Korean Recipe: Japchae

I can honestly say Japchae is one of my favorite Korean dishes and just like Bibimbap is something quite easy to make.

Image: Maangchi.com

Japchae is made with potatoe noodles and vegetables, this dish is served during traditional Korean Festivities and if you have ever had Korean Food in Mexico you'll know this dish is part of the Banchan they usually serve you!

This recipe is very easy to follow, so here it goes:

1.- Cut the cucumber into thin slices, remove the seeds, marinate with salt and squeeze out the excess water,  pan-fry them for a minute

Image source: www.chow.com

2.- Cut the onion  into long, thin slices and pan-fry them
3.- Cut the carrots (lengthwise) into thin slices, season with salt and pan-fry them
4.- Cut the beef and mushrooms into thin slices and pan-fry them
5.- Beat one egg and fry into a thin layer, then cut it into thin layers.
6.- Boil cellophane noodles, the noodles should be soft but firm (Does that make sense?, check out the package instructions for better understanding!)
7.- Rinse the noodles in cold water, add soy sauce, sugar and seasame oil. Stir fry the mixture in a large pan using vegetable oit.
8.- Add the vegetables to the pan, mix and season with soy sauce, salt, sesame salt, sugar and sesame oil.
9.- Add the egg slices.

Even thou this is very easy to make, it involves too many steps and if you are lazy like me (sometimes),  you can also go to a Korean Store and buy it there :)

If you have any Korean Food recipes to share let me know!!, I'm always up to try to cook something new.

-Gisela V.

Missha Mexico

If you read some of my previous posts, you know I love Makeup and my favorite store is Missha....

Missha Store @ Insadong, Seoul

Missha is of course a Korean Brand, I discovered Missha about 4 years ago while watching a Tutorial on Youtube.... There were no stores in Mexico and the only way to get something from Missha was online (or going to Korea.....), I've heard about BB Cream before, but I didn't really know what that was, turns out BB Cream stands for Blemish Balm, this is a moisturizer, foundation and sunblock.... I ordered 2 and to my sorprise I received 2 Missha BB Creams and a bunch of freebies (yay!!!), 2 years later I still had some BB Cream and I had the oportunity to travel to Korea, I knew Missha was a must stop for me and indeed it was, I went to the one in Donghdaemun, Insadong and another one inside a subway station... my love for this Make up brand grow bigger and I bought plenty make up I still have :) 

3 months a go the very 1st Missha store was due to open in Mexico City, I wanted to go to the openning but  turns out I would be in Korea that day... I made up for it by going to Missha in Myeongdong :) and just last month I was able to visit Missha's store in Mexico City....

Photo taken from: http://misshamexico.com/

The store is located in Hamburgo 206, Colonia Juarez. Mexico, D.F., it's located in what it used to be the Seoul Market, the store is big enough and you can find everything from an Eyeliner to Moisturizer and BB Creams, this brand also offers Kpop CD's and Posters and this is the downside of the store.... 

You all know I like Kpop but I don't like going crazy about it and I don't like people doing it either.... the time I visited the store there was a Salesgirl ho approached me, I was just looking to get to know the store, I didn't plan to buy anything there that time because I got way too much while I was in Korea in September, so I just wanted to see if they had the same products and stuff.... The salesgirl wouldn't stop following me and then thought I had grabbed one of the samplers and took it with me.... I of course didn't have it and it turns out it was just missplaced and she found it 1 min later.... I DO NOT like being followed in a store! much less if they think I'm traying to steal take something. I understand its their job to offer Help since it's something "new" in Mexico and if you go to Korea you'll notice how the salesgirls are outside trying to catch everyone's attention into the store and that's OK, it might be because I was a foreigner that I wasn't followed in Korea, it took about 3 minutes for them to decide who was going to be brave enough to come to me and ask me if there was something they could do to help me in English, I asked for a few things and that was it, but she wasn't behind me trying to explain that what I was looking was Nailpolish like they did in Mexico.... excuse me but I do know what Nailpolish look like, plus I can read the signs... ok?

After that experience I just wanted to get out of there as this store is mainly directed to again Kpop fans in Mexico not to Make up lovers/artists.... this is how I got to the conclusion to buy online , I just wish not everything Korean related in Mexico was directed mostly to Kpop fans.... :(

Anyway, despite the bad experience I had at the store I still love their products :D my favorites are: 

Missha BB Cream 

Photo taken from: http://misshamexico.com

Since I don't use much make up, I usually just put on some BB Cream and if I'm going out or it's a special day/event I just add some Missha's Perfect Concealer and MAC powder :) 

Missha The Style Lipgloss Glam 

 This is my favorite gloss, I don't need to add anything else and it usually stays longer than most gloss'.

