Yesterday

I prepared some food for chuseok.  But before that, we had a tornado warning.  I heard the siren and saw the tree in front of our house almost uprooted by the wind.  So I looked online and there was a tornado warning and severe thunderstorm warning which said to take cover in the interior-most part of the house and stay away from windows and flying debris.  Which freaked me out!  So I hid in the closet with a book and my ipod so I could check weather updates until it passed.  Fortunately, nothing crazy happened, and I came out and cooked dinner.

Happy 추석

Happy Korean Thanksgiving, or Mid-Autumn Festival! While each Asian culture has its traditions, a big one for Koreans is to eat a type of rice cake called songpyeon. Here's a photo I took at a wedding I shot last year, to give you an idea:

추석 (Chuseok) is a time to celebrate the harvest. I plan on making bulgogi and chapchae, typical foods eaten on this day.  I actually have some songpyeon that I'm defrosting right now from my cousin Jane's wedding. Also, fresh fruits from the harvest are eaten, so I'll make sure to cut up some asian pears that I picked a few weeks ago.

After dinner, hubby and I will look at some of the photos I took in Korea this summer, and then take a walk at night to enjoy the full moon.  He doesn't know it yet, but this is the plan.

Korean Groceries

After some dismal attempts at finding good and cheap Korean groceries, I got a recommendation from my aunt to check out the Korean video store.  We had already checked out 2 regular Korean markets so we thought, what the heck, let's try the video store and see what they got.

Surprisingly, the Korean video store, actually called "Han Kook Video", has the best Korean groceries in town.  It's about the size of our living room and packed with groceries, household items and shelves lined with Korean DVDs.  And nothing has a price tag on it.  We bought a few things and were pleased with our new find.

I learned from my aunt that new goods come every Thursday, so this past Friday I went over there.  The place was swarming with Korean ahjummas and halmunees.  I think about 10 of them.  And there was a lot of good stuff.  I thought it was the funniest thing.

So now I have the inside scoop on Korean groceries in town.

Hanbok

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Aren't these images beautiful? Photographed by Kim Kyung Soon for Korean Vogue.

I've been obsessed with historical Korean dramas lately. They are the best.

some updates

it snowed yesterday. it's freakin' april, mind you.

i signed up to run the chicago marathon in october! it'll be my very first marathon. i'll be raising money for clean water in africa in the process. check it out here.

hopefully it'll stop being freezing, snowing and raining so i can actually start training.

i updated my photo blog today.

my mom and bro are visiting me in july. yay!

will is going to be in kentucky this summer.

i finished watching the korean drama, boys before flowers. loved it.

when i visited LA, friends told me i am becoming more korean.

i cut my own bangs the other night. i followed a youtube tutorial on how.

:)

chi town's k-town

the excitement for today was accompanying will to the barber shop. he had been to 3 different barbers here, with no luck. today, in sheer desperation he googled "korean barber" and found someone. the guy was in chicago's k-town, and so i couldn't resist the opportunity to go with him on this little field trip.

all i can say is, if LA's k-town is like korea in the 70s, then chicago's k-town must be like korea in the 50s. a few weeks ago we went karaoke-ing for a friend's birthday, and the noraebang was so ghe-tto. the machine was super slow and kept doing weird things. that thing must've been one of those machines from the first batch of karaoke machines ever made or something. hehe.

but still, it was fun to go over there and get a taste of something familiar. and will got a great haircut.

hillary

image from nytimes

hillary's in s. korea right now. i love this photo of hillary at ewha women's university in seoul today. ewha is my mom's alma mater. see full article here.

feast

will was in LA for about 24 hours yesterday. his mom packed a big ol' box of korean goodies for him to bring back. will let me do the honors and open it. in the box were 6 tupperwares of banchan, beans, 3 spices, honey, 2 tubs of kimchi, korean bakery bread, marinated and frozen kalbi, frozen oxtail, korean snacks, seaweed, peanuts, walnuts, a radish, rice cake and kimbap (pictured above).

after gleefully opening the contents of the package, i pigged out on the kimbap at 1am last night. it was soooo good.

happy new year

a belated post. this is what we ate at will's house on 1/1/08. his mom is an awesome cook...

janice, his sister, wraps these so perfectly

gettin' ready

warming the sake

kalbi jjim

evolution of the shrimp: first phase (i don't know why this is underlined. i can't make it stop)

shrimp: second phase

final product. this is the most coveted dish

yummm.

more hanbok

speaking of hanboks, i came across this photo a few months ago. don't you just love her facial expression? and the juxtaposition of the tiny korean grandma in front of a big ol' hummer stretch limo?

i'm so happy my halmunee (grandma) is coming to my wedding.

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hanbok

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i'll be changing into a hanbok (korean traditional dress) during the reception (but no pae-baek). will's mom had one made for me. it looks something like this, except mine is all pink, and the top is longer.

both our moms will also be wearing hanboks. yay.