This past Saturday I have had a wonderful time. One of the reasons for the great day I had was the Korean Gastronomy presentation organized by Koreafilm at Korea House.
So there I was, looking at the table with ingredients and hoping for a delighting cooking insight. Here are some pictures:
Ingredients for the Kimpap and the Chapchae
Mr. Kim, our host
Frying pan getting ready to fry some of the ingredients and to prepare the eggs
Cucumber being sliced
Carrots having the same destiny as the cucumber
Carrot being fried
Korean student watching the Korean chef
Eggs stirred with chopsticks
Cutting...
Careful, it's still hot...
Now for the ham...
Preparing to roll a Kimpap
Ready to be cut
Ingredients for second dish...
This Kimpap here looks yummy!!! :)
And here I am talking to the chef about the importance of not burning garlic...
Presenting some of his results. Thank you Mr.Lee for this great insight into a foreign cuisine!
Oh, and the icing on the cake was this little angel here called Yury, Mr. Kim's daughter.
Hope you had a great time looking at these pictures.
it's been a long while and I deeply regret it not having written what was on my mind at diffrent points in time, but to be honest with you, I was not able, physically, as for the last week and a half I have been in my bed at home and in the one at the hospital...now I'm still on treatment at home, but feeling better,...well enough to sit for some minutes and write about various things...
Entrance Shop - Party Lost & Found About two weeks ago, a friend of mine invited me to this party and I have to admit that it was just what I needed on a Thursday evening: a nice place with nice people. I also adored their sense of fashion (Entrance is a concept store which brings really special things, don't hesitate to go on their site and visit them). What I liked most was that everybody was dressed ...funky....diffrent...not regular....but they were looking good! I mean, that particular fashion (which in some cases is too edgy for me, I must admit) was really fitting them effortlessly...it didn't seem forced on them, but rather natural! That's what I appreciated. I also appreciated the casualness of it all. The party for Lost & Found had on its invitation following request: to wear something which we thought lost or which is somehow old and we can give it a new value,...so I found some original bangles which I have for over a year but were lost in my drawer and picked up a purse from my mum,...this green purse has really seen it all I think, but the quality in the leather makes it look even today as if it were new. So I did a combination of purple and frog-green and you can see me in this picture taken by the official photographer at the event (I'm on the left and had only just arrived). I also adored the outfit of my friend Olivia (same picture, in the middle), for more outfits you can go and look at the pictures here.
Film Festivals Due to my sickness I unfortunately missed out on movies I wanted to see in cinema, such as those of te Festival of the Russian Film (22-28 Oct.), but I heard some opinions on the fesival from this lovely website I follow which didn't make me very happy. I just had a Russian dinner last evening and would like to hear maybe some other opinions on this festival, which will hopefully will make me feel bad that I've missed it. Still, there is one "festival" I don't want to miss, organized by the Goethe Institute in Bucharest, it's the "Days of the German Film", taking place 1-4th November at Cinema Studio. Take advantage of all these cultural events in Bucharest, they really enrich you from the inside!
South Korea Speaking of culture, I can not express how happy I am that there has been a blog viewer from the Republic of Korea. I have grown interest for this country through various historic sequals which the Romanian Television is transmitting, and I have a great curiosity for the country as it is now. I love the women's traditional clothing, the hanbok, they are a wonder for fashion even today, so simple yet so feminine. They still inspire, and you can see two wonders of this culture here and here. Keep in mind that these are modern interpretations of the hanbok. I also like their "hair-culture" if I can call it like that, but I refer now to the past, to the traditional hairdos.
I must admit I have fallen in love with the wonderful food which sometimes is not food anymore, but just arts.
Even I can't really eat spicy food, I went so far and had some in Hamburg (all was shown in a previous blog entry) where I discovered a Korean restaurant and was really delighted by the kimchi, the most traditional of all they offer, something like pickled cabbage. You can watch a short movie on how it's made here. Or you can see how movies got me fascinated with their food here. I really recommend you to take the few minutes and watch as it is really a delight. I plan to one day visit this country, so whoever visited my blog first, thank you, it's an honour!
Concert Since we are now at the senses chapter, the part I love most, I must tell you about a concert which I have been to, even if I partially didn't enjoy it as I could have because I was feeling sick. My wonderful mother had gotten us tickets to the Cesaria Evora concert which was held a Sala Palatului in Bucharest. The place was more than filled with people who had come to see the "barefoot diva". Her voice is really amazing, really going through your body, and she also was surrounded by an energetic band who made the show even better. What I noticed was that one of the back-up singers was unfortunately blind, but still, he had an amazing voice, and maybe like the faith of Cesaria Evora, his was also to sing and enchant people with his voice. As we know, Cesaria managed a break-through when she was already 47. But since then, nothing seems to keep this woman, who was born in '41, down. Not even health problems: in 2010 she was operated on in May and was put on artificial pulmonary ventilation, 5 months after she's touring and having 2 concerts in Bucharest. Indeed, she coughed several times during some songs, but she kept going. What a great person in a small body that is!
This is why, with this motivation for life and for doing the things you love, I leave you now in the company of this wonderful woman who gives us anothr great advice through her attitude: to keep it simple!
I chose two songs I really liked at the concert: Sodad and Angola. And I chose that video for Angola because it is the "live" experience of how her stage looked like. But unfortunately none of these recordings transmit her real voice on stage and the feeling of being there. Nevertheles, enjoy these songs and dare to dream for some minutes! Because her music is magic!