And last but not least, the Missha M Mascara (water proof), this one is light and gives a natural (yet enhanced) look to my lashes :D 

Those are my favorite products from Missha, you can go to their website here and try their stuff, also I assure you that you'll receive some pretty cool samples!!

-Gisela V. 

TalkToMeInKorean Around The World

Hey everyone!

I'm SUPER-HIPER-MEGA excited, this morning I found out that TTMIK and Guests are coming to Mexico City in October.

Mexico will be the 1st country they will visit for the TalkToMeInKorean Around The World Tour.... As some of you know I started learning Korean from Hyunwoo at Korean Class 101 about 2 years ago, ever since I've been trying to do the self-studying thing for a while but its not working very well because...well I have a full time Job, I took Cooking/Baking back and you know all the situation with my mom :( , anyway I've been following Hyunwoo for a while, I got the TTMIK lessons at MyKoreanStore, I follow them on Twitter and Facebook, so when I heard they were coming to Mexico I was SUPER-HIPER-MEGA excited and specially because Javi Maldonado, Caeli and Eat Your Kimchi (!!!!) are coming along :D

Anyway... as you can see I'm VERY excited and I want to share you the information about it.

(Just as posted by TTMIK)

TalkToMeInKorean Alrededor Del Mundo – Festival de Cultura Coreana organizado por TTMIK

Estamos muy emocionados de anunciar nuestro 1er Festival de Cultura Coreana “TalkToMeInKorean Alrededor Del Mundo”. No te preocupes si esta vez no vamos a tu país porque vamos a ir alrededor del mundo para organizar eventos y reunirnos con nuestros amigos y seguidores en varios países.

El primer evento de “TalkToMeInKorean Alrededor Del Mundo” será en:

La ciudad de México
Día y hora

Domingo 7 de octubre de 2012   / 1 PM – 6 PM
Lugar

World Trade Center, Ciudad de México
http://www.exposwtc.com/
En este evento tendremos las siguientes actividades:

1. Lecciones divertidas de cultura coreana
2. Quiz de cultura coreana
3. Concurso de lengua coreana (Una beca total para los ganadores con valor de $21,000 pesos)
4. Concurso de K-Pop Dance (Premio total para los ganadores con valor de: $21,000 pesos)
5. Concurso de canto K-Pop (Premio total para los ganadores con valor de: $21,000 pesos)
+ Más actividades divertidas y tiempo para bailar “party time”
* Vamos a seleccionar a una persona de entre los asistentes al evento para que viaje a Corea con todos los gastos pagados. ¡Podrías ser tú!

El evento tendrá lugar en el World Trade Center de la ciudad de México el día 7 de octubre de 2012. Los conductores del evento serán Caeli del canal de YouTube “Caelike” y Javi de las páginas TodoCorea.com & HablameEnCoreano.com. Los invitados y jueces serán los profesores de TalkToMeInKorean.com y Simon & Martina de la página EatYourKimchi.com!

Boletos

Los boletos comenzarán a venderse el 20 de agosto en la página MyKoreanStore.com.
Registro para los concursos

¿Quieres ser parte de los concursos y mostrar tus habilidades en coreano, baile y canto? Puedes concursar y ganar fabulosos premios. El registro para los concursos comenzará el 20 de agosto el mismo día que comenzará la venta de boletos. Los participantes de los concursos también deberán comprar su boleto para poder participar y solo podrán registrarse a un solo concurso.
Grupo de Facebook

Tenemos un grupo en Facebook donde podrás recibir más actualizaciones sobre el evento e interactuar con otros asistentes al festival. Únete al grupo siguiendo el “link” de abajo.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/TalkToMeInKoreanAlrededorDelMundoMexicoCity/


——————————————————

<English>


We are very excited to announce the 1st event of our Korean culture festival, “TalkToMeInKorean Around The World.” Don’t worry if we are not coming to your country this time, because we are going to go around the world to host events and meet up with our listeners in various countries.

The 1st event of TalkToMeInKorean Around The World is going to be at:

Mexico City, Mexico
Date & Time

October 7th, 2012  / 1 PM – 6 PM
Place

World Trade Center, Mexico City
http://www.exposwtc.com/
At this event, we will have the following activities:

1. Fun Korean Culture Lessons
2. Korean Culture Quiz
3. Korean Language Contest (Total scholarship to winners: USD $1,800)
4. K-Pop Dance Cover Contest (Total prizes to winners: USD $1,800)
5. K-Pop Singing Contest (Total prizes to winners: USD $1,800)
+ And more fun activities and party time!
* We will choose one person to travel to Korea for free among the attendees. It could be you!

