Saturday, October 2, 2010

Korean American Fest: Colors, Music, and Fab, Fab Food

Yes, yes, I know this is a food blog, but the traditional costumes at the recent Korean American Festival - held in downtown Baltimore on a broiling hot September Sunday - were just too gorgeous, too colorful, and too darn pink for me to resist.
I mean, really:
The sky! The trees! The pink!
Some of the dancers seemed only too happy to let me take a photo:
Others ... not so much:
Is it me, or does the woman on the left look a little bit annoyed with me?
Ah, but with such good food to be had, not even a cross look could dampen my spirits. Poppa Trix and I started out with some kimchee sweet potato pancakes:


These had lots of nice chunks of onion and cabbage, and they weren't at all greasy. While not bland in any way, these babies didn't really pack much heat, though you'd think they would, what with that brilliant color.  No matter - the heat was still to come!

While we were munching on our pancakes, I spied a couple of guys eating a plate of something that looked very intriguing, and because I thought that I could just make out a hard boiled egg in it, you know I had to go and ask them what it was. It's a good thing I did! As it turns out, the dish, dduk bok-kee,  was not written on the menu - at least not in English. "And? What was it, Trix?" I hear you impatiently asking. See for yourself:

Behold the spicy goodness
Those cylinders are chewy rice cakes, the triangles are fish slices, and the sauce is infused with hot and spicy gochuchang. And we mustn't forget the hard boiled egg:

Yep, dduk bok-kee is pretty much my new favorite thing, and I definitely plan to make some soon!

We were pretty full at this point (If you've read my Latino Fest post you may find that hard to believe, but it's true) so we decided to stroll around the fairly small space and check out the various (non-food) booths.  For the most part, these didn't turn out to be too exciting - except for one. The H-Mart booth! I have mentioned here before that Asian superstore H-Mart is just about my favorite supermarket on the planet, and they didn't disappoint. Along with a coupon book, they were giving out these super cool boxes of crackers, which tasted like sweet and spicy shrimp (in a good way):
If anyone can translate the cracker box and the cartoon inside, please leave it in the comments!!
Thank you, H-Mart man!!
But all roads lead to food, and my curiosity was piqued by this sign for North Korean cold noodles:

Given that the day was unseasonably hot, these made for  a refreshing - albeit filling - dish. Almost sweet, the watery broth actually had ice cubes floating in it to keep everything nice and cool. I particularly liked the little slivers of cucumber and bits of onion.

A squid dish caught Poppa Trix's eye, and so he got some, along with spicy cucumber and rice,  to take to work for lunch the next day:





25 comments:

  1. Wow, that looks like so much fun! Wish I could sample that food :)

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  2. wow gorgeous snaps thanks so much for sharing love festivals like this, hows things? sorry its been a while Rebecca

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  3. gorgeous...I really like Korean food. We have this korean BBQ truck next to our place. Its called KalBQ. Lovely food..the festival seems out of this world!

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  4. I love all of the bright vivid colors of the costumes. Korean food holds so much intrigue with me. That hot spicy pot of rice and fish cakes looks potentially dangerous, and only makes me want to try it even more!

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  5. It is a very pretty pink. The spicy fish is like red hot...I will definitely be in love with it.

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  6. oh yum...i spent a lot of time in korea and LOVE korean food. this really made me hungry. i make a lot of korean and make my own kimchi. i have eaten that cold noodle dish and it is one of my favorites!

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  7. Oh man, I wanna be there! The colours are gorgeous (I heart pink) and you captured the atmosphere of the event so well!

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  8. how fun and so pretty with all these colors! Wowow!!!!! I love those noodles!

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  9. you find the best food festivals! Theresa

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  10. Now that's one colorful festival. I do like Korean food, the spicier the better. Sounds like a great time.

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  11. thanks for the trip, I almost felt as though I was there, sans the taste of the food, but you did provide a nice description, only making me want to be there even more.......

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  12. great coverage! i would love to try some authentic Korean meals. i haven't had access to any in a while. :( i missed the Hispanic festival because of the PFB Dinner Party this weekend, but i've got the date set for this years Greek Food Festival!

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  13. Such beautiful, colorful pictures! What a great way to spend the day.

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  14. What a day! Well done for sussing out the dduk bok-kee, looking forward to your take on it :)

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  15. The costumes are gorgeous indeed!

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  16. The costumes have such gorgeous bright colors!

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  17. That is the mother of all pinks. Great story... I do love those pancakes.. they are so good. You capture the fun of the event perfectly, Trix!

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  18. Awww...you are so lucky! I really miss all those festivals. I remeber when we stayed in Korea, we always look forward to all these festivals. I love Korean food, too....healthy and spicy...yum. Thanks for sharing. Love all the pictures

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  19. How BEAUTIFUL! Love the colors and the food.. yumm!

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  20. I'm just living "the world" in Baltimore through your blog, Trixie Girl! I love the play-by-play but I have to admit that cracker with the "shrimp" taste, umm, I don't think so for me. But your pancakes there: Wow, those look and sound delish!

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  21. I love the outfits, Trix. It all looks so beautiful...Ooh, and I would love a cup of those cold noodles right now. That looks so good;)

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  22. Oh my god! I LOVE Korean food and I've had everything here, except for the cold noodles. Gotta go look for it soon...
    That pink is glorious!!!

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  23. Brilliant colors against that blue sky day! Looks like you hit all the right dishes to try. I love kimchee (the spicier the better). I have to eat eat when home alone though, because my family hates the smell---they don't know what they are missing!

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  24. My brother and I were discussing kimchee just 2 days ago; he has brought some back from Singapour, where he lived for a few years and was extolling its wonderful taste. I am reminded with these colorful costumes of Kurdish folks who also are not shy with colors, mixing pink with red and orange easily and freely. Sounds like a fun day!

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  25. im korean and i LOVE <3 kimchee!!!!!!!!!!! im not good at reading korean but i can kinda