Eat your kimchi for fewer wrinkles

A study published in the October 2007 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that "bowl of kimchi a day may keep wrinkles away."

People who have diets rich in Vitamin C have fewer lines than those who graze mostly on carbs and fats.

Kimchi is an excellent source of Vitamin C, packing about 80 percent of the U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance (USRDA) in one serving.

External application of Vitamin C in the form of masks and serums can help fight the inevitable signs of aging as well. However, I do not recommend massaging one's face with kimchi juice. Kimchi is for internal use only.

Sonoma County wheat?!

I was walking through Raley's bread aisle (a rare visit for me) and found their Sonoma 100% Stone Ground Wheat Bread staring back at me on the shelf.

I know advertisers and marketers are given a lot of leeway in terms of "truth in advertising" but this takes the cake.

Sonoma County produces less than a million bushels of wheat per season, according to Office of the Sonoma County Agricultural Commissioner yet this store label boldly reads Sonoma 100% ground wheat bread? It this a limited production, boutique bread? No.

However, thanks to books like The Sonoma Diet, which emphasizes the Mediterranean and Asian influenced  food culture of this region, people are starting to think Sonoma County is synonymous with healthy eating, but we have just as many Carl's Jr, Burger King's and McDonald's restaurants as any other region of the United States.

Bae Yong Joon-ssi, do you really want to be a farmer?

During his press conference on September 22, 2009, launching the debut of his book Search for the Beauty of Korea, Hallyu star Bae Yong Joon told the media, "For me, farming. I want to be a farmer. You know how to do farming, don't you? I want to step on ground. I want to touch soil. Planting something and making it to bear fruits seems like a tremendously happy thing.

"If I would like to add one more in my occupation column, I like to add the 'farmer'. I wonder if the topic of today's article would be 'Becoming a farmer', It is not, is it? (laugh) I will never become a singer. When I become a farmer later on, I will sing for you."

He reiterated this desire in his conversation with South Korea's First Lady Kim Yoon Ok on November 10, 2009 when he told the First Lady that he wanted to be an organic farmer. Since he has said this on two different occasions, I presume this is not a off-handed comment but an idea he is truly pondering.

Watch this video out first to see if the urban farmer life is a good fit for a native of Mapo-gu, Seoul. Seoul is a lot more urbanized than Oakland, Calif. Even if you can't retire to some remote field tucked away in the hills and mountains of Gangwon-do, anyone feeling trapped in a big city can test out their green thumb.

This video has practical tips such as having the soil tested for lead (a tip the White House didn't heed before planting their so-called organic garden) building raised beds for the plants, how to protect your food from predators, and how to share the fruits of your labor with grateful friends and less fortunate neighbors.

Novella Carpenter started small, with some plants in an empty lot next to her house in Oakland. A couple of years later, she was tending to a full-blown farm, with goats, turkeys, ducks, pigs, and a robust garden. This video tackles questions of neighborliness (which is more offensive: police sirens or roosters crowing?), environmental poisons (raised beds are key), and the all-important slaughter question. The answer: Yes, she does (and yes, there is some bloody footage).

Kimchi Chocolate?

For those of you who didn't believe me when I told you people actually buy and eat this stuff, here's a video by an ex-pat singing its praises.

It stings your lips and burns your mouth, and your fresh breath will then go south...What does it taste like? Tastes like snorting tabasco straight up your nose...

Korea, please show President Obama the Beauty of Korea!

Photo courtesy of opencage.info (http://opencage.info/pics/large_4856.asp)

The Chosun Ilbo reports that the Blue House staff are conflicted over what kind of booze to serve President Obama when he shows up in the Republic of Korea later this week as part of his pan-Asian tour.

Meanwhile, the government has yet to choose whether to serve the traditional Korean rice wine makgeolli or a Californian wine during the welcome luncheon on Thursday.

Why would Korea serve the US President an American wine? He can buy and drink California wine anytime he wants. Pres. Obama's visit to Korea is an opportunity to showcase some of the best that Korea has to offer the world in terms of its culinary tradition. I can't think of a better beverage to impress the "President of the Free World" than a cup of makgeolli.

Korean fusion cooking in Napa County

This was the first interview I've ever done for YouTube. Usually, in my videos I talk, you listen and then you can respond in the comments section below the video. That's the way cooking videos usually work. The give and take communication is indirect.

We had scaled back our normal production as well. We didn't bring our heavy duty lighting system, which usually makes my father in law's kitchen look even whiter than it is in real life. Also we did not use the wireless lapel mic set up that we have used in every single one of our cooking videos up to this point. This was filmed by my husband with the video camera and me holding a wireless microphone. That's it.

I walked into this shoot knowing that I wanted certain still shots and my husband took some B-roll of other parts as well just in case. This video was totally unscripted, the general idea for the flow of the video was in my head. I just asked the questions and Chef Marroquin answered. There was no practice run of the question and answers either. We just did it in one take.

Usually our cooking videos are methodically planned. The dialogue and every video and photo shot is scripted. Not this time.



We actually filmed and had nearly completed editing this video before I made the Soju Cream Sauce video (notice the shorter hair) but we posted this video later because of my vow to KBS to get my pasta video with my review of the Noodle Road documentary out the door first. Both of these videos would have been posted sooner if hubby and I hadn't come down with the flu in October.

Tamar interviews Hector Marroquin of Napa Valley Chef Catering Co. Chef Marroquin added kimchi and kalbi (with a twist) to his 2009 menu at the St. Helena's Farmer's Market in St. Helena, Calif., the heart of Napa Valley. The nearby Culinary Institute of America has taken notice of his innovation and introduced pupusas to their menu as well. Can kimchi be the next CIA star?

The kalbi and kimchi with pupusas were a success, even though they wasn't Chef Marroquin's #1 seller. He plans to serve this dish during next year's St. Helena's Farmers Market as well, God willing.

As we mentioned in the video, Chef Marroquin went online to YouTube to find inspiration for his kimchi. If you want to see his original inspiration, check out this video.




If you like the t-shirt I'm wearing during the interview, this is also a baboshirts.com creation.  I wore one of their t-shirts in my Korean Potato Salad video, too.

American Coffee Survival: A response to Korea Coffee Survival

I don't post too many recipes on this blog because I share most of my recipes on my YouTube page but sometimes an idea comes along that is so off the wall, or off-topic that I have to share it in a forum other than YouTube.

This is one of those "recipes". I put the word recipes in quotes because this is not a recipe so much as it is a survival tool, a way to make coffee taste tolerable for my super-taster husband who drinks coffee because he has to, not because he wants to.

The inspiration for posting my tips for making instant coffee drinkable came when I read ZenKimchi's version of doctored up instant coffee, which he titled Korea Coffee Survival.

Here are the ingredients for American Coffee Survival:

• 2 tsp instant coffee (Raley's Brand instant coffee is better than Folgers, Taster's Choice or any named brand in hubby's opinion.)
  
• 4 tsp hot chocolate
• 1 1/2 tsp of Stevia
• 12 oz boiling hot filtered water
• 4 oz of room temperature filtered water
  

The steps in order:

1. Put all the above dry ingredients into a 16 oz. travel mug. 
2. Heat approx. 12 oz of water in microwave.
3. Pour hot water into the mug, which a friend affectionately nicknamed "Mr. Crusty".
4. Stir until coffee, hot chocolate and Stevia are dissolved.
5. Top off with room temperature filtered water.