All posts tagged: Featured

9 Lights in 9 Rooms | Spatial Illumination

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D Museum is a hike up a sleepy hill in Hannam but the contents of Spatial Illumination made it worth the huff and puff to get there. Like stepping into another world, the exhibit puts you inside the whimsy and fun, color and light. Here lies our own personal wonderland that you can share with a chunk of the Seoul population if you go after noon on a holiday (like me 😀 ). The displays are bold, big, gorgeous and inspiring. Each room flows from the last but each distinct and surprising. I loved each part separately and as a whole. The exhibit runs through May 8th, so get there soon. They do allow all the pictures you want to take so the place is very popular with the young crowd.  The last weekend will no doubt be packed like a sardine can. NEON FORMS (AFTER NOH II AND III) by Cerith Wyn Evans PRIMARY by Flynn Talbot LINE FADE by Erwin Redl CHROMOSATURATION by Carlos Cruz-Diez MIRROR BRANCH by Studio Roso MY WHALE by Tundra BOURRASQUE by Paul Cocksedge DON’T LOOK INTO THE …

Ikseon Dong | A Hanok Island

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Prepare yourself, folks, there’s a history lesson in here today! 🙂 I think most would agree that the skyline of Seoul in many areas is quite impressive, however, the inside of most apartment buildings, the majority of the skyscrapers in Seoul, look like something this side of a psych ward. The apartments weren’t made to necessarily be creative, interesting or impressive. Barren boxes, designed to house as many families as possible, is what comes to mind when I think about how most of us live in Seoul. So when we are tired of looking at our boring little boxes, it is time to visit areas with traditional architecture and a time when homes were made with a bit more love and care. One such area is a tiny hanok island surrounded by those tall, boring buildings, called Ikseon-dong. It’s just a neighborhood over from Insa-dong.  The entire area is experiencing a glowing revival, much the same as the hanok renovations in Samcheong, Bukchon and Seochon. Renovations to these wonderful little places have been met with controversy through the years, however. In the …

Candles for a Cause

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I spent the best two hours last Sunday in a candle making class for one in the most adorable of shops in Jongno near Samcheongdong. If you know me well you know that this was basically as good as living a dream for me.  This is one of my favorite, if not my most favorite, parts of Seoul. Just being in the area is a good day for me but I got to actually spend time creating things in a handmade candle and jewelry shop. The best part? It was for charity! For 30,000 won you will be donating proceeds to CATS, Whisker’s Ministop. This is a beautiful organization that homes cats waiting for adoption. It is run by one woman who I quite literally don’t know how she does it all on her own.  She works a full time job, takes care of all her cats in the shelter and is always ready to help with her fosters as well. I took in my little Bacchus from CATS as a foster and fell madly in …

Mingles | Chosen #1 by KOREAT

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There’s a new restaurant guide book in town and it is Korea’s answer to the Michelin Guide. It’s called KOREAT and Mingles is now gracing the top of this list.  My foodie friend, Phil and I went to try this beauty out. Mingles is on the basement floor and this lends to a very cozy feeling. Sadly, it also means no natural light and yellowish pictures. However, the service was amazing. The waiter spoke English well and even played along with my jokes. It is certainly fine dining in its beauty but less stuffy than some other high-end restaurants we have tried. The food at Mingles is a creative Korean fusion. There are many fusion places dotted all over Seoul, but this is by far an exception. This is not Korean food that has been touched by Western tastes. The dishes fused seamlessly.  Everything tastes like wonderful care and thought goes into finding the perfect marriage of flavors. During our visit, we found each course delicious, very well explained and fun to eat. The highlights included the tofu soup in …

Arario Museum | Jongno

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I visit a lot of museums which allows me to visit some really fascinating worlds. Sometimes, they are amazingly weird and curious things. Sometimes, those things are peculiar and have an oh so unsubtle hint of dread and horror.  All in good fun, though, I’m sure. Arario Museum is a weird and wonderful world.  At times, the weird outweighs the wonderful, like the plastic mold of an artist’s head, hollowed out and filled to the brim with the artist’s real blood. Or the sparkling deer made of glass bubbles, which looks straight from Narnia, until you peek closer and realize that underneath the translucent glass bubbles is a real taxidermy deer attached to the back of another taxidermy deer. But, then there are other things that are fun and spectacular. There is an entire room dedicated to Keith Haring. There are the absurd self portraits of Cindy Sherman, which are every woman’s hilarious nightmare reflected back at us. There is also the building itself, which is dreamlike with its small circular stairwells, exposed brick, beautiful, ivy covered windows …

