Monday 28 September 2009

Discover Japanese Food #7: Atsuko's "Kenchin Jiru" (THE EAST Campaign in Association with Atsuko’s Kitchen)


In Japan, we enjoy many types of Japanese cuisines such as kaiseki ryori, wa-shoku, even yo-shoku.
Some are familiar dishes for Japanese home cooking but not many people know about “shojin ryori”, a Japanese buddhist cuisine which has been sustained by Japanese buddhists from almost two thousands years ago.
Nowadays, the position of shojin ryori has changed to suit modern life styles, and vegetarians.
It only uses seasonal vegetables, tofu, nuts, seaweeds and but there are many amazing ideas to create textures, looks and flavours using Japanese basic ingredients and seasonings.
Here is a typical buddhist soup made from root vegetables, then breaking a block of tofu into the soup so that everyone gets an even share.
This is buddhist thoughtfulness....

Ingredients
(for 4 people)
150g tofu
80g konnyaku
1 age
2 dried shiitake (with a cup of water)
1 carrot
15cm renkon
1 parsnip
16 mange tout

Seasonings:
3 cups kombu dashi
2 tbsp sake
3-4 tbsp shoyu
A pinch of salt
1.5 tbsp sesame oil

PREPARATION
1. To make the kombu dashi. - Soak 15cm of kombu in water leave it for 30 mins, then bring it to the boil, and remove the kombu.
2. Soak the shiitake in a cup of water for 30 mins. - keep the shiitake dashi.
3. Boil the konnyaku to remove the smell. Dice konnyaku with a spoon.
4. Wash the age to take the oil out of the surface. Cut into dice size.
5. Peel and chunk all the root vegetables roughly.
6. Cut Mange tout into half. Set aside.

METHOD
1. Fry all the root vegetables and konnyaku in sesame oil.
2. Add shiitake and age. After the oil has coated all the ingredients, add half the amount of shoyu to flavour the ingredients.
3. Add the dashi mixture ( kombu dashi & shiitake dashi ) and bring it to the boil with lid on.
4. Add sake and the rest of the shoyu, then simmer for 20 mins until all the vegetables are cooked.
5. Finally, crush the tofu by hand, and add with mange tout to the soup.
6. Bring it to the boil again and serve.

Sharing by Design: My Perfect Neighbours


Date: 22 Sept – 8 October 2009
Venue: Korean Cultural Centre UK, 1-3 Strand, London, WC2N 5BW
Tel: 020 7004 2600
Email: seungmin.kim@kccuk.org.uk

Korea Design Foundation and Korean Cultural Centre UK (Affiliate body of the Ministry of Culture, Sports & Tourism) host the opening ceremony of the exhibition designMADE 2009 “Sharing by Design" on the 22nd of September at the Korean Cultural Centre U.K. in London. The exhibition is held from the 23rd of September until the 8th of October, simultaneously in the Korean Cultural Centre U.K. in London, Tent London, D+Gallery Seoul and Incheon International Airport Design Cube.

designMADE(Manifesto for Annual Design Exhibition)
has made a statement of exhibiting new designs which differs from the existing passive exhibition culture. It has begun in 2005 and this year is designMADE's 5th anniversary. Following the former exhibitions 'Design Inside Festival of Design to see, hear and play'(2005), 'On-Line(2006)', 'It's Hotel(2007)', 'Saving by Design(2008)', this year's theme of 'Sharing by Design' will interpret the ordinary things we share in daily life as well as search for new ways to share which might not be familiar in the present.

Design that we share with 'my perfect neighbours'
The exhibition starts with an unexpected story which happened to my special neighbours who have managed to transcend time and space. The participant artists have imaginary professions and they propose ways to share with the neighbours. Neighbour would certainly mean the people next door but also my closest family and friends including the plant on the desk that I water daily or the chair I sit on every day. The paradox in the title 'My perfect neighbours' shows the unfamiliarity in its closeness thus the exhibition experiments on communication between the close but far neighbours. This trial is to search for the solution that design can offer for our problems of 'relation'.
Young designers mainly from Korea and Europe
The exhibition is specially co-curated by Daniel Charny, Senior Tutor of RCA and participating designers are mainly from Korea and Europe including F.A.S.T.( Jong-hoon KUK, Zinoo PARK, Pooroni RHEE, Esther LEE, IJEA, Ji-han JEON), Jang-sub LEE, MAEZM, Min Oh, Ming-sang Cho, Soo-jin Hyun, Household, Company, Jordi Canudas, The Mobile Workshop Group, Olivia Decaris, Nicolaas Rysenbry and Basurama. 13 design teams(or designers) were selected in total among which 6 teams are Korean and 7 are international teams.

