Korean Festival Mahalo Dinner

The HKCC hosted a Mahalo Dinner last night at Seoul Jung restaurant in the Waikiki Resort Hotel. Wow! This event took almost as much planning as the Festival itself!

(Picture qualities aren't that great cuz I just bought a new dica a few days prior and hadn't had time to make the fine tuning adjustments yet. Future pics will be better.)

Seoul Jung did a good job making the room very presentable.
We wanted to host a dinner to thank all the sponsors, performers, volunteers, and other supporters of the Festival and it turned out to be one big fancy party. There were approximately 140 people in attendance and we were in real danger of running out seats because so many last minute people showed up. In fact, I had to give up my seat to a guest to make room so I ended up eating at the reception table!

Beautiful centerpieces provided by Hawaii Wedding Creations. The setup actually looked a lot better than this but I took this pic as they were breaking down after the party. You can get a better look at how they looked in the pic above.Grace Lee of KGMB was kind enough once again to MC our event, as she did on Festival day. I'm definitely a fan. I watched her Sunrise on KGMB show every morning even before I met her and after meeting her twice now, I can say she's extremely warm and nice and an excellent MC. Very professional and talented.

Mayor Mufi Hannemann also showed up to say a few words and he also brought about 6 members of his Cabinet with him. Such a nice guy and great speaker. When Ann Kobayashi announced her mayoral candidacy a few days ago, several key people in the Korean community who were in attendance last night were at her press conference. I wonder how the Mayor felt about that...

Beauties and the Beast - Me with two of the Miss Korea Hawaii Princesses. They served as greeters and gift presenters for the night.We were also able to give away a bunch of great door prizes, thanks to our generous sponsors and vendors. Gifts included bicycles, interisland round trip tickets, blackberry cellular phones, gift certificates to various Korean restaurants around town, and various golf paraphenelia.

Overall, it was a very fun night and I think everyone there went away happy and had a good time.

Waipahu Plantation Village Korean Heritage Family Day

You and the kids got nothing to do this Saturday? Go to the Hawaii Plantation Village in Waipahu to experience Korean Heritage Family Day!

The Korean Family Fair will be held this Saturday, August 2nd, from 10am to 3pm and there will be tons of fun activities for the keiki. They can play traditional Korean games, learn how to make a Korean kite, paint traditional Korean masks, and more! There will even be Korean storytelling for the children and cooking demos as well so there's fun for the whole family.

So go on over to Waipahu and check it out!

Cool Comic-Con Footage

Every year, geeks and fans alike gather in San Diego for the Comic Convention, aka Comic-Con. When this event first started, it was just a bunch of comic book fanboys gathering together to meet their favorite comic book writers, artists, etc. and get Jim Lee to autograph their X-Men #267 or Todd McFarlane to sign a copy of Spawn.

Now...it's turned into one big Hollywood bonanza! Sure, the comic book people are still there but now Comic-Con has become known for the place to be to see exclusive footage of upcoming hotly anticipated films. This is where the first footage of Iron Man and the new Star Trek film was seen last year.

This year, they've already shown a bunch of cool stuff and of course there's bootleg videos of the trailers being shown. A couple of the more cooler items are early footage of the new Wolverine movie, stupidly titled X-Men Origins: Wolverine and also....ready for this? The sequel to Tron! Hoo-ah!

Here's the Wolverine footage: Wolverine trailer

Looks pretty cool, huh? It's got all the fan favorite Wolverine universe characters such as Sabretooth, Deadpool, and even Gambit! And watch out for Korean drama hunk du jour Daniel Henney (My Lovely Samsoon) in a small role in his Hollywood debut too!

Then we have this footage.

Holy crap! I didn't even know they were making a Tron sequel! How cool is that? Tron was one of my favorite films as a kid and to see it on the big screen again would be so awesome. They even brought Jeff Bridges back!

Gotta make it to this Comic-Con one of these days....

