Koreafornian Cooking in 2009

I wanted to take the time to do a quick wrap up of my 2009 food adventures, including my YouTube videos, the debut of this blog and some of my favorite and most talked-about posts.

January–April

I didn't make a single cooking video during the first four months of 2009. Just way too busy. After my husband and I bought a real video camera, rather than a still camera with a video mode, we thought we would be making more videos more often. That was the idea.

May

Spring was about to make way for summer when we posted my video recipe for Korean Potato Salad. We didn't have this blog up at that time, but in September, I posted some insider information about the video production.

June

No videos or blog posts in June. My husband kept trying to convince me I really needed a blog to complement my YouTube presentation. We recorded the Curry Deviled Egg video on June 14.

July

The Curry Deviled Egg video debuted on YouTube on July 5.

On July 11, the Beyond Koreanfornian Cooking blog debuted with an article about the first YouTube cooking video I ever made. The reason d'etre of this blog is to give tips and advise about making the videos by reviewing the filming process of each of the videos to document triumphs and errors. Because I only make a video every couple of months or so, I added content about Korean food and culture that goes beyond the YouTube videos to try to make this blog a viable source of information about Korean food, culture and fusion cooking.

I had catching up to do with the blog. I had been making YouTube videos for more than a year before the blog debuted, so I made posts about four of my prior videos. 

July 12 brought the scoop on the Curry Deviled Eggs video. I also posted some of the production secrets of my Kalbi video, the insider scoop on the Turkey Kimchi Fried Rice video and the drama behind the Chuncheon Wings video.

I think the strangest new story of July 2009 was the Los Angeles Times article about the debut of freeze-dried kimchi, not for the astronaut market but targeted for your local supermarket.

August

We posted another cooking video, this time on Kkaenip Pesto. It debuted about six weeks after the prior video for Curry Deviled Eggs. It seems we were on a roll.

I also continued my mission of catching people up on how my older videos were produced. This time, I dished on my Innovations with Kimchi video, which includes a recipe for the Kimchi Reuben Sandwich.

Foodbuzz also featured my Gingered Pear Sauce recipe on the front page of their blog. I liked the recipe so much, I assumed it could stand on its own. The recipe debuted as a three the price of one bonus in my Korean Latke video.

September

We recorded my video interview with chef Hector Marroquin of Napa Valley Chef Catering Co. on Sept. 13.

ZenKimchi Korean Food Journal featured my Kkaenip pesto video. I also gave away the behind the scenes of filming this video too.

October

October was a difficult month for me, but you wouldn't know it based on how many posts went up. The first week of October, my husband and I were on vacation. The second week, we got the flu.

I also wrote my first collaboration blog article with SeoulEats. In it, I reviewed Costo Wholesale's Korean food offerings.

My cat Mi-sook made her debut as my guest blogger while we were on vacation. She was a hit, and at least one reader was disappointed when she had to give me the blog back.

I posted the tips and secrets of the Chuncheon Alfredo video, including the source of the shirt I wore. At this point, I'm caught up with the production information on all the videos made prior to the debut of the blog except one, which I saved for last.

We recorded the Soju Pasta Sauce video on Oct. 25.

November

Dakkalbi curry soju sauce with spaghetti

President Obama visited Korea in November. The JoongAng Daily posted the bulgogi recipe Obama ate during his state visit.  

I posted the secrets of the video interview with Chef Marroquin.

A surprise-me dinner moment turned into the recipe for Dakkalbi Curry Soju Spaghetti Sauce. This post got the highest number of comments of any post I made this year.

December

This was the month of the Korean latke, which is an appropriate recipe for celebration of Hanukkah, which this year was held this month. I posted the video production secrets for this video on Dec. 11, the first day of Hanukkah. By Dec. 16, Korea.net discovered the recipe and posted the latke video on its blog as well.

However, even thought my Korean latkes took most of my spotlight in December, my Korean Potato Salad recipe was also noticed by Chako's Kitchen  in his list of the 30 best recipes of 2009. 

