Korea in Broadview Station

I was standing at Broadview Station on my way to work yesterday waiting for a train, just like I do every day. My eyes briefly scanned in front of me, and because I hadn't had my morning coffee yet I was double-y impressed I picked up on this. The ad in front of me was for Korea. It brought a huge smile to my face at a very early hour of the day.

You don't see many billboards promoting Korea, so this really caught my eye. It was a "Visit Korea" poster sponsored by Korean Air and LG. Smack dab in the centre was a figure doing traditional Korean dance, nongak (translates to farmers dance), or pungmul. On his head he was wearing sangmo,  a hat with a beautiful long ribbon attached to it that spins and flips when the person wearing it moves their head. I saw many different performances of this in Korea and it is a beautiful sight to see. The dancer was jumping above Gyeongbukgung, way off in the back ground. Gyeongbukgung is the massive, stunning, royal palace smack dap in the middle of central Seoul.

The poster also directs people to check out their facebook page to win a trip to Korea or an LG tv. Their facebook page can be found here:   www.facebook.com/visitkoreayear

 In a society where advertising is evident in every single thing we absorb, and everywhere we look, I found I really appreciated this one. Just another little piece of Korea I found right here in Toronto.



<< Check out a blog entry HERE for a fashion show I attended at Gyeongbukgung where the palace was all dolled up for Korean Heritage Day. >>

Raising The Flag

Timing is everything. Just as I had decided to reinvest my interest back in blogging about Korea I get a notice in the post from the Consulate. "On the occasion of the Anniversary of Korean National Foundation Day and Korean Heritage Day, the Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Toronto requests the pleasure of your company at a flag raising ceremony and a reception afterwards".

YES PLEASE! 

Location: the legislative Building at Queen's Park. Seriously. I don't know how I got on their VIP list, but I couldn't be more pleased. I am pretty sure I can squeeze an early/extended lunch on the day this goes down so I can be there. I don't really know what to expect other than a flag being raised and a good possibility because it happens over lunch time, some good Korean eats. I will pack my camera and be ready for whatever it is that comes my way. Kamsa Hamnida!

Oh, Korea! We meet again.

A few weeks ago, I came across a new opportunity to link me back to Korea. I have been sulking a little recently about blogging and my lack of writing over the past few months. I arrived home from Korea about 6 months ago, just as summer was starting to kick in. This past summer, after being away from Toronto for so long, was epic. I caught up with friends, spent lots of time with family and did lots of excursions to remind me why I love Canada so much and how happy I was to be home. As much as I love Toronto, it was great to go up to cottages and spend weekends up North, out of the city. It has been an amazing home coming.

Saying all that, looking at my blog archive window, I had one entry in June, one in July and none in August. Part of the reasoning behind that was because my summer was so jam packed and there was barely a minute to spare to focus on my writing. But part of it was also because for a long time, my blog was so deeply entwined with my life in Korea, that it lost a little bit being back home. How does one keep up a travel blog, when one is no longer really travelling? I struggled with this for a while. Do I change ALEX ON THE LOOSE, to ALEX IN THE CITY? Do I start up a whole new blog now that I am back in Toronto?

Technically, I am still writing for The Korea Blog, for my second year. I wasn't sure how to make that work once I left Seoul. My mission turned into "finding Korea in Toronto". Over the past 6 months I have really enjoyed learning about Korea within Toronto. But somehow, my blog wasn't thriving (translation- Alex was lazy). I made some great new friends at the Korean Consulate, I was invited to some great events they organized, I took part in the Korean Film Festival, I met another local blogger that is part of The Korea Blog (her name is Cindy and she has a great Korea-centric blog too, www.lifesanadventure2.com ). Also, I am always on the hunt for good Korean restaurants to check out.   I love Korean food and miss it so much. I've had a few opportunities to introduce some of my friends to Korean cuisine, who were just too intimidated to ever brave an authentic Korean restaurant.

Now this brings me back to my introductory sentence. A new opportunity, Korea related. 2013 is the fifty year anniversary between Korean Canadian relations. It is a big year and the Korean Consulate has many different events planned to celebrate and educate and promote Korea in general. A few weeks back I read about a contest they were holding in order to select 50 bloggers to be part of everything going on in 2013 and tell the world about it. The writer inside me got very excited. Yet another wonderful opportunity to connect me with Korea. Living in Toronto, I already have the advantage of proximity to such a huge part of the Korean population, so basically culture, food, music.... it's all at my doorstep.

