Concert with Waikiki Brothers band and guitarist Hun Choi

Hearing the name ”Waikiki Band” might bring up colorful images of hoola-hoola skirts, dormant volcanoes that might start spewing lava in any second, and ukulele-players performing their own version of “Somewhere over the rainbow”. Well, don’t judge a book by its name.

Waikiki Brothers is both a band and a movie. Actually, many Koreans know the movie but do not know that there is still an active band with the same name. The band is led by professional guitarist Hun Choi with a career of over 35 years as a guitarist. When he does not perform or produce music, he also helps up and coming amateur bands by rearranging difficult music pieces to better suit the skills of particular bands. Sometimes he even joins them for the occasional, spontaneous performance.

The particular performance I visited was a very well-prepared part of a concert series spanning about one month. Arranged by Emu Artspace, in cooperation with National Geographic, this concert series is called “회식” (“Afterwork”) and encourages people who work in the Gwanghwamun area to enjoy a relaxed evening with their coworkers without falling into the mainstream trap of “dinner – drinking place – karaoke room”.

Hun Choi is reaching his late 50s but his vitality on stage easily compares to anyone 20 or 30 years younger than him. The band played a repertoire of Creedence Clearwater Revival, Eagles, Carlos Santana, Dire Straits, some Korean songs and much more. Hun Choi on acoustic and electric guitar, accompanied by four other band members on keyboard, drums, bass and acoustic guitar, the band really brought the basement location to the roof with their energy.

As a non-Korean who has basically zero interest in Korean stars and K-pop, it is always encouraging to see that Korea actually still has artists who play music that forms an alternative to the constant K-pop being blasted in restaurants and make-up stores. The building has a concert venue in the basement, a Mediterranean restaurant on the first floor, and a movie theatre on the second floor. It’s nestled in the area between Gyeongbokkgung station and Gwanghwamun station, just behind Seoul Museum of History.

Future dates: August 24 and August 31

Price: 50,000W (includes dinner and one drink)

Max. capacity: 100 people

Tickets: ticket.interpark.com

Tel: 02-730-5604

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emuartspace/

Website: http://www.emuartspace.com/

D Museum: Inside Heatherwick Studio

For the first time in Korea, the internationally renowned Heatherwick Studio get their own exhibition. The studio has been led by Thomas Heatherwick since 1994 and today houses 180 architects and designers from numerous fields, such as urban planning, product design, furniture and art. The exhibition showcases the products, concept designs and fulfilled urban projects that span the world from the UK, through the Middle East, to China and beyond.

The first part of the exhibition goes through the thinking process behind every project at Heatherwick Studio. The second part dissects the manufacturing and how these projects come to earthly and material form. Lastly, the third part shows how the projects convey a story to the viewer of joy, awe, pleasure or calmness.

Did I say ”lastly”? Well, that is what I was thinking when I came across the ultimate room in the exhibition, namely the ”Spin-hula” installation. Filled with parents and their children spinning around, these chairs spin freely around without the person falling off. The ”Spun Chair” from 2010 sports a balanced form that is comfortable both to sit and lean back in.

The exhibition conveys the London-based studio’s projects’ scale and ambition. The designs revolve around themes such as texture, topography and movement. ”Inside Heatherwick Studio” is made possible through a cooperation between D Museum and the British Council as part of the ”New British Inventors” campaign that puts the spotlight on pioneering British designers.

Paternoster Vents, London, UK, 2000

Two 8.4m tall steel sculpural vents that work to cool an electricity sub-station. Less bulky than the large, single structure that was first planned.

Rolling Bridge, London, UK, 2004

This kinetic bridge functions both as a sculpture in its folded state, and a place of pedestrian crossing in its unfolded state. The footbridge unfurls in around 3 minutes.

Garden Bridge, London, UK, est. 2018

A much larger footbridge is estimated to be completed in 2018. The footbridge across the River Thames will link the two banks of the 300m-wide river, provide a garden for London’s inhabitants and a new panorama spot of the city.

Olympic Cauldron, London, UK, 2012

Every Olympic opening ceremony is rounded off with the lighting of the Olympic fire. The UK broke some conventions with this centrepiece of the opening ceremony, positioned in the middle of the ground instead of up high above the spectators which has been the norm in past Olympic games. Every participating country was represented by one copper piece, making it a total of 204 pieces. The scattered pieces were lit on fire and then the 204 small fires gathered into one big fire, representing the Olympic spirit.

Opening hours: Tues – Sun 10AM-6PM

Fri, Sat: 10AM-8PM

Final admission 30 min. before closing.

Closed on Mondays and Chuseok.

Audio guide available via the D Museum app. Rental earphones included in the museum admission price.

Free tour guides: Tues – Sun from 11AM to 5PM at the start of every hour.

Exhibition period: 16 June – 23 October 2016

Alley & Alley in the Alley

Korea is the king of fusion food. Well, there are some wacky combinations originating from Korea and Koreans are not afraid to try new ideas and push the limits of the menus. Kimchi tacos, kimchi chocolate, ramyeon burgers are just some of the inventions that involve Korean food mixed with something more foreign.

 

One such food that gained some traction a few years back was the combination of eating ddeokbokki with pizza. Luckily they are still eaten separately, and I have yet to see ddeokbokki ON an actual pizza.