The event will be held at the World Trade Center in Mexico City on the 7th of October, 2012. The MCs will be Caelie from the YouTube channel “Caelike” and Javi from TodoCorea.com & HablameEnCoreano.com. The guests and judges will be all the teachers from TalkToMeInKorean.com and Simon & Martina from EatYourKimchi.com!

Tickets

The tickets will start selling on the 20th of August at MyKoreanStore.com.
Registration for Contests

Want to join the contests and show off your Korean language skills, dancing skills or singing skills? You can join the contests and win a prize! The contest registration will start on the 20th of August, the same day when the tickets will start selling. Contest participants also need to purchase a ticket, and you can only register for one contest.
Facebook Group

We have a facebook group (in Spanish) where you can receive further updates and interact with other attendees. Join the group by following the link below.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/TalkToMeInKoreanAlrededorDelMundoMexicoCity/

Korean Cultural Festival in Mexico (Part 1)

Hello everyone!

Master of Ceremony

This past March 10th 2012, the Korean Cultural Festival took place in the City Theater (http://www.cultura.df.gob.mx/index.php/tcm), Luckily for me I got an
Invitiation from a friend (Thank you Younhee!!!), I was supossed to bring someone with me, but the only person interested was my sister but she couldn't make it :( so I decided to go alone (I know... Foreveralone, right??). I usually don't like going places alone, specialy if I know it's going to be crowded, anyway after I decided to go on my own a storm came and I thought it was a sign of god telling me not to go... When it was time to leave the house the rain was almost gone so I took a cab and guess what!, the streets were closed... was that another sign??
I was about to quit when I decided to walk...and I'm glad I did because the Festival was WAY more than what I was exptecting to be and I met Laura, soon we started to talk about Korea and turns out she had an invitation for the openning of the Korean Cultural Center in Mexico, she invited me to go with her and I gladly accepted her invitation.

It was 7 o'clock when the lights went off and we heard music comming from the outside of the Theater... Drums, people yelling, music, samulnori outfits

When everything started I obviously started taking pictures.... turns out... I wasn't allowed to do it so I was asked to stop :( ... I couldn't just NOT take pictures...I hate posting without pictures... so I enjoyed the 1st time of the show but I was sort of nervous because I couldn't take pictures, so when I sawthe "No pictures!!" girl I asked if there was something I could do or someone I could ask for permission to take pictures and she send me to the Press balcony YAY!!! *so much win!*, I waitied until the end of Part II and then I hurried back to the Press balcony the only downside to it was... I had to stand for the rest of the 1 1/2hr show (Remember I was holding a big/heavy camera, my bag, an umbrella, another jacket, etc).

Part I

Sori/Sounds

SKYBULLS, a composition by Shin Chang-Ryul

This openning act was in charge of Kang Eun-il & Haegum Plus

Part II

Harmony between Tradition and modernity

LIBERTANGO
An adapted piece between Argentinian Tango and a russian popular song

NEW AH-MI

This was interpreted by Oh Ah-Mi, an Electric cello  pioneer from a new gendercalled "Electronic Cassic", her performances combine music and a startling performance. I must say, Oh Ah-Mi was incredible, she has so much energy and charisma, she can dance with the cello (An electric cello is supposed to stay still on the ground) and everything is very energetic. You can see a video of that day HERE

Oh Ah-mi - Han's Dancers - Oh Ah-mi

HAEGUM RAPSODY (By Peter Schindler)

It is a musical work that includes classic repetition of phrases. Is influenced by European style chords, jazz and Asian music

THE CHASE

This piece expresses the run of a fugitive and its chaser, this piece was performed by Kang Eun-il & Haegum Plus witch is a group of people making hybrid music, it was created in 1999 and is one of the most representatives of Korea.

WOLFGANG'S TUNE

Interpreted by the Haegum trio, Electric cello and piano.

BELLE AND EMERALD (Notre Dame de Paris)

Interpreted by BOS (Bridge of Soul) Popera male trio, that fuses classical music with popular music. This was accompanied by the Han's Dance Company.

Bridge of Soul

Since I don't want this post to be super long, this will be it for today, but wait for Part 2 of the Korean Cultural Festival with B-boys, Samulnori, the Jing Dance, K-Tigers (Taekwondo), Namsadang, Bésame mucho and ARIRANG!

-Gisela V.

Buzz Korea 

Korean Cultural Center in Mexico

Yesterday March the 13th 2012 the Korean Cultural Center in Mexico held its Grand Openning, I've been waiting for this for over a Month ever since I found out about it.