Yay!

Just read this morning that they'll be releasing Rudy on Bluray in September. Yay! Definitely gonna get that movie. One of my all time faves. I find it so inspirational that I actually watched this film the night before my Professional Engineers exam to help me believe that I could pass the test (I hadn't really studied too much prior). And it's one of the few films to make this cold hearted bastard shed a few tears as well.

Big Korean Celebrity Marriage

Whoa...big news. Korean drama heartthrob Kwon Sang Woo and Miss Korea beauty turned actress Sohn Tae Young are getting married in September.

Kwon Sang Woo is a big time Hallyu star and Sohn Tae Young is pretty hot. Ah-lahk-huh-uh-lah! ^^

Korean Restaurants

A co-worker just asked me for recommendations for a good Korean restaurant and it got me thinking...there are a few weird things about the Korean restaurants here.

- A lot of of Korean restaurants here use the word "yakiniku" when referring to the act of grilling meat. Yakiniku Camellia. Yakiniku Seoul. Seoul Garden Yakiniku. Not sure why since yakiniku is a Japanese term. I've eaten at lots of meat restaurants in Korea and not once have I heard it referred to as "yakiniku" there. Must be a local thing.

- I've read lots of reviews online for Korean restaurants about the difference in serving "banchan" (side dishes) to local customers and Korean customers. Apparently, local customers feel that they're not getting as many different banchan as Korean customers are getting. Typical statements would say "I looked at the table next to ours and the Koreans there had more banchan than we did." Since I'm Korean and usually order in Korean, I can't say that I've seen a difference since I've always assumed that what was served to me was also served to everyone else. If indeed this is not the case, that is very unfortunate. Restaurants shouldn't be playing favorites nor giving preferential treatment to Koreans. But I must admit that there have been times where I've asked for a banchan that they originally didn't bring out (such as ggakdugi or daikon kimchee) and they've brought it out if they had it.

- Speaking of....at most Korean restaurants here, you're supposed to get a free order of jjigae, usually kimchee jjigae (kimchee stew) or dwenjang jjigae (miso stew) with your order of meats. That's how it's done in Korea. Actually, in Korea, they don't eat rice with the meat. The meat is consumed straight or wrapped in a piece of lettuce (or a shot of soju) and you eat it with banchan. After you've eaten your meat, then they bring out the jjiage and rice, or sometimes naengmyun (noodles) to complete the meal.

But I heard several locals say that they never got this free stew with their meat order. Don't let them rip you off! Demand that free jjigae! Your Korean neighbors are getting and so should you! There are only 2 places that I know of that don't do this. Seoul Jung in the Waikiki Resort Hotel and Sorabol. And they can both kiss my butt. I don't like Sorabol's food anyway so I don't go there.

- If you were to ask me where the best Korean restaurants in town were, I'd give you 3 choices: Yakiniku Seoul, Seoul Garden, and Mikawon. Yakiniku Seoul has excellent service, Mikawon has good seafood pancake and draft beer, and Seoul Garden is good all around. I've been hearing some good things about Choi's Garden lately so I may have to go check that one out again. I ate there for lunch once but was not impressed. I think I'll go give it another shot.

Some Korean Festival Pics.....

Looking at my pics, I think something's wrong with my dica. They're all kinda fuzzy or something. Oh well...

Was too busy running around to take pictures during the Festival but captured some:

Cool demonstration of "kool tarae" or traditional court candy made of honey,nuts, etc. This was a new addition for the Festival and was quite popular as crowds gathered to watch him make the candy. Poor guy. His hands were shaking even the next day because he said he couldn't take a break all day due to the crowds. I first saw this done in Insa-dong in Korea and it was really cool.
3 of the performers from Korea. These 3 performed several modern dancing numbers.
Lines for the food. I'm thinking about changing the food tent configuration next year.
Products Tent was packed all day. You could buy Korean snacks, beauty products, get a massage, register to donate bone marrow, and many other cool things!
Some of the food on sale in the Products Tent
Face painting for the kids. Poor girl. She don't look happy.