골목에 골목 (Alley in the Alley) takes the concept a small step further. They do not only serve this combination on their menu, they have also developed the specific dishes a bit further. Most popular on the menu are the cream ddeokbokki and 인절미 pizza. The latter is a sweet injeolmi brown rice cake powder sprinkled on a thin bread crust with condensed milk, sugar and some kind of stringy cheese.

The ddeokbokki comes with a few fried mandus swimming in the creamy sauce, pieces of rice cake, something that looks like “spaghetti seasoning” (chili, parsley etc.) and your regular onions etc. Not only those it have regular ramyeon, it also contains a little bit of what looks like regular pasta.

The creamy ddeokbokki goes well with the crunchy pizza, baked in a stone oven right in front of your eyes. I have to admit I was skeptical towards rice cake pizza, but it works out really well! Luckily there was no tomato sauce on the pizza, since the pizza is more of a sweet pizza type rather than savory.

The set goes for about 8,000W per person and includes one choice of ddeokbokki, one choice of pizza, one jumokbap (“fist rice”, a ball of rice you get to mix yourself with other ingredients) and homemade gelato ice-cream! We tried both the yoghurt ice-cream and green tea ice-cream, and they are both legit. Before eating I was thinking “What stops restaurants from lying and saying it’s made in the restaurant when it just might have been store-bought?” But taking a bite, I realized how uncalled for my question had been.

골목에 골목

Tel: (02)468-9166

Address: 서울시 광진구 화양동 11-39 2층. Right in the middle of the Konkuk restaurant area, in an alley on the 2^nd floor.

Open days: Every day of the year except 1 day off on Seollal and Chuseok respectively.

Color Your Life

Color Your Life is an exhibition that runs for a total of six months at Daelim Museum just next to Gyeongbokkung. The exhibition shows how designers use different different materials to bring out the colors of their arts and designs. Almost every design is accompanied with a Pantone Color Matching System value that instantly makes you aware that you will see every possible color at the exhibition. The designers are mainly from Western countries with Spain, Sweden and Denmark strongly represented.

The exhibition sprawls over four floors in Daelim Museum with a museum shop on the first floor, photo and textile design on the second, furniture and pottery on the third and more interior design on the fourth. Most of the names are new to me except Finnish architect and designer Alvar Aalto on the top floor. Particularly interesting to see is the work process of how designers try combinations on different materials with each other to create new color sensations. Glass, fabric, leather, metal and wood, all with their own unique characteristics, combine to create a dazzling array of colors.

Although you might covet some of the exhibits in the museum (the mosaic-like clay urns by Hilda Hellström), my best recommendation from the museum shop is the eco shopping bag that comes in two different variants. Oh and by the way, the Hilda Hellström urns I just mentioned might look like they are made from clay (they certainly fooled me!) but the material used is actually cast-based. The eye sure plays tricks with your mind at Color Your Life!

Info

Opening hours: Tues to Sun 10AM – 6PM

Thurs and Sat 10AM – 8PM

Closed on Mondays, Lunar New Year’s Day and Chuseok

Entrance fee: Adult 5,000W / Youth 3,000W / Child 2,000W

Final admission 30 minutes before closing (personally I think you need one hour for the exhibition!)

Daelim Museum

21, Jahamun-ro 4-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul
T. 02-720-0667

Oh, make sure to download their app when you have wifi at home before going to the museum, since the audio guide is provided via their app.

연길냉면 YeonByeon Naengmyeon - Authentic Chinese in the heart of Seoul

Don’t let the name fool you. Sure they have delicious naengmyeon (cold soup), but this restaurant actually has it all! When it comes to Chinese food, you can be sure they have it on the menu.

YeonGil (or Yanji) is a Chinese area close to the North Korean border. Many Chinese-Koreans reside there and the food is a marvelous middle thing between Chinese food as we know it and standard Korean food. The naengmyeon is different both from their North and South Korean versions.

You know you are in for a delight as soon as the side dishes in the form of peanuts and “Chinese kimchi” (if I am allowed to see the world through Korean eyes for a second) is put on the table. The table is of course one of those rotating Chinese ones that make it so much easier to reach any plate that you want without sticking your arm in someone’s face when reaching for the deep-fried sweet and sour pork or just the napkins.

We settled to split four big dishes and not eat any rice or noodles on the side individually as you so often do in Korean Chinese restaurants here in Seoul. The first dish that arrived was fried eggplant with green bell peppers (fried as in wok or pan-fried, not deep-fried). The dish itself was amazing, but something was missing… Ah! Suddenly a translucent green thing took its place next to the eggplant dish. Two huge bottles of Tsingtao was exactly what was needed!

We also opted for the sweet and sour deep-fried pork. The batter itself is not made from flour but from rice cake powder. This gives it a crispy exterior on the outside, but almost a gelatinous consistency on the inside next to the pork. Pieces of pineapple give the dish its sweetness, and vinegar brings the sourness and acidity.

Next was a dish that’s not even on the menu, namely a shrimp dish on a bed of thin vermicelli noodles with a garlic sauce. I have a hard time eating steamed or fried garlic, so I devoured the other dishes instead.

Lastly, the Yeongil-style water dumplings which are very similar to Korean mandus with a softer shell and more filling were delicious.

Yeongil Naengmyeon is located just next to the Chinese street by Konkuk University station exit 6. It might be a bit tricky to find, but your efforts will be worth it! Prices are also cheap for being made-to-order authentic Chinese food!