Last, but not least, I made my debut as a contributor to ZenKimchi Korean Food Journal on New Years' Eve with my recipe for Kimchi Stuffing.

I hope everyone had a good 2009. Let's pray that 2010 is even better.

Kimchi stuffing recipe

I originally planned to make a YouTube video featuring kimchi stuffing, but it wasn't meant to be. Instead, I submitted it to ZenKimchi Korean Food Journal as my first official contribution as one ZenKimchi's new writers.

How interesting that I make my official Zen Kimchi debut as a writer/contributor on New Years' Eve 2009. 

I'm looking forward to what 2010 may have in store for all of us.

Wordless Wednesday: Pasta

MBC’s new drama Pasta will air starting Jan. 4, 2010. The premise of the Korean TV drama puts an arrogant, male chavuinist head chef (played by Lee Seon-kyun) against his competent but tormented female sous-chef (played by Gong Hyo-jin).

Korea Tourism Orgainzation Food Guide

I visited the Korea Tourism Organization's website and found its online food guide. It's 40 pages of gorgeous photos. The narrative gives an overview of Korea's regional cuisines, royal cuisine and temple cuisine as well.

Check it out here to prepare for your trip to Korea in 2010–2012.

Korea Tourism Orgainzation Food E-book

Bae Yong Joon-ssi, do you still want to be a farmer? Part 2: Portable greenhouse

If you have a balcony or a yard that's at least six feet square, you can set up your own personal greenhouse. The model shown in this video costs about US$260.

Because South Korea has such harsh winters and a shorter growing season than most of the U.S., setting up one's own greenhouse might help you get a jumpstart on the growing season. Here's the portable-greenhouse maker's description:

The SpringHouse™ is perfect for improving climatic conditions in all geographic locations. The greenhouse environment makes it easier to keep your plants green. Now your plants can bloom earlier with a head start on the Spring and Summer months and you can garden year-round!

Calorie lists on menus do affect diner's choices

Gorilla in the Kitchen's menu features this reassuring message.

USA Today reported the results of a study by the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, published in the American Journal of Public Health.

The Yale University study divided diners into three groups.

• One was given menus with the calories listed for the dinner entrees.

• Another group was given menus that cited the calories plus a reference number that showed the recommended daily caloric intake for the average adult: about 2,000.

• A third group had menus with no calories listed.

The study found that the diners who were given the info on the number of calories for the dinner entrees as well as the recommended daily caloric intake for the average adult male (2,000 calories per day) were more likely to keep their caloric intake in check because they had a benchmark for the entire day as well as the meal itself.

For more information about this study, go to "Diners eat fewer calories when menu lists entrees' contents."

Health activists in the U.S. have been working to try to pass laws requiring restaurants to publish this type of information for some time. New York City and Philiadelphia both passed this type of legislation in 2008 and the state of New Jersey is considering similar legislation. It has been even appeared in a version of the Health Care bill currently making its way through the US Senate.

I don't think the government, on any level, should be counseling people on their dietary choices. If a person wants to eat 500 calories a day or 5,000 calories a day is not the government's concern. Those kind of decisions are between the person and their doctor or dietitian.

It costs a lot of money for a restaurant to have each menu item tested for calories, nutrition, etc. which gets passed along to the consumer. There's no such thing as a "free ride". On the other hand,  if restaurants choose to provide this information based on true consumer demand, more power to them.

Especially, when other studies have indicated that offering calorie information only motivates those people who are already pre-disposed to pick healthier food items anyway without or without the calorie information.  People who want a Half-pounder burger might change to ordering a Quarter-pound burger if the calorie information scares them a little bit, but it won't make them switch from a Quarter-pounder to a Chicken salad with dressing on the side.

However, there are some restaurants who were ahead of the curve and have made calorie information a keynote in their marketing. A case in point is Gorilla in the Kitchen (GIK), located in Seoul's trendy Agpujeong neighborhood near Dosan Park. The owners have published calorie and nutrition information on their menu items since the restaurant opened in 2006.