Lately I have been really busy. And finally, last Saturday I found the time to go swimming, as if I would have know what was expecting me. Looking at the next pictures, and reading the blog, you probably have the same impression as I have: my "life and luxury" tend to shrink down to one of mankind's most amazing occupation: gastronomy.
After approximately eight or so years I met on Friday a friend from Hamburg, who used to be the former neighbour of my current landlady. We decided to try Corean food for the first time. One little problem: I can't tolerate spicy food well, due to some biological reactions of my body to it. So what to do? I had been waiting for this moment for a few months. My fascination for Corean culture has grown lately a lot and I was so convinced that I would like the food, so much so that I was ready to support the consequences. I picked two dishes (my curiosity was bigger than my stomach - the restaurant owner, who was also the cook, was surprised!) which were supposed to be prepared in a mild way....pfff....it was hot-hot-hot, but still ok enough to tell the other flavours apart.
I don't remember the name of the first dish, unfortunatrly, but there were rice noodles and beef (prepared in a special yummy way), vegetables, all in a sauce which contained a lot of garlic and was also spicy. They also served rice with it.
The second dish, which I found more interesting, and closer to "very traditional Corean cuisine" was a so-called Bibim bap or Bibimbab (or other variations of the name). The restaurant owner, who was a really nice person, explained me that it means: mixing everything together. Indeed, I received a huge bowl in which I had approximately 8 vegetables, rice, a fried egg, sliced beef (very spicy) and kimchi, another very traditional and probably the most well-known Corean food. It was something like pickled cabbage, extremly spicy, but I absolutely adored it! So I had that bowl, and next to it there were two, smaller bowls. One with a red sauce, and the other one with a vegetable soup. I had to mix the sauce with all the content of the big bowl, and then eat the soup simoultaneously with the mixture. The soup was to make the food "less dry", as compared to the first dish which I had ordered, it had no sauce inside. So I tasted the red paste-like sauce: it was a flavour of flowers, then it went into fruity-ness, and then it just burned, all of a sudden, your mouth. I was not able to mix it in the Bibim bap. Nor was I able to eat the soup with it. It tasted very "fishy". It was a watery, clear liquid with few fine sliced vegetables in it, but once you tasted it, you had the impression of swallowing first sea water, and then a fish. It was worth a try, but it really didn't satisfy my taste buds. Nevertheless, the rest in the big bowl was amazing. Most of all I loved the kimchi.
Pentecost followed on Sunday and Monday, and my landlady and I were invited to lunch, at around 15.00 (normal for a Sunday lunch, haha). What we didn't know was that it would be enough also for dinner! The invitation was mainly for eating lamb, but what we found there when we arrived, was a gastronomic delight in a four-courses-menu, for which we needed two hours to eat (with no breaks between the courses).
First on the list was a light salad with fried mushrooms (came on top after I had already taken these pictures) and a great sauce of at least 10 ingredients, for which I still have to get the recipe soon. Very soon!
As it is asparagus season, this so wonderful ingredient could not be absent from the menu. Here it was served on spaghettis, with pepper and parmesan on top. Mmmmm!!!
Finally, a big pot was open and the lamb cooked in vegetables amazed us with the luring scent. We were all really full by the time the lamb arrived, but it was so good, that we all ate an entire portion of it.
Finally the last course was extremly refreshing: vanilla ice cream with strawberries on a rhubarb sauce.
I have to tell you, it was a lunch I will not forget so soon.
Arrived home and played a bit with my looks, while preparing for other gastronomic encounter on Tuesday. This was when Jella and I decided to go out in Hamburg, in the "Schanze" neighbourhood. The initial plan was for sushi, so we went to a Japanese restaurant. Since I hadn't had a warm meal that day, I decided to get as hors d'oeuvre a chicken-teriyaki in a Japanese sauce which was sweet-ish, and I got two teriyaki sticks on vegetable and with rice served. Actually, this could have been enough for the evening. But the sushi had already been ordered.
Following the picture of my teriyaki is a chicken-? (forgot the name, but it was delicious) in a peanut-sauce - one word: amazing!
After the starter, I received my six makis and four nigiris (4 makis were left which I took home in a doggy-bag), all fresh and nice.
With filled stomachs and happy faces we walked once again in the neighbourhood and sat down in a pub (?) for a drink and a conversation. When I got back home I was smiling, feeling that I had just had one of the best times lately on that evening.
And today? It's back to swimming, to get fit for who knows what new gastronomic delights will come my way.
After having had an education in Business Administration in Bucharest and Berlin and written the first Bachelor thesis on luxury in Romania, I decided to embark further on the luxury adventure, by doing a Master in Luxury Goods and Services in Monaco, from which I have graduated in June 2009.
I have specialized in Hospitality, but my main focus has been Communication and Marketing in the luxury industry. I have done a communication plan for SBM, the most important company in Monaco, have been an organiser for Amber Lounge and the Elton John Aids Foundation (for an auction), am a winner of an entrepreneurship contest in Monaco (also luxury-related business) and have started recently my work in Product Management at Montblanc International, Category Management Watches.
Life and Luxury does not claim ownership of any of the images or movies/short films shown here (unless stated otherwise) and tries to credit them as good as possible. If you are the owner of a photograph, gif, movie, short film etc. which you find here and you want to have it removed or credited, kindly contact me and I will proceed accordingly. Thank you. The text is intellectual property of Life and Luxury, unless stated otherwise. In case a text has not been credited as it should, kindly contact me and I will proceed accordingly. Thank you.
Hope you had a great time looking at these pictures. 
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