Workshop events with designers
During the designMADE exhibition, the Spanish design group, Basurama, is invited to Seoul on 5-8 October to open a workshop with Korean students and designers at the D+Gallery of Korea Design Foundation, under the title 'Workshop on new methods of sharing things thrown away'.

Platform for international cultural exchange of design with experimental issues
designMADE dreams to leap a huge step ahead from the usual design giving aesthetic satisfaction to new orientation and experimental spirit of making designs from ordinary life scenes. It wishes to act as a platform for international cultural exchange of design and to give guidelines as to what should be a good design in the future.

Saturday 26 September 2009

The Search for the Crown Princess: A Modern Voice From The Past


Speaker: Margaret Drabble CBE DBE
Date & Time: Tuesday, 20th October 2009, 6.30pm
Venue: Multi-purpose Hall, Korean Cultural Centre
Contact: Eunjeong Shin (Education & Resources Co-ordinator)


Email to eunjeong.shin@kccuk.org.uk to reserve your place
Please note advanced registration is required but will not be acknowledged.

'The Red Queen' is a historical novel narrated by an 18th century crown princess, based on the tragic life of her husband, the Crown Prince, Prince Sado of Korea. The Crown Prince, like many sons of a King with high expectations, grows up to be a disappointment to his father. The King is concerned about the future of his dynasty, his anxiety growing greater as the Noron-dominated government, who is against the Crown Prince, sways him into believing that the Crown Prince has a mental illness a move which has the most tragic of consequences.

Novelist, critic and biographer, Dame Margaret read English at Newnham College, Cambridge, and was awarded an honorary Doctorate in letters. Most of her seventeen published novels are centred on the theme of contemporary English society and its individual members.

Refreshments will be served before and after the talk in the Reception area.

Restaurant Tour #10: MIGA Korean Restaurant in London


Goodge Street in London is awash with eateries. So it goes without saying that at some stage I would eat at one of them.

MIGA-BBQ, Bar & Oriental Fusion restaurant
29 Goodge Street, London W1T 2PP
Tel No: 020 7636 7688
Opening Hours: Monday to Saturday 1200 hours to 2300 hour Sunday 1800 hours to 2300 hours (Booking is advisable)

Goodge Street tube Station (Northern Line) is literally two minutes walk away. The owner and chef is Mr. KO who has many years experience in the preparation of Korean cuisine. His English and that of his staff are of a good standard. First impressions can be quite misleading. It is a no frills restaurant that can accommodate forty six diners. There are wooden tables and wooden chairs in the restaurant on the ground floor with Karaoke facilities at a lower level. The décor is quite stark but the premises are due for a makeover in the not too distant future. The patrons are mainly students (from the nearby UCL), office workers and tourists. The dishes on the menu are all described in English and Korean. The following dishes were placed in front of us:

* Seasoned Barbecued Sirloin steak served with salad----tender and succulent and without doubt one of the best steaks I’ve had for a long time.
* Salmon with a different salad----well seasoned and not overcooked and dry
* Beef Rib and cabbage soup----full of flavour
* A different type of Rib soup----meat well cooked
* Soup containing bean curd, mung beans and intestines----popular with a lot of diners but not to my taste
* Green Tea ice cream----definitely to my taste

I felt that the culinary skills of Mr. KO surpassed the area in which the restaurant was located. Furthermore, I have no doubt with the décor change combined with the quality of the food this eatery will be even busier than it is at the moment.

Thursday 24 September 2009

Thirst (Directed by Park Chan-wook)


Date & Venue : in Cinemas 16th October

Thirst is an upcoming 2009 horror/drama film, written and directed by Park Chan-wook.
It tells the story of a priest who is in love with his friend’s wife turning into a vampire through a failed medical experiment.
Park has stated, “this film was originally called The Bat to convey a sense of horror.”