They also encourage customers to exercise portion control by offering two different portion options ("human" vs. "gorilla"). Based on blogospheric reviews of GIK, this information is greatly appreciated and their food tastes good, even their desserts.

Here are a couple of foodie blog reviews of GIK's offerings.

• Wine In Korea: "Gorilla in the Kitchen"
• Some Like It Haute: "Gorilla in the Kitchen, Seoul"

Hanukkah 2009 highlights

Holidays, whether secular or religious, have their special rituals and foods that communicate comfort and joy. Hanukkah is not "just about the food," but no one can deny that food is an important component of the celebration. Emuna Braverman said in Aish.com:

Although the food is not the essence of the holiday, it's not quite secondary either.

In that spirit of sharing, let me share with you the highlights of my family's Hanukkah celebrations (yes, that's plural since there are 8 days of Hanukkah). Feel free to read our recipes and stories, just in case you missed out on your own Hanukkah celebration.

Our family celebrated Hanukkah in three different ways.

Congregational
Our congregation celebrates Hanukkah in a big way. Latkes, apple sauce and sour cream overflow the communal table. We will fit as many Hanukkiahs (nine-branched candelabras for Hannukah) onto one little table as humanly possible without causing a fire hazard and we play dreidel until the children get bored and decide to eat the gelt rather than spend it.

Public

Sonoma County Chabad Jewish Center Rabbi Mendel Wolvovsky officiates over the lighting in Healdsburg.

Every year, our local Chabad House hosts Hanukkiah lightings throughout Sonoma County. Every year, they host them in more areas of the county. This year, they hosted a lighting in Healdsburg, Santa Rosa, Cotati and Sonoma.

We attended the lighting at Oakville Grocery near the Healdsburg Plaza. More than 100 people showed up to sing songs, eat latkes and light candles. The fact that God kept the rain away was a relief and a special blessing for everyone there.

Home
Of course, the best way to celebrate Hanukkah is at home (or as a guest in someone else's home), sitting around a big table, eating latkes and other traditional foods. The best food seasoning is having a spirited conversation with the people seated all around you. The more candles, the brighter; the more people, the brighter as well.

Koreans aren't the only ones confused by the cant of coffee

photo by Alexander Galanakis

A recent Chosun Ilbo article, titled "Foreign Names Take Over the World of Food," laments the domination of English coffee terminology in many Korean shops. This is despite the unique passion for coffee in the Land of the Morning Calm among all Asia, where tea usually reigns supreme.

An office worker in his 30s said, "When I order coffee, I wonder whether I'm in Korea or America, hearing all the words that are used mixing English and Korean." One Internet portal even posted advice on how to avoid humiliation in coffee shops. "Just ask for 'original' coffee if the shop worker keeps using strange words," one advice reads. At Starbucks in Korea, milk is the only item written in Korean on a menu listing around 50 different drinks.

The Sept. 30 article stirred passions in the Korean ex-pat blogosphere as well. Brian in Jeollanman-do wrote one of the more notable blog posts on the topic. His post "Brian in Jeollanam-do: Too much English in Korea? Yep, and don't look at us, it's not our fault." and the ensuing comments about the advantages and disadvantages of Konglish is recommended reading for anyone considering teaching English in Korea.

The powers that be in Korea who complain about "too much English" in the coffee shop need to understand that many of those coffee shops actually use Italian — not English — to describe their menu items. Starbucks is a case in point with use of grande, vente, Americano, Cappucino, Espresso, etc.

This video illustrates how confusing it can be for Americans trying to order the same cup of coffee, especially before we've had our daily jolt of caffeine. Those struggling to learn English can feel comfortable in the knowledge that Americans have to struggle with "foreign words" in their daily interactions too.

Gochujang coming to a grocery store near you?

The Marmot's Hole posted a blog about a story picked up from the Korean Herald. He raises a skeptical eyebrow at the prospects of the forthcoming Annie Chun's gochujang sauce.

