Fiesta... Mexicana...

One of the things I miss most is Mexican food: tacos al pastor, chunky guacamole, spicy pico de gallo, warm corn tortillas... For two years I have been talking about hosting a Mexican dinner party and my friends finally picked a day, by force, and we had a fiesta!

looking back to chamonix and courmayeur

a few more images from the alps as summer descends here in seoul...

back to chamonix

more photos from the alps coming soon...

jeonju's famous bibimbap

30 ingredients in the most famous version of Korean "bibimbap"

a korean taco

this dish was a variation on gujeolpan - delicately marinated vegetables eaten wrapped in crepes.

kimchi, jeonju-style

this kimchi was intricately layered and stuffed with oysters.

royal cuisine

went down to jeonju in north cholla province and had a chance to sample royal court cuisine in the town that is my clan's ancestral seat. the banchan, or side dishes, were exquisite - fresh, varied, delicious, all served in these glowing gold bowls.

preparing for the celebration

beijing, just before national day

all of beijing was starting to prepare for the 60th anniversary of the nation's founding on oct. 1, with red lanterns - and police barricades - going up across the city. gilles lives right along the parade path; "stock up now on food and supplies," the police advised him.

dan graham at the whitney

Dan Graham at the Whitney until Oct. 11:

Graham's rejection of the high-seriousness of modern art emerged at the same moment as Pop art in the early 1960s. "I love magazines because they are like pop songs," he once explained about his early conceptual magazine works, "easily disposable, dealing with momentary pleasures."

where the spirits lie

more images from jongmyo, the joseon dynasty ancestral shrine.

midnight mischief

midnight mischief with a flashlight.

fire island, NY. photos by todd huffman.

fiery sunset on fire island

i took a bus to the airport and got on a 14-hour flight. landed, had tapas with friends and cocktails at the new standard hotel, then woke up 3 hours later to jump into a cab to Penn Station for a train and then a shuttle and then a ferry. but sunsets like this (and the company) made it all worthwhile.

when i'm craving noodles...

it's not easy to find real "kalguksu" - hand-cut noodles - houses anymore but there's one in samcheong-dong, near the palace, that we've been going to regularly. in addition to bowls of steaming noodles, the beef and pork dumplings are homemade, usually by two young men standing in the middle of the restaurant covered in flour in a very PR-savvy display of the restaurant's most delicious dish. most days, the line of kalguksu and mandoo aficionados snakes out the restaurant and down the sidewalk.

ancient alleyways

wandering through old seoul

went for a wander down the winding alleyways of an old part of seoul, 북촌 (Bukchon), where the streets are lined with stately traditional hanok homes that hint of the beauty and tradition of an era long past.

getting crabby

it's crabbing season near yeonpyeong-do, and island far closer to north korea than it is to the south, always a time for fishing boats to scuffle over a good harvest. we sampled the fruits of the fishers' labor: 간장계장 (ganjang gye jang) - crab marinated in soy sauce. all washed down with a milky traditional liquor, 동동주 (dong dong ju).

something to sneeze at

stumbled into a cafe and was greeted by a cat. actually, there were two of them at balicat: a languorous black one reclining on top of a dining table and this gray one, apparently named "judy," perhaps for ms. garland? she certainly was a diva.

royal jewel

we got a rare, private tour of the quiet back gardens of changdoekgung palace, one of the five royal palace "jewels" built during the joseon dynasty (1392-1910).

royal rites

the "palilmu" court dance

legions of lees

every year, legions of Lees from the 全州李 (Jeonju Lee) clan gather at the Jongmyo royal shrine in Seoul for the 종묘대제 (daeje) honoring kings and queens of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). according to a wikipedia entry, 14.8 percent of South Koreans bear the surname Lee.) i think it would be safe to assume this man, pictured above, is mr. lee!

kill bill

this photo doesn't exactly do gonpachi, a cavernous roppongi izakaya that allegedly inspired the fight scene in kill bill, justice. it's a great space, with soaring ceilings and private rooms lining the upper level. best of all is the lung capacity of the waitstaff, who yell out hellos and goodbyes to everyone coming and leaving, which means you get an earful every time a waiter passes.
after missing the last train, we hunkered down in a cozy little japanese booth tucked under a stairwell for some plum wine and shochu with rocio and felipe. i've now seen felipe in four countries in the span of about 18 months, i think: in london, in mexico last january, in sevilla a year ago and now in tokyo. saludos!

the wicked witch of the east

wasn't sure what to make of this goth ensemble: chic or freak?

roppongi hills, tokyo

meltingly delicious tonkatsu in tokyo

years ago, during a stopover in tokyo, megumi took me to a tonkatsu place in omotesando that set the bar so high i was never forever on a hunt for tonkatsu even half as delicious. so first thing after dropping our bags off at the hotel, we hopped on the subway for omotesando, and got in line with the saturday queue for tonkatsu at maisen, a former bathhouse-turned-tonkatsuria (ok, that's not a word, but i'd like to think such a genre exists).

it did not disappoint: perfectly flaky coating, layers of pork that simply melted in the mouth. a jar of tonkatsu sauce to glaze over each morsel as you wish. heaven.

buddha's brilliant birthday

spring has definitely sprung in seoul, with hot pink azaleas sprouting out of bushes that were prickly and bare all winter and the city awash in colorful lanterns in honor of buddha's birthday. these girls are dressed in hanbok the shade of the lotus, one of the eight auspicious symbols in buddhism. speaking of azaleas, check out cindy's shop east village lingerie shop, azaleas, and her blog.