So autumn has arrived, and with it I have infused myself with fresh incentive to get back into the swing of writing and blogging and do what I love to do (notice all the new September posts in my blog archive). I can't wait to get my posts rolling again and really hope I make the cut to blog for Korea in Canada! HAPPY READING!!

A Night At The Castle

*** PLEASE NOTE: this is an event that happened back in JULY but for technical reasons was never published on my blog. I know it's somewhat untimely, but it was such a beautiful evening I felt it necessary to put up. 

Last Friday, was the highly anticipated event "Rendezvous Korean Cuisine 2012", hosted by the Korean Consulate in Toronto. The venue was one of the best the city has to offer in my opinion, Casa Loma. I grew up just a few blocks away from the Castle, so it definitely holds a special place for me. It is a grande, majestic and lavish location to throw a party.

Welcome to Casa Loma

My boyfriend and I arrived fashionably late and things were well under way (no one and nothing was ever on time in Korea, I guess that trait didn't make it all the way to Canada). The main entranceway upon entering the castle was set up with different stalls sampling some of Korea's favourite bits and bites. The room was packed with people and within the first few minutes you could tell there was a great turn out and the night was destined for success.

Line ups to sample of the eats.

Korean food, on show. 

Peperro, amongst other goodies.

Chocopies, a Korean fave!

Posing with some ginseng.

We said our hello's to the Consul general and his wife, a few other friends from the  consulate, Cindy, another Korea blogger, and a small selection of familiar faces. Garry and I popped out onto the balcony just to appreciate the castle in its splendour. The grounds and gardens and fountains are so beautiful all around the property it was almost a shame not to be outside soaking it all in on such a gorgeous evening. But duty called.

Quite quickly following the small reception in the main hall the doors to the dining area were opened and peopled were called in to find their seats. We were assigned tables upon arrival and we were at lucky number 17. At our table were 2 people from the Japanese consulate. Cindy and her guest, a producer from Arirang Korea TV and his camera guy. We were an eclectic little bunch and it made the evening even more enjoyable.

As per the title of the event (Rendezvous Korean Cuisine 2012), the night was all about food, one of my favourite things about Korea. The dinner set up was gorgeous. There was one main dining room with a podium for the hosts and a small stage set up. There was also the conservatory where we sat, filled with more tables and TV screens set up to see the action from the main room. One of the best parts of attending these events is that I have my big camera with me at all times and I am free to roam (within reason) where I please. As a blogger, that's what I'm there to do. So even though technically I was seated in the conservatory. I was out and about shooting pics anywhere I saw fit. Especially during the special performances. Okay, one thing at a time, back to the food.

The menus we were provided with before the food started coming out was so beautifully detailed in Korean and English. I had a huge difficulty knowing the names of all the dishes I ate in Korea and being able to pronounce them properly. So it was a real treat to read what the Korean name of the dish was and the ingredients in English. Never was there a decent Korean meal served without the accompaniment of a slew of bottles of soju. I was curious to see if Korea's national alcohol would make it on the table at this fancy affair. Instead of soju, we were served bekseju, the best possible alternative. Soju and bekseju are similar drinks (in my humble opinion), but the latter has just a nicer, more pleasant, fragrant taste.

I had major camera envy for Mingu's equipment.

The first course to come out was pumpkin soup. After the soup came a plate of japchae (noodles with veggies) and a skewer of boneless beef rib, with crab meat, pepper, egg and mushroom.

The main course was braised beef ribs and steamed king prawn. These were accompanied by a mixture of vegetables. Korean meals are always served with plenty of banchan, side dishes. The banchan served was cabbage kimchi, braised lotus root, and a stuffed cucumber kimchi. No meal in ever complete without rice, or a rice dish, so the last course was bibimbap, a Korean classic. This is a combination of julienned vegetables (usually carrot, mushroom, sprouts, zucchini), combined with gojuchang  (red pepper paste), a few other flavours and egg. It's served separate and then combined together at the table. Fantastic! 

Banchan

The main course. 

A favorite, bibimbap.

And last on the menu was dessert. There was a beautiful fruit salad/punch served with sweet rice balls.