We had 2 taekwondo demos this year instead of 1. Very popular and they did a great job. I just watched one of them but they had this really funny dance battle.
Accepting the City and County's check from the Mayor. That is one tall bugga! (photo courtesy of Korea News Daily)

Accepting the check from the Consul General(photo courtesy of Korea News Daily)

Jeez....my pictures are boring. They are the suck. Sorry guys.

Go Green!

Check out the Million Lights Project. They are giving away a free CFL light bulb to the first million to respond to their website in an attempt to get people to go green and leave less of a carbon footprint on the environment.

All the bulbs in my house are already CFL but I sure will take a free bulb! Those bulbs gotta die sometime right?

Korean Festival....Done!

Whew! Another year, another Korean Festival gone!

The past few days have been quite busy as I've hardly spent any time at home, trying to get ready for this Festival. But I have to say, it was all worth it. I think this year's Festival was bigger and better than last year's and I hope we can continue to grow and improve year to year.

I'm sorry that I have no pics to share with you this year but I was just so busy running around and checking on things that I didn't have the energy to snap pics. I know, I'm a terrible blogger! I did take about 4-5 pics during some down time but nothing terribly interesting. Maybe I'll post them when I get a chance.

First of all...the Ala Moana Centerstage performance on Friday afternoon. Wow, this went really well. We were on stage from 2-2:45pm and as shoppers started to realize there was a show going on, the crowd got bigger and more enthusiastic. I have to say that MC'ing an event at such a public arena is quite fun and exciting! The dancers from Korea were amazing and they really worked the crowd up. One elderly woman approached me after the show and told me she was near tears after watching the performances and wished that the show hadn't ended.

As for the main event Saturday....I was there from about 7:30am till about a little before midnight. Of course there were hiccups here and there, but overall, a very smooth operation for the most part.

Food....there were more food booths this year and all of the food vendors did just as well or better than last year so that's a good sign. I have several ideas in changing the food concept next year so don't be surprised to see a few major changes at the 8th Festival. And don't be surprised to see me with a food booth at the Festival in the near future! I have an idea to bring back a long gone but still dearly missed local favorite. But seeing as how I'll probably be too busy with Festival operations to run a food booth, that idea will have to wait. Unless I can find a good crew to run it for me....

Entertainment...the entertainment schedule ended up being almost an hour behind schedule but I think the people enjoyed the program for the most part. I didn't really get to watch the entertainment too much but did spend some time onstage and backstage here and there. Our MC's were great in going with the flow. The song contest was bigger and better this year and the prizes were definitely upgraded. I didn't watch the headliner Kim Se Hwan perform (his music not really my cup of tea) so can't say how he did. Did anyone catch his act? Was it good?

Products tent was packed and people were walking shoulder to shoulder. I think we need to expand our product tent next year. We keep getting new vendors who want to participate so we have to expand to meet the demand. You could get a wide variety of products in the tent from Korean snacks, culutural items, handbags, even medical advice and massages!

Services and sponsors...there were tons of fun activities going on. You could get your picture taken in hanbok, there was face painting for the kids, and a lot of sponsors had fun games with free giveaways which resulted in lines of over 20 people waiting to participate.

Cooking demonstrations in our Chamber tent were also very popular. They demonstrated how to cook many different traditional Korean dishes and gave out free samples. We also had about 300 bottles of kim chee to sell and we sold out!

Overall, the general feedback from the public has been very positive. I made numerous rounds of the park throughout the day, asking vendors, sponsors, attendees, volunteers, policemen,etc. for their reactions and comments. They were all positive.

I want to thank everyone who came out this year for your support and please come and join us again next year!

Korean Festival - Last Reminder!

Hey everyone!

Just wanted to give one last plug for the Korean Festival this Saturday at Kapiolani Park from 10am to 9pm.