It appears CJ thinks America is ready for gochujang, but I’m not so sure that America is ready for gochujang. Again, you can’t make this stuff up.

It's so new it's not even listed on the Annie Chun website yet.

The Marmot's skepticism about the American market for gochujang is misplaced, in my opinion. Every time I post a new cooking video, I am questioned about where to obtain the ingredients. The vast majority of the ingredients such as garlic, sesame seed oil, soy sauce and sesame seeds are readily available in most US grocery stores. Gochujang is the exception.  I usually have to refer them to their local Korean grocery store or advise them to buy the ingredients online from Hmart or Koamart.

It was just a matter of time before someone realized there was a market for Americanized gochujang and the Annie Chun distribution market is probably the perfect avenue to getting gochujang into American mega grocery store chains.

Korean cuisine is the hot, trendy, hip "new kid on the block" in the food world. This trend has been capitalized upon by various American media outlets including FastCasual,  Gourmet Magazine and Oprah Magazine. Even AARP featured a recipe for Korean Beef Stir-fry. I think CJ Corporation and their alliance with Annie Chun is simply striking while the iron's hot.

Kimchi in the News: New types of healthy bacteria found in Kimchi

Arirang reports that scientists from the North Chungcheong Agricultural Institute and Chungbuk National University in South Korea have discovered two new strains of "friendly bacteria" that double the growth of lactic acid bacteria during the kimchi-making process.

They plan to use this newly found knowledge to develop food supplements. 

For more information, go to New Types of Healthy Bacteria Found in Kimchi.

Kudos for Korean Latkes video

Korea.net, run by the Korean Culture and Information Service, featured my Korean Latke (감자전 kamja jeon) video in its latest post on its food blog.

Thanks to latke-craving YouTube enthusiasts, this video has reached 10,000 views and is the third most popular video in search for "latke." (The first two videos are from YouTube partners.) I'm also proud to report that this video reached 10,000 hits today. It's wonderfully appropriate that this video reached that milestone during Hanukkah.

I'm humbled by Korea.net's description of my video:

This famous blogger introduces how to make Korean latkes (potato pancakes), pronounced Gamja-jeon and a short history of Hanukkah, an eight-day Jewish holiday.

The juxtaposition of kamja jeon and Hanukkah might seem strange — even ridiculous — unless you know the history of Hanukkah and early 20th century Korea. The extreme cultural imperialism that nearly crushed the Jews during the days of the Maccabees (second century B.C.E.) and the suffering Koreans experienced under Japanese rule from 1910 to 1945 are eerily similar.

Hanukkah is the Jewish equivalent to South Korea's Liberation Day (Aug. 15). The Korean word for the holiday is "Gwangbok" means "restoration of light", which coincides with Hanukkah as the "Feast of Dedication (or re-dedication). Another nickname for Hanukkah is the "Festival of Lights" in reference to the one day supply of holy oil that lasted for eight days. Korea's Liberation day as a restoration of the light of freedom shows a beautiful synergy between the two holidays.

Hanukkah is eight days long, while Liberation Day celebrations in Korea usually last only four days.  Jews — and a number of Christians — celebrate the victory of extremely outnumbered Jewish rebels against Syrian Greeks, known as the Seleucid empire. It boasted one of the most powerful armies in the world at that time.

For Koreans on both sides of the DMZ, this is the day that Japan (the most powerful army in Asia) surrendered and accepted defeat and released their illegal claims on the Korean peninsula, giving Koreans an opportunity to live as Koreans without the threat of losing their language, history and culture. When Liberation Day comes around, I'll be eating kamja jeon just as I eat them during Hanukkah.

Common Indian spices may boost breast health

A study released by the University of Michigan (and supported by the National Institutes of Health) found that curcumin, a compound found in turmeric, and piperine, a compound found in black peppers, may "reduce the risk of breast cancer formation by stopping the growth of the stem cells that spawn the tumors."

