll go to that park!!!

Okei!! so here are some of the pics....... Enjoy!!!!
(Special thanks to my sister for such a great pics! <3 ya!)

KOREAN PAVILION
Pagoda of the Korean Architecture school from the VIII century. This small pagoda is a replica of the one in the central garden of Seul, Korea, which is the place where the Korea’s declaration of independence was read.

-Gisela V

Kimchi!!!!

Kim-whaaaat?!!!!

According to Wiki...Kimchi is a traditional Korean fermented dish made of vegetables with varied seasonings.
It is most commonly made with napa cabbage and other vegetables such as radish, green onion, chive, and cucumber.
Kimchi is the most common banchan, or side dish, in Korean cuisine.
So here's Gisela's Mexican Version of Kimchi
(I don't want to offend anyone with this recipe since I know there are over 100 different recipes so here's mine)

Ingredients

Napa Cabbage
spring onions 
Radish
Garlic
Fish Sauce
Chilli Powder
Ginger
Ajinomoto
Water
Sea Salt

Wash the Cabbage and cut it or separate the leaves
Slice the Radish, and chop the onions, garlic and ginger.
In a Large bowl or cacerole put the watter and salt and then put the cabbage and let rest in for 5 to 7 days (in the freezer
or if you are in a cold water it can stay outside,,,covered ofcourse!)
After those 5 to 7 days take it out and put a layer of cabagge, garlic, chilli powder, onion, ginger, fish sauce, radish
and so on until you finish with all the ingredients and it has to go back to the freezer for 2 to 3 days more.
Then you can take it out and enjoy!! :)

It has to look like this...

-Gisela V.

ps. Check this put ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u5wxbGWB7Q

Korean Experience

So, after reading TheSeoulSearcher blog I wanted to get some Makgeolli, after work I decide to go to the Korean Neighbourhood here in Mexico City, because I knew I could find some nice Korean stores, when I was finally there I saw this cute little store with the name in Korean so I walk in and the owner is obviously Korean and gave me this weird look that made me nervous, at first I wanted to greet her in Hangul but after that look I knew I didn’t want to say Hello in the wrong name (pft yea insecurity….) so I greet her in Spanish and try to ask for the Korean Rice Wine as slow as I can just so she can understand me, she said she does have it but the start yelling at someone I assumed after a couple of minutes she has to go to the back and get a girl, a Mexican girl so she can make the sale and translate (it’s in those moments when I wish the most to have a Fluent Hangul or at least a descent one…) , note that all this time I was just standing in the store because I didn’t know what to do…. So finally the girl comes out and they start having a loud talk (the Mexican girl and the Owner), the girl comes with a big white bottle of the Makgeolli and I ask if they take cards (yea as always I don’t have cash on me lol) they don’t so I have to go out and look for an ATM….10 min later I go back to the store and now there’s the owner and her son (I think) so I went with the Mexican girl to ask for the bottle of wine and go straight to the owner to pay…. I don’t know why but I kinda felt like I was invading her “space” (or should I say her Store??), I didn’t know if it was a Korean Only Store, everything was in Hangul, even the tv show they were watching, I had never felt like that among Korean people, they are always so warm but this time I felt weird just to be standing there waiting for my change…… perhaps it was awkward because they didn’t speak Spanish and we had no way to communicate (except for the girl)…..
I kept going expecting to find other stores, so I find a 2nd store, this one is smaller than the 1st one and a bit darker, I wanted to go with the Korean lady over the counter but then I saw another Mexican girl making some kind of sushi and decided to go with her since I didn’t want the complication of the language again and also because over the counter there were like 6 other people buying groceries… I couldn’t find what I was looking for in that store and I didn’t ask what that sushi was made of (which I regret now, but I guess I’ll go back one of these days..), I walk out and expect to find this Big Store I saw once a few months ago, I find the “big store” is called SEOUL MARKET and it’s way bigger that the other 2 stores together, actually is like a small Wal Mart, the owner is sitting behind a desk right in front of the doors and again a Mexican guy (yup, this time it was a Guy) comes up and ask me what do I need, I ask again for the Wine (wanted to check prices since the 1st bottle cost $130 Mexican pesos (around $11 USD), he offered Soju but this time I wasn’t looking for Soju (I have 2 bottles at home I got last year at the Fair) so I try to explain this Rice Wine is softer and like white with a “milky” taste (I tried to remember how the SeoulSearched described it lol) and he hands me this bottle that cost only $50 pesos but it wasn’t as pretty as the other one I had already bought… the guy said it was like PULQUE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulque) wich is a Mexican beverage (I have to say…I had never tried Pulque EVER, my mom and some of my relatives love it….so I thought this Wine would be a nice thing to offer them…) I wanted to see every detail of the store but for some weird reason this guy was following me, don’t know if he was trying to “help” me or just checking I wasn’t going to steal something lol, they had like 50 different kind of noodle soups, vegetables, sauces, kimchi “to go” , I have to say I LOVED that store, it was so BIG and full with all this things I had only see on TV (or internet haha) I decided to get Korean Cabbage to make Kimchi because I had wanted to cook it for quite some time so the guy went to find a small cabbage for me (pft it wasn’t THAT small 2,200Kg  ….) then the owner and older woman asked if I was planning on making Kimchi I said Yes and she started to tell me
What was I missing, chilli powder, radish, garlic, chive, ginger, fish sauce….and on and on… so I got ½ kg of chilli powder because it was the smallest bag (I’m starting to believe this store has EVERYTHING BIG lol) and a HUGE radish, the lady was really nice giving me all her advises, telling me how she used to make Kimchi when she was young and how she’d replace ingredients it made me feel in a warm environment again, probably because she did speak Spanish , I left the market with a big smile on my face and all my heavy vegetables (lol), I have to say I love that neighborhood, and next time I go I’ll ask my Hangul teacher to come with me, that way people won’t stare at me because they don’t understand me hahaha.

I’ll start making the Kimchi and will let you guys know how it went!!!

-Gisela