We've upgraded everything this year as we continually try to improve on our Festival to offer the best of Korean culture.

Food selections as always include the popular items such as kalbi, bbq chicken, meat jun, mandoo, etc. But we also offer other Korean traditional dishes such as bibimbap, kimbap (Korean sushi rolls), spicy rice cake (ddukpoki), Korean sausage (soondae), kimchee pancake, kimchee fried rice, and even Korean style shave ice! Now you too, can eat the foods you've seen in the Korean dramas! Yum!

Entertainment at the bandstand will include traditional dances (performed by dancers flying in from Korea), taekwondo demonstrations, the Korean singing contest, and the ever popular kimchee eating contest. The finale will be our headline act, award winning pop star Kim Se Hwan!

Other features of the Festival include the cultural exhibit, face painting and Xtreme fun rides for the keiki, all day cooking demonstrations in the Hawaii Korean Chamber of Commerce tent, and picture taking in traditional Korean costume (hanbok).

Parking is plentiful at Kapiolani Community College and there will be a shuttle to the park every 10 minutes.

For more information, please visit our website.

Thanks, and hope to see you all there!

Ala Moana Center Stage Performance Confirmed

Whew! I finally was able to get the Ala Moana Centerstage performance for the dancers from Korea confirmed this afternooon.

As you all (hopefully) know, the Korean Festival will be taking place this Saturday, July 12th, at Kapiolani Park from 10am to 9pm. As a big part of our entertainment lineup we are very lucky to have over 50 professional dancers from Korea arriving here to perform traditional Korean cultural dances. They requested to also perform at Ala Moana Centerstage and today, I was finally able to get that performance confirmed.

Their performance will take place this Friday, July 11th, at 2:00pm at Centerstage and will last for 45 minutes. During that time, they will perform several traditional Korean music and dances such as fan dances, court dances, and instrument performances with gayageum. For a modern twist on playing the gayageum, check out last year's Miss Universe 3rd runner up Honey Lee playing Epik High's "Fan" on her gayageum:

There's a good chance I may be MC'ing this Ala Moana performance too so if you're able to come by, feel free to say hi!

Korean Sweep!

There was a Korean sweep in golf this past weekend. Anthony Kim won the Tiger Woods hosted AT&T National and Seon Hwa Lee won the P&G Beauty NW Arkansas Championship. It was the 2nd victory of the year for both.
Anthony Kim became the first PGA golfer under the age of 25 since Tiger Woods to win twice in the same year. He earlier won the Wachovia Championship back in May. That's 2 wins in 5 starts! It was good to see this young budding superstar get so much TV coverage and the announcers were complimenting his swing and poise and his potential all throughout the weekend. It looks like this 23 year old could be making some waves in the future! PS Hawaii's Dean Wilson also did well with a Top 10 finish.
Seon Hwa Lee also got her 2nd victory of this year by birdeing the final hole to beat out fellow Koreans Meena Lee and Jane Park. In all, there were 7 girls of Korean ancestry in the Top 10. Wow!

Tango Contemporary Cafe

As I was driving through the Ward area one day I noticed a sign for what appeared to be a brand new restaurant right next to PF Chang's called Tango Contemporary Cafe. It peaked my curiosity so I decided to try it out a few weeks ago.

Doing some research on the web before dining there, I learned that Tango was opened by Chef Goran Streng who used to be the executive chef of Hawaii Prince Hotel and then a private chef for the Hawaii Yacht Club. Yeah...those mean nothing to me too. Anyways...I guess you could say that the cuisine combines the chef's European background with Pacific Rim/Asian fusion and from what I tasted, the results are pretty good!

My friend and I started off with the Portobello Mushroom & Crab Hash Napoleon with Spinach appetizer. This was a very tasty dish and I especially loved the portobello mushroom, the spinach, and the accompanying red wine reduction.