Plot
We are introduced to Sang-hyun, a priest whose free time is spent volunteering at the local hospital and providing ministry to the patients.
He is well respected for his unwavering faith and the dedicated service he provides to all those around him, but he secretly suffers from overwhelming feelings of doubt and sadness about living in a world that seems to be drowning in suffering and death.
After getting fed up with the endless cycle of human suffering that the world offers, Sang-hyun volunteers to participate in an experiment to find a vaccine for the deadly F.I.V. virus with the hope of saving even one life, and heads off to Africa.
Although the experiment fails disastrously and Sang-hyun is infected with a seemingly fatal disease, he makes a complete and rapid recovery.
News of his marvelous recovery is quickly spread to the devout parishioners of Sang-hyun’s congregation, and they begin to believe that the man has a miraculous gift for healing.
Soon, thousands more people flock to Sang-hyun’s services.
Among the new churchgoers are Kang-woo, Sang-hyun’s childhood friend, and his family.

Later on, Kang-woo invites his old friend to join the weekly mahjong night at his house, and there Sang-hyun finds himself precariously drawn to Kang-woo’s wife, Tae-ju.
Suddenly Sang-hyun relapses into his illness; he coughs up blood and passes away.
The next day however, he opens his eyes in dire need of shelter from the sweltering sunlight; he has become a vampire.
At first Sang-hyun feels a newfound vigor and is energized by his insistent bodily desires, but soon he is aghast to find himself sucking down blood from a comatose patient in the hospital.
After attempting to kill himself, he finds that he is drawn back to the taste of human blood against his will.
To make matters worse, the symptoms of F.I.V. have come roaring back.
Desperately trying to avoid committing a murder, he resorts to stealing blood transfusion packs from the hospital.
Tae-ju, now living with her ill husband and her over-protective mother-in-law, leads a dreary and unhappy life.
She finds herself drawn to Sang-hyun and his odd new physicality, and his inability to resist his desires.
The two begin an affair, but when Tae-ju first discovers the truth about Sang-hyun’s new lifestyle, she retreats in fear.
When Sang-hyun pleads with her to run away with him she turns him down, suggesting that they kill her husband instead.


About Park Chan-wook

Park Chan-wook (born August 23, 1963 in the Tanyan area of Jecheon) is a South Korean filmmaker and screenwriter.
One of the most acclaimed and popular filmmakers in his native country, Park is internationally renowned for what has become known as The Vengeance Trilogy, consisting of 2002’s Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy in 2003 and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance in 2005.
His films are noted for their immaculate framing and brutal subject matter.
In a May 2004 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, when asked who influences him, Park’s response was: Sophocles, Shakespeare, Kafka, Dostoevsky, Balzac, Kurt Vonnegut and others.
In an interview for Lady Vengeance, Park listed: Alfred Hitchcock, Robert Aldrich, Ingmar Bergman, Sam Fuller, Roman Polanski and the Korean director, Kim Ki-young, as cinematic influences.
His debut feature film was The Moon Is... the Sun’s Dream (1992), and after five years, he made his second film Trio, but the response to these two films was quite cold.
Before Joint Security Area, Park was more famous as a film critic than as a filmmaker.
In 2000, Park directed Joint Security Area, which was a great success both commercially and critically, even surpassing Kang Je-gyu’s Shiri as the most-watched film ever made in South Korea.
This success made it possible for him to make his next film more independently - Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is the result of this creative freedom.
After winning the Grand Prix at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival for the film Oldboy, a journalist asked, “in your film, why is the vengeance repeating?”.
According to Park, he decided to make three consecutive films with revenge as the central theme.
Park said his films are about the utter futility of vengeance and how it wreaks havoc on the lives of everyone involved.
The Vengeance Trilogy DVD boxsetHis so-called Vengeance Trilogy consists of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance.
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, shortened to Lady Vengeance, was distributed by Tartan Films for American theatrical release in April 2006.

Asiana’s Korean Cuisine Goes Global


Asiana Airlines (CEO: Young-Doo Yoon) in alliance with Korea Tourism Organization(KNTO) Germany, will be hosting a Korean Cuisine Culture event in Frankfurt’s famous (KochWerk) restaurant.

This event is held to show the superiority of the Korean Cuisine culture, understand the origins of the country Korea, and to revitalize Korea tourism. The event was jointly hosted by Asiana Airlines and Korea Tourism Organization (KNTO) Germany. Local travel agencies and people working in the tourism sector were invited.