Last month I went to the KCC to meet the Director Professor Bong Chul Kwan, Mr. Kwan was kind enough to show me the yet unfinished building and answer a few questions, so here's some information about the KCC in Mexico.

Me: How does the idea came up to open a KCC in Mexico?
Mr. Kwan: The idea came because there are a lot of people in Mexico interested in Korea, K-pop, the Language and culture in General

Me: What kind of activities will be held at the KCC?
Mr. Kwan: Cooking Classes (Korean and Mexican Food), Language Classes, Dance, Music and we also want to provide a space for people to show their art, paintings, shows, etc.
We also have a room with a Big TV where people can come and watch Korean News, Dramas or Movies, there's also an auditorium where conferences can be held or used for Meetings.
In addition to this we'll have internet access and Computer with access to Korean Books directly from Korea.

Me: Do you have planned to invite Korean Artists only?
Mr. Kwan: No, the idea is to invite Korean and Mexican artist, we still don't have a convocatory opened yet, but people can show us their work in order to have an exhibit here at the KCC.

As you can see, there will be lots of things to do at the KCC in Mexico, I'm glad it's opened now since all of us Korea-Lovers can enjoy some more of Korea here in Mexico.

Right before the Ribbon cutting ceremony there was a little show outside the KCC of Samulnori (Traditional percussion music from Korea)

The Openning included dignataries from both countries, incluiding Korea's Culture Minister Choe Kwang-Shik and the Korean Embassador in Mexico Sung Hoa Hong a representative of Samsung in Mexico and other personalities.

Ribbon cutting

Outside of the KCC in Mexico

Korean Ambassador in Mexico - Korea's Culture Minister Choe Kwang-Shik

The event included Speaches of the Ambassador, The minister and a member of the SRE.
After the speaches we enjoyed some Traditional Korean Music

 2 Korean songs by the "Niños Cantores de Chalco" sort of like a Chorus of under priviledged girls who take music lessons from nuns, I've never seen this chorus and must say those girls can really play and sing.

Then it was the turn of "Bridges of Soul", a Popera (Pop - Opera) trio who sang a famous Mexican son "Bésame Mucho" with Mariachis, I didn't get to take pics of this since it was really crowded :(

This was the only pic I was able to get... sorry guys!!

Last but not least, all the artist came back on stage to perform "Arirang", everyone sang and it was a very exciting moment.

Just to finish this great event we all went downstairs to have some yummy korean food and drinks, funny thing is... At the buffet line I met the Architects who worked with the building, they were really nice and asked me about Korean food, I promised I would mention them here since no one else did at the ceremony, so Hi!!! Mr. Leonardo Garcia (Lead Architect) and Mr. Isaias Gonzalez!! Thank you for making such a nice building for us :)

All in all, it was a great event and I'm really looking forward to all the activities that will soon start at the KCC in Mexico.

As for the Korean Culture Festival of last weekend... I still owe you that post!! and I promise this weekend you'll have it!!

Hope you like the post and if you have any suggestions for posts, just let me know!!
Here are some pictures of what's currently being shown at the KCCM

-Gisela V.

PS. The KCC is located in Temístocles #122, Polanco. Right next to the Subway station, you can see the map here

Korean Cultural Festival in Mexico

Hello everyone!

How've you been?, I feel like it's been a while since the last time I posted about ME going somewhere....
This saturday March 10th at exactly 18:20, I have been invited to the Korean Cultural Festival in Mexico, this event was organized by the Korean Embassy in Mexico to celebrate the International Festival of the Arts in Mexico, promote Korean Culture in Mexico and to help Mexico and Korea to get closer through Culture, Music, Dance and traditional Corean Games.

The program is Divided in 5 Parts:
(I will obiously be posting more about it next week)
Part I
Sori / Sones
 -Sky bulls

Part II
Harmony between Tradition and modernity
 -LiberTango
 -New Ah-mi (Electric cello) by Oh Ah-mi
 -Haehum Rapsody
 -The Chase (Musical Piece)

Part III
Korean Lines
 -Samulnori
 -The Jing dance
 -Taekwondo
 -B-boying

Part IV
Dynamic Korea
 -Pungmulnori and percussion performance
 -Namsadang

Part V
Encounter
 -Besame Mucho (Kiss me much)
 -Arirang

Well.. there you have it, I'm really excited about this and next week the Korean Cultural Center in Mexico will be openning, here's hopping to be able to assist to that event as well.

-Gisela V.

I'm sorry for the lousy picture!