Kom Bai!
(cheers in Korean)

Just Charlee: A Meal To Remember

At about this time last year, I took part in an amazing press trip to Jeju Island and Seoul with a small handful of other selected bloggers from The Korea Blog. It was trip to not only expose us to more of what Korea had to offer, but also to thank us for all the time and effort and work we put into our blogs, sharing our experiences of Korea with the world. On that trip I had one of my most memorable meals in all my time in Korea.

Just recently, I started writing for a great new online publication called Just Charlee (www.justcharlee.ca). I wrote all about that meal in an article on their website. Here is the link to both the article and then a separate photo gallery with some mouth watering snaps.

Words:

http://justcharlee.ca/living/korea-a-meal-to-remember/

Pictures:

http://justcharlee.ca/living/food-drink/korea-a-meal-to-remember-2/








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Arirang TV & 5 Minutes of Fame

Arirang is a very popular Korean folk song. It has lots of different versions both old and new. It is said to be like an unofficial anthem for Korea.

During one of the Korean events I attended in Toronto over the summer, I made a new friend Mingu Kim who is the producer of Arirang TV in Toronto. We sat at the same table as him and Young, one of his camera guys, who were covering Rendezvous Korea 2012, at Casa Loma.

We chatted all through the meal and towards the end of the evening he interviewed my boyfriend and I. We jumbled over our words and probably sounded silly but it was still lots of fun. Here is our 2 minutes in the spotlight. Be nice. Garry and I debut at about 1m55s.

A few weeks later, Mingu got in touch with me and told me about a TV series he was working on called, ALL ABOUT KOREA, for Omni TV. The premise behind the show was interviewing Canadians who love Korean culture. I most definitely fit the mould and said I'd love to be part of it. He ended up coming over with Young again, and filming a short segment asking me all about how I feel about Korea and my experiences and about my blog. This ones only about 5 minutes long.

So there we have it. Korea and my interest in it, has brought me 5 minutes of fame!



I also ended up introducing Mingu to a friend of mine from Korea, another teacher, to interview for his program. Here is her interview:

Buk Chang Dong

Happy Alex, with an array of Korean dishes.

After a recommendation for some really good Korean food in Toronto, Garry and ventured all the way to the west side of Toronto, in Korea Town. Just being in the vicinity of so much "Korea" was nice. Stores with their signs written in hangeul, and pictures hanging from all the restaurant windows of food that was on offer was enough to place me back in Korea.

The place we were headed for was called Buk Chang Dong Soon Tofu. It's located at Bloor and Clinton, just west of Bathurst. The menu for Buk Chang Dong is really basic. For people maybe just experimenting with Korean food it'd be great just cause the menu is not overwhelming. There are only 8 different options, 6 of which are soup meals. The soups are a combination or choice of the following; seafood, kimchi, pork, beef, dumplings, egg and tofu. The of course there is all the banchan, which translates to side dishes. There was both radish and cabbage kimchi (obvs!), little flavoured beans, sprouts (one of my favourite banchan), and with some of the meals a miso style soup. The other 2 options on the menu are the bulgogi (marinated beef) meal and bibimbap (julienned veggies and rice). And of course rice. In some restaurants in Korea they would do this with the rice: serve it in a stone pot, scoop out most of it in a bowl for you, then pour boiling water into the stone pot to soak up the rest of the rice caked onto the sides. Basically just a different way of eating rice. They did this at Buk Chang Dong.

As all the sides starting coming out, I think our smiles just ended up getting wider and wider. My soup arrived with a raw egg on the side and I cracked it into the boiling broth and within moments, shazaam, all ready to go. Garry ordered the bulgogi because he isn't the biggest fan of soup, but it was awesome, cause it meant I got to have a sampling of everything. The beef was perfect, and my soup was great. There were 3 massive dumplings floating in it, the cracked egg, and tofu. Just how I like it!

Just like in Korea, there was waaaaaay too much rice for us to finish served and we should've known to only get one order (why in the world would you fill up on rice when there are so many other delicious flavours to go sample?). But we did really well with the rest of it, even getting seconds of all the banchan.

The best part of all of this was the meal cost us less than $20. Not quite as cheap as Korea, but definitely good bang for your buck in Toronto. If you've never been, check it out at 691 Bloor St West, TORONTO!

The dish on the top left is the one they added water to the rice in.

Bulgogi, rice, soup, kimchi, sprouts and beans.
Mmmmm, good!