Asiana Airlines has sent 2 Korean Cuisine specialist cooks to Germany in order provide a lecture of the variety of Korean Cuisines, the ingredients, and the method of cooking. Along with the lecture the specialist cooks will be introducing the Korean cuisine culture.

Asiana Airlines has introduced and developed many traditional Korean cuisines to fit the environment of the cabin. Korean Royal Table D'hote, Braised Beef Short Rib in Sweet Pumpkin, Nutritious Korean Cuisine, 'Ssam-Bab', Pyongyang On-Ban, Rice Cake Dumpling Soup, Korean Royal Cuisine 'Seolleong-Tang', Korean Ginseng Chicken Soup ‘Samgaetang’, Steamed Korean Ginseng Chicken ‘SamgaeJim’, and the newly introduced to our travel class menu from the 1st of September, Acorn-starch jelly with rice are showing popularity.


Meanwhile the company announced that it will be hosting a friendliness service consulting program to 600 people from the 24th of September working in the Korean Restaurant business stating from Tokyo/Japan, Beijing/China, and LA/ U.S.

The service consulting program has been selected as part of the ‘Korean Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries’ to promote and develop the Korean cuisine into a global level. Asiana’s service consulting program was selected to enhance the image of Korean Cuisine and restaurants located around the world.

Asiana Airlines, being one of the five ‘5 Star Airline Companies’ of the world and ATW’s ‘2009 Airline of the year,’ highly anticipates that with Asiana’s servicing knowledge and the superiority of the Korean Cuisine, the Korean Cuisine culture will spread internationally.

Asiana plans to play a vital role in the government’s promotion strategy to globalize Korean cuisine along with promoting the ‘2010~2012 Visit Korea Year.’ To fulfill this role, Asiana will be sending the Cabin Crew Training Team’s Service Consulting Part’s top notch Service Instructors(Asiana Service Way) to abroad to teach the local restaurants the top end of international servicing. The service education course will be divided into the management and employee group in which the needs of servicing will be taught upon their respected level. Especially, Asiana will be providing the experience, impressions and thoughts of flight attendants whom frequently visit the Korean restaurants while staying abroad. This procedure is highly anticipated to strengthen the competitiveness of the Korean restaurants abroad.

Asiana’s Cabin Crew Training Team’s General Manager “Kyung-Sik, Lee” commented “We will satisfy our government’s anticipation and globalize the superiority of Korean Cuisine by handing down Asiana’s distinguished servicing knowledge.”

Asiana Airlines has developed many traditional Korean cuisines to fit the environment of the cabin. Traditional cuisines like the Korean Royal Table D'hote, and Nutritious Korean Cuisine, 'Ssam-Bab', gave Asiana Airlines the “Mercury award” so called the “Oscar” award for cabin services for many years. Also other traditional Korean cusine’s like "Mixing and Harmonizing" A Famous Korean Cuisine 'Bi-Bim-Bab', Korean Ginseng Chicken Soup ‘Samgaetang’, Steamed Korean Ginseng Chicken ‘SamgaeJim’, Braised Beef Short Rib in Sweet Pumpkin, Pyongyang On-Ban, Rice Cake Dumpling Soup, Korean Royal Cuisine 'Seolleong-Tang', Acorn-starch jelly with rice are highly praised. Asiana Airlines has been aiding in globalizing the Korean cuisine and will continue to develop and service new kinds of traditional Korean cuisine inside our cabins.

Tuesday 22 September 2009

Sarah Chang at the Royal Albert Hall


Time & Date: 7:30 pm Thursday 24th September 2009
Venue: Royal Albert Hall

Simon Bates takes to the stage to introduce another sensational Classic FM Live in aid of Music Makers, Classic FM's official charity.
The event will feature special guests the world-famous Regimental Band of the Coldstream Guards, the nation's oldest-serving military band, who have an impressive 112-year history, and have just signed a £1million recording contract to become the world's oldest continual surviving recording artist.
They will join the Guinness World Record holders, The Priests , and violinist Sarah Chang , who will be performing the Bruch Violin Concerto. Inspired by his recent conducting experience, Alex James will be making his Classic FM Live debut as guest conductor for Khachaturian's 'Adagio for Spartacus and Phrygia'.
Classic FM are also proud to welcome the Northern Sinfonia conducted by Jonathan Schiffman. They will be joined by the Philharmonia Chorus performing some Classic FM favourites and a sensational finalé.

The evening will be in aid of the Charity Music Makers.