Seongsu dong | Revival

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A painfully gorgeous day urges this couch potato into vast exploration of new areas. I found myself in sunlight and unknown neighborhoods last Sunday when I hopped on the subway to an area that is being called by people much cooler than myself, I’m sure, as the Brooklyn or Williamsburg of Seoul city living. These areas in Seoul, a generally run down looking, formerly industrialized Korean neighborhood with splashes of youth and transformation, give me a positive outlook on Korea. This country, for all its productivity and creativity, could easily become stagnant because of old fashioned ideals and hierarchical working relationships in large companies. Four years ago, when I first arrived, I was told the Korean career trajectory was: study endlessly in high school miserably, get into the best college, work at LG or Samsung or some other high powered Korean company, work long and tedious hours miserably until you eventually die with loads of vacation time stacked up that you had but weren’t allowed to take. Sounds awesome, yeah? I just couldn’t imagine that this sort of mindset …

The Great Outdoors | Adventure time with Gina & Crystal

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I was incredibly lucky to FINALLY go visit my friend, Gina after an  almost 7 or 8 year separation, in Vancouver, Washington which is a stone’s throw from Portland, Oregon.  (It was also the perfect occasion to spread on some thick guilt about getting over to Korea to visit me. Dates were set. No backing out now, Gina!) On one of my beautiful vacation days we went hiking on Eagle Creek Trail, part of the Columbia River Gorge. This hike has everything you could want to see when your hiking days are quite scant and you want to make the most of it. There were basin pools, waterfalls and foliage out of a fairy tale landscape.  It was ridiculously gorgeous as you can see. It was a bit hard for an out of shape gal like myself but every step was worth it! We made it to the 3.3 mile mark and back. I was really proud of us! If you want to see anymore, visit my Flikr page! Portland, Oregon | Eagle Creek Trail After our hike, rewards …

Strawberry & Applemint Margarita

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I had a container of frozen strawberries taking up a lot of room in my ridiculously minuscule freezer last week and I knew something had to be done about it. In comes the margarita cavalry! This one is pumped up with a bit of applemint simple syrup and some lime juice. They are amazing, not watered down with ice and not too sweet. Try them out while it’s hot enough to melt payment. Ingredients for the simple syrup 1 cup water 1 cup sugar 5-6 springs or large leaves of applemint Ingredients for the margarita  3 cups frozen strawberries 1 cup of simple syrup flavored with applemint 1 cup tequila of your choice lime of one lime salt for rims suggested but not necessary Directions: For the simple syrup: heat the water to a boil and add the sugar and applemint until the sugar is completely dissolved and applemint flavors the water. Add all the ingredients into the blender and blend until frosty like. Put some lime juice around the rim of your glass and dip …

Gallery Hopping | Jongno

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If you want a feel of authentic Seoul, I’d argue you need to head to the north side of the Han.  As I do much of my day tripping in the southern half, I relish the times I get to go to one of my favorite areas, Jongno.  My actual intention was the visit one gallery I had my eye on and ended up in an independent bookstore, three galleries and a museum. That’s the ridiculously cool thing about settling down in a living, breathing city like Seoul. You can always pick a location and find plenty to do in that area which can include, but is not limited to: entertainment, food, coffee and a cocktail. And depending where you go, each of those things can be an experience.

Banana & Nutella “Ice Cream”

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You know already I’m trying to trick you, right? This recipe has been woven into the fabric that is Pinterest and has been around for a while. So you probably already know that people are whipping their frozen bananas into an ice cream like dessert. I tried it once last year in my blender to no avail, I could not get that damn banana to turn into ice cream. It was actually just not pleasant, it just tasted like icy banana. The consistency was all wrong. This year I persevered since I got a new food processor…and VICTORY! The consistency was much better and I was really reminded of banana ice cream. You can take this basic recipe and create any new flavors you want. It’s really versatile. As a tried and true ice cream lover I will tell you honestly that it doesn’t taste exactly like ice cream, but it is really delicious in its own right and much healthier for you. So give it a whirl and see what you can do. Summer …