The study used very high doses of this compound, about 20 times the amount consumed by diet alone. However, if the study's findings bear closer scientific scrutiny, this dosage level could be obtained through the use of dietary supplements. The results of this study were published in the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment.

If you want a Koreanfornian recipe that uses both of these spices in abundance, check out my Curry deviled eggs recipe on YouTube.

For more information about the study, go to Spices may boost breast health: Study

Inspiration behind the 'Korean latkes' video

Today is the first anniversary of the posting of this video, and this year tonight is the start of the eight-day celebration of Chanukah. Because traditional foods for the celebration involve cooking or frying in oil, this time of year reminds me of potato pancakes.

I took some criticism on the YouTube comments section because I spent a couple of minutes (2:42 to be exact) discussing the history of Chanukah before starting the actual cooking portion of the video. I usually discuss the history of a particular dish before I make it. This video was no different than the prior or subsequent videos in that respect. I don't remember viewers of my other videos asking, "Is this is a history video or a cooking video?"

This is the first — and only video so far — that doubled as a religious video. I used this video to fulfill the mitzvot (Hebrew for "instructions") of pirsumei nisah, or "revealing or divulging the miracle" of Chanukah.

Rabbi Julian Sinclair said,

The central religious purpose of Hanukkah is to let as many people as possible know the miracles of the festival, the miracle of Jewish survival in general and the miracles of God's hidden presence in the world.

A couple of the Jewish viewers let me know by e-mailed they appreciated being able to fulfill their Chanukah mitzvah (requirement) of recalling the history of the holiday and the miracles that occurred at that time.

The viewer will also notice the copious use of the hand grater. I grated the potatoes, the ginger and the onion by hand rather than using a food processor. There are Jewish grandmothers (and Korean grandmothers as well) who claim that the only authentic potato pancake is one made totally by hand, and they eschew food processors and other such modern shortcuts. In honor of them, I made mine the same way.

My mother-in-law asked me why hubby didn't film a shot of my face while grating the onion. Well, I told her that onions (even so-called "mild" onions, like green onions or scallions) make me cry like a big baby. There's a scientific explanation for the process, but let's suffice it to say that I didn't want to the whole world to see me crying and sniffling as though I had just lost my whole world.

Korea Times: 'Wine boom turns to gloom'

Bae Yong Joon may be one of the few oenophiles still living in Korea based on wine's dropping popularity on the peninsula. (Photo courtesy of Arnaldo Bassini)

Wine sales in Korea are continuing to decline according to a Dec. 8 Korea Times article.

The Korea Customs Service told the Times that 2009 (at least the first 10 months) was the first year they noticed a decline in wine sales in Korea since the Asian financial crisis reached its zenith in 1998. 

However, the South Korean government expect wine imports from Europe and South America to improve after recently signed free-trade agreements with the European Union and Chile start kicking in.

The Times listed the most popular wine imports in South Korea in 2009: 

1. France ($30.3 million)
2. Chile ($20.3 million)
3. Italy ($14.6 million)
4. U.S. ($9 million)
5. Australia ($6.53 million)
6. Spain ($5.26 million)
7. Germany ($2.34 million)

Cover of the Nov. 13, 2009, edition of Kami no Shizuku.

The rising popularity of wine over the past five years is partly because of the popularity of a Japanese manga called Kami no Shizuku, or Drops of God. This manga follows two brothers in search of the best wines in the world to fulfill their late father's last will and testament.

Wines featured in this manga have sold well in Japan and other parts of Asia. (See stories in Decanter in 2007, 2008 and 2009, the London Times in 2008, The Korea Times in 2007, The Daily Telegraph in 2008, The Japan Times in 2008 and Reuters in 2007.) The U.S. fine-wine market can't afford to wait until Bae Yong Joon releases his Korean drama version of this hit manga to recapture Korean affection for wine.