More details can be found on The Royal Albert Hall website.

PEOPLE #17: Via Trio, a Piano Trio Team


Via Trio is a piano trio team, whose music was released as two records in Korea, and has been full in play as a piano trio team. There are 3 members in Via Trio: the violinist and the leader, Joo Hee, Lee, the cellist Ji Yoon, Seo and the pianist Eun Hye. This time their new record "Via Trio International version- we go to Europe to play Arirang" came out. And as the title of the record indicates, they had really been to European streets to play their songs for 35 days.

Interviewed by Judy Jung (judyjazz@naver.com)

On July 22 we, Via trio, took the first step on Frankfurt, Germany. And we first opened a house-concert, playing the songs of our new album , where we lodged at a private residence in Frankfurt. After that, Via Trio continued to give a performance in many streets, churches and christian Institutions in Europe according to prearranged plan until August 25: the streets of Baden-Baden, Festival d’Avignon (especially we were the only Korean participants in this festival), Heidelberg, Berlin, Prague, the square of National Theater of Paris (Théâtre National de l'Opéra de Paris) and Notre Dame de Paris, and Edinburgh Festival. And Berlin Sarang Church, Rotterdam church in Netherlands, the Salvation Army's shelter for homeless people in London, Korean Festival held in Kingston, Onjeonhan Church in London.

From our childhood we had a longing for Europe without special reason. However, as time goes by we could recognize the reason why we had yearned for Europe for a long time. Since there exist a variety of ethnic and cultural differences among European countries, we thought they could respect each other's cultural diversity. We believed that the cultural openness toward those who have various cultures and customs allows many artists to come out. Therefore, we, Via Trio, can be confident that our songs will be accepted to European people without cultural barriers.

To be frank with you, what we concentrate on with the greatest care is the arrangement. From the time of being planned we had a distinctive idea of playing “Arirang”, which is the most beloved traditional song among Koreans. In addition we firmly believed that our melody could definitely be attractive to European people. However, we had to think over the way of making them become familiar with our songs. Accordingly, we searched for our songs that had similar melodies and lyrics with European songs. To our surprise through this process, we could find out the suitable songs possible to match ours, so we were able to blend ours with theirs, arranging the songs. We hoped that they could easily accept, feel and enjoy emotions and feelings of our melodies by blending ours and theirs.
Unfortunately The Korean music market has shrunk more and more. The classic music market, what is worse, is more serious. What causes the market to be depressed is that many Internet users are exposed to only the user-friendly Internet environment in which they could download illegally whatever songs they want to listen to without guilty. Thus, those who work in the field of music have been damaged financially. However, Via-Trio thought that a crisis is namely a chance. The experiences we built up in Europe raised our hope to overcome this crisis.

Our dream is ongoing and will be ongoing. We have a plan to come to Europe every year, until 10 years from now. This period may be in keeping with the period from Festival d’Avignon in July and Edinburgh Festival in August. It will be the optimal period to play our songs.

Our beginning was so weak. Actually it was very difficult for us to go up and down the stairs carrying a heavy electronic piano and speakers, to ask the use of electricity of nearby shops and to give a performance in front of many people in the streets of foreign countries. Moreover, since a performance in the street in Korea is still unusual, we, as Koreans, also had a difficulty getting over the momentary shyness. But we got to gain confidence gradually thanks to many people who gazed at us because they were attracted not by the outlandish costume and the different skin color from their view but by our Arirang mixed with their own ‘Arirang’s such as ‘Amazing Grace’, ‘Danny Boy’. So, We Via Trio, would like to express our heartfelt thanks to them. And we will be back. Again!

Visit: Via Trio Official website

Sunday 20 September 2009

St. James and Old Malden Safer Neighbourhoods Patrol Base


On the 11th September 2009 the St. James and Old Malden Safer Neighbourhoods Watch Base at 122 Malden Road KT3 6DD was officially opened by the Mayor of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames-Councillor Ian R McDonald.

The event was hosted by the Borough Commander of Kingston Police-Chief Superintendent Martin Greenslade. Other police officers, PCSOs, the MP Edward Davey and guests were also present.

The base does not offer front counter facilities. However, it provides staff with a meeting room, storage for bicycles and IT and locker facilities. The moving of staff from Surbiton Police Station to this location has the advantage of them being closer to their wards.