As you can see, we'd already consumed half the dish before I remembered to snap a pic!
Then time for the entrees.

I had the Asian Style Five Spice Braised Beef.In one word...yummy! The pieces of beef were very tender and the sauce was very ono. And I thought the potato and onion rings were a nice touch. My only complaint about this dish would be that it came out merely warm, and not hot.

My friend ordered the Sauteed Moi with Tomato Fennel Coulis.The moi was cooked very nicely and had a great flavor but I found the accompanying sauce and vegetables not a great match for the fish. I would've preferred the fish by itself than with what they served it with.

Overall, the restaurant is small and quaint but very nice and trendy looking yet simple. The prices are reasonable and food is good. I wouldn't mind going back to try different dishes.

Free Iced Coffee at Starbucks

For you Starbucks fans....you can get a free iced coffee every Wednesday until July 23, 2008 using the above card. The fine print does not list Hawaii as participating but the person who sent this to me said several of her friends tried it at various Starbucks locations in Hawaii and they all worked.

Go get your free coffee!

Korean Festival Reminder

Just a friendly reminder...don't forget about the Korean Festival on Saturday, July 12th, at Kapiolani Park!

We're gonna have some new things this year like face painting for the kids, new food demonstrations, and the Hawaii Korean Chamber of Commerce will have our own tent this year where we'll have some cultural items on display as well as demonstrations by the Hawaii Korean Chefs Association.

Award winning pop singer Kim Se Hwan will also be performing as our headline act at around 7:30pm. Before that, there will be the very popular song contest! Think of American Idol...but Korean style! If you're interested in trying out, the preliminary round will be held this Saturday, July 5th, at 4pm at 777 Karaoke. We've got great prizes this year such as a round trip ticket to Korea and a 38" flat panel TV so if you can sing Korean, come and try out!

If anyone has any questions regarding the Festival or is interested in volunteering, please feel free to contact me at any time.

See you guys there!

In Bee Park Wins the US Open

And nobody cares.....

Usually I would be thrilled when someone from Korea represents and accomplishes something major. In this case, 19 year old In Bee Park won the Ladies US Open last week.

But you know what? I watched the entire final round and I seriously couldn't care less that she had won and why? Because she was so BORING! Girl did not flash a smile, show any emotion, nothing! And that's a problem with all of the young golfers coming in from Korea nowadays. They have no personalities.

The following is just my opinion and theory. All these girls do from when they're kids is practice and play golf so they have no time for a social life, thus neglecting their social skills. They don't know how to laugh and have a good time and connect and converse with people. In Korea, top athletes don't have to attend school too often so these girls are probably spending 80%-90% of their time with their parents. That's all well and fine and yeah, it translates to a good game on the course, but they won't win any fans over with those quiet traits.

All of the famous and well known golfers while not necessarily wearing their emotions on their sleeves, are at least visually stimulating with their reactions. Annika Sorenstam, Lorena Ochoa, and the rest of the best will let you know when they've hit a great shot or plunked one into the water. These Korean girls, however, are pure poker face players. Nothing fazes them.

The majority of them are girls in their late teens and early 20s so they haven't had opportunities to go out and mix it up and have a life. All they know is the driving range and the golf course. That's just sad and prevents the golf watchers from making a connection with them and becoming a fan. Some of the Korean girls are also known to try and get out of playing pro-am rounds because they'd rather not socialize with strangers in their group. Yeah, the language barrier is an obvious handicap but get out of your shell and have fun out there! And the only way you're gonna improve your English is to use it!

Anyways...there are a ton of young Korean golfers out there and it would be nice to see some of them become marketable players and not hash out the typical answers such "I try my best", "Today I hit really good", etc. Angela Park (Korean but from Brazil) has the potential to become such a player cuz she's kinda sassy. But I guess it's because her English is fluent. I don't know....I just think that these girls should try a little harder to be natural and react normally on the course rather than all be ice princesses.