As a Californian, the U.S.'s low rank concerns me. California makes some of the best wines in the world, yet many Koreans can't afford to buy them because of high tariffs. The U.S. signed the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement in June 2007, but Congress has yet to approve it. If it were, the agreement would help U.S. winemakers regain their popularity and competitive edge in South Korea's growing wine market and help the U.S. economy during a time of recession by opening an important market for American-made goods.

By the U.S. Commerce Department's accounting, South Korea was the ninth-largest global market for U.S. wine — 95 percent exported from California — in 2008, ahead of Singapore and behind Austria, according to the San Francisco-based trade group Wine Institute. The Land of the Morning Calm also was the eighth-largest market for all U.S. goods last year, according to the U.S. Trade Representative.

Wine shipments to South Korea in 2008 totaled $12.8 million, a 29 percent decrease from 2007, according to the institute. The amount of wine exported to the country decreased by an equal proportion in that time frame.

Comparatively, Japan, the No. 3 U.S. wine market last year, imported $61.1 million, a 3 percent decrease from 2007.

Green tea extracts show promise fighting oral cancer

A preliminary study conducted by the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center found that green tea extracts may prevent the formation of mouth cancers.

The trial was placebo tested but used a small trial sample of 50 patients and one of the researchers noted:

“While these are encouraging findings, much more research must be done before we can conclude that green tea may prevent oral or any other type of cancer. It's also important to remind people that this trial enrolled very few participants who, at the highest dose levels took the equivalent of eight cups of green tea three times a day,” cautioned Vassiliki Papadimitrakopoulo, M.D.

Green tea is an anti-oxidant powerhouse and contains between 30 and 40 per cent of water-extractable polyphenols. Researchers all over the world are conducting clinical trials to determine whether green tea extracts can be used as treatments or preventatives for many different diseases.

Dr. Joseph Mercola, N.D. noted in his recent article about this topic:

While the biggest risk factors for oral cancer are tobacco use and drinking alcohol -- about eight out of 10 people with this cancer use tobacco and seven out of 10 are heavy drinkers -- some people with oral cancer have no known risk factors.

How should you drink green tea to maximize it's health benefits. Dr. Mercola says don't drink steaming hot green tea.

Ideally, most of the fluid you drink should be at room temperature. The only exception would be if you were overheated and hyperthermic, in which case cold fluids would be beneficial.

For more information go to Green tea extracts may protect against oral cancer: Study and Phase II Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial of Green Tea Extract in Patients with High-Risk Oral Premalignant Lesions

Chacko's Kitchen discovers 'Korean Potato Salad'

Chacko's Kitchen posted a blog featuring "The 30 Best Recipes I Discovered in 2009." Such an ambitious, bold and audacious list has to have a pithy caveat. 

This list of 30 recipes, is by no means exhaustive.

It may not be exhaustive, but a list this comprehensive certainly took a lot of research time (especially since blogging doesn't usually pay well).

This list starts with the simple yet delicious roasted garlic and evolves into an eclectic list of recipes from all over the world, including Scotland, Italy, China, Morocco, Korea and everywhere in between.

Korean potato salad by yours truly was featured as recipe No. 20:

20. Korean Fornian Cooking. Tammy has nearly got 1100 subscribers on her YouTube channel, and this is the inspiration behind her blog. Korean Potato Salad is a fusion recipe which uses Mayonnaise as a base, and is a fusion of North German and American style salad adapted by Koreans.

Please check out this blog post and see what awesome recipes I competed with to make this list.

Music troubles

Music is an important element in creating the proper mood for the video. For every video, I try to pick out pieces of music to set the tone of the video. Sometimes inspiration comes very easily, while other videos have been delayed because I can't find the right music.

I had a very hard time figuring out what music I wanted to use for my prior video for Kkaenip pesto. My last resort for inspiration was posting a request for music ideas on my facebook page. One of my college friends came up with the idea of using parts of the soundtrack from the Italian opera Madame Butterfly as an accompaniment to the video. Since that recipe was a mix of Asia and Italy, the topic fit very well. I bought the soundtrack just to use it in the video. However, since it's an opera, most of the music is lyrical. It was a challenge to find enough instrumental parts to piece together and fill up the video.

Although the Penne with Soju recipe is also a mix of Italy and Asia, I didn't want to do Madame Butterfly part 2 but I had the same problem of finding inspiration. This time around, I checked out a couple of popular royalty-free sites to create a suitable soundtrack for this video.

Here are the sites where I found most of the music in the Soju Cream Sauce video.

Free Music by DanoSongs.com
imcompetech--Kevin MacLeod

Refrigerator magnets

I was snooping around on Etsy.com recently and found these cute Korean wedding duck refrigerator magnets.

 The sight of these Korean wedding duck magnets piqued my curiosity about the history of refrigerator magnets themselves.

According to Wikipedia, the first patent for a refrigerator magnet design was issued in the early 1970's but people were making refrigerator magnets well before that time.

Regular magnets work because of their attraction to either the north or south magnetic poles of the earth. One side of a magnet attracts north, the other side attracts south. This is why two magnets usually either attract to each other or repulse each other. Magnets can't ignore each other and simply exist in the same place like two pieces of paper or two coffee mugs can.

Many modern refrigerator magnets work differently than traditional magnets because one side is magnetic and the other side is non-magnetic. They work on a principle called a Halbach array, which Wikipedia describes as

...a special arrangement of permanent magnets that augments the magnetic field on one side of the array while cancelling the field to near zero on the other side. In the diagram, the magnetic field is enhanced on the bottom side and cancelled on the top side (a one-sided flux).

The Korean weddings ducks have a long and somewhat complicated history. In Korean culture, ducks represent traditional Confucian values like spousal fidelity, loyalty and filial piety. This is why a pair of carved ducks are a very common wedding gift and area even used in part of the traditional Korean wedding ceremony. Most Koreans will display their wedding ducks prominently in the home.

Some couples use the ducks as a silent way of making their happiness or displeasure known. When one the spouses are angry, they may turn their duck's tail towards the other spouses' duck to signal anger or displeasure. When the couple are happy and content with each other, they will point them nose to nose.

Vote for me!

I have entered my three favorite vegetarian Koreafornian recipes to Foodista's Best of Food Blogs Cookbook contest. You can check out their blog for more information, but to keep it simple, this is the story.

Food bloggers worldwide are invited to submit their favorite blog posts, recipes and photos to compete for a spot in a Foodista.com cookbook.

From December 1, 2009 through February 28, 2010 Foodista will be accepting submissions. Then, Andrews McMeel will publish the winning blog posts in a beautiful full-color, internationally distributed cookbook!

Here are the 3 recipes I have entered.

Korean Gingered Pear Sauce
Pernilla/Kkaenip Pesto
and
Korean Potato Salad

Bae Yong Joon to appear in Japanese ads for food dehydrators

Starting in Jaunary 2010, Hallyu star Bae Yong Joon will star in Japanese ads for Loofen. The Korean company makes sleek, modern, stylish food waste dehydration systems.

Here's a commercial showing how a typical Korean household might use the dehydrator:

Notice that all sorts of food scraps from leftover buckwheat noodles to orange rinds and herbs are mixed in. The housewife simply adds to the pile throughout the week until it's filled and then disposes of the scraps all at once. The home models hold up to five liters (1.32 gallons) of food scraps at a time. According to reports, Loofen sold 1,500 food dehydrators on Japan's QVC home shopping channel in 25 minutes (Korea Foreign Company Association, Forca Journal, March 2008).

As I previously mentioned about Korean food recycling practices, many Koreans dehydrate food scraps before disposing of them. The process also deodorizes the scraps, so they don't stink up your house between trash pickup days. In South Korea's crowded urban housing environments, composting for farming is not as realistic as it could be in the U.S.

There's no one-size-fits-all solution to dealing with food scraps. If you live in the U.S., your city does not offer yard waste pickup and you don't have a garden available in which to discard your food waste, dehydrating the scraps and throwing them out with the regular garbage might be a solution.