The opening of the base is part of a sustained policy to place ward officers closer to the communities they serve. The Safer Neighbourhoods programme is focusing local policing with police and partners working with the community to identify and deal with issues of concern in their local neighbourhood. The aim of a more visible and accessible policing presence is to increase public reassurance and interaction with local police.

OLD MALDEN
SGT - Alex Cooper
PC - Tommy Hill
PC - Farabi Ahmed
PCSO - Chris Hamilton, Linda Taylor, Amy Cope
Tel. Numbers - 07876 791259, 0208 721 2517

St. JAMES
SGT - Andrew Rice
PC - Neil Luttig, Steve Clarke
PCSO - Scott Brodie, Ryan Kibbey, Lisa Swaine, Michael De Costa
Tel. Numbers - 07876 476044, 0208 721 2595

For further information http://www.met.police.uk/

2009 Thames Festival: A Scoop of Korea


I attended “A Scoop of Korea” on a sunny day on Saturday the 12th of September 2009 at THE SCOOP-next to City Hall in London-as part of the annual Thames Festival.

This was the third year the Korean Cultural Centre had participated in the Thames Festival-a celebration of London and its river.

Five different aspects of Korean culture were on display.

A selection of traditional dances was the first. They were colourful, aesthetically pleasing and performed beautifully with subtle movement. Groups of dancers in traditional Korean dress-Hanbok-were reminiscent of iridescent butterflies fluttering in a gentle breeze. When the tempo got faster the colours seemed to become more magnificent.

Another group in simple white costumes were as graceful and a marked contrast.

Elegant solo dancers showed their individual skills in their performances.

The FAN DANCE was choreographed with wonderful precision-the pink peony blossom decorated fans added to the charm and spectacle- and was without doubt the favourite of the audience. This whole programme of dance was well received.

The next display couldn’t have been more different. It was a demonstration of TAEKWONDO-Korea’s national sport-performed by the Korean National Sports University Taekwondo Team. Apart from being thoroughly entertaining it highlighted the skills of a group of superb athletes who at times seemed to have wings on their heels.

The performance consisted of board breaking and acrobatic manoeuvres. There was also a bout between two participants which demonstrated the reality of competition. The concentration level of the team was quite intense with precision and timing to the fore. A great deal of skill and technique was displayed. All this was accompanied by stirring music to accentuate the speed and skill of the athletes.

All the members of the display team were superbly fit-and had to be-to be able to take part in such a gruelling exercise.

This particular segment was also extremely well received with gasps of astonishment and spontaneous applause breaking out when particular acrobatic feats were performed. The audience was enthralled and rightly so.

Yet another change of pace followed. Han-sik a Master Class in Korean cooking took centre place. This was the preparation of a Korean dish by the gracious and elegant Professor Sookja YOON who is the Director of the Institute of Traditional Korean Food.

As an aside I must tell you that I have known Professor for a while and without doubt she and the Institute are leaders in the promotion of Korean cuisine in Korea and around the world.

An interpreter and an assistant were on hand to explain the ingredients, their preparation, the history and the benefits of the particular dish. The audience then had the chance to sample what they had seen being prepared.

This demonstration was preceded by a mock procession of the Emperor of Korea.

A marquee of the Institute with other dishes was close at hand giving members of the public to taste different Korean food prepared.

The fourth event was a variety show. Monsters Theatres could be described as different, somewhat quirky and certainly entertaining. SOREA-recognised as the leading creative music group of Korea-showcased a performance that pioneers the new age of Korean music and performing arts with traditional Korean instruments being used with unique musical arrangements.

The performers-known as “Jammers” included in this show comedy (with audience participation) break dancing and Taekwondo. Together SOREA and the Jammers provided another aspect of Korean entertainment which the audience enjoyed.

Last but not least was the open air screening of “The Good, The Bad and The Weird” directed by KIM Ji-won. This film was inspired by Sergio Leone’s “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”. The wilderness in Manchuria was the venue of some of the breathtaking scenes.

The Korean Cultural Centre is to be complemented on the diversity of the programmes of the event. Certainly there was plenty to suit all tastes.

The Thames Festival 09 was over the weekend of the 12th and 13th of September with “A Scoop of Korea” on both days.

Korean culture and food was introduced for the first time to a great number of people not only with the performances but with meals available to be purchased.

I enjoyed the experience as it brought back memories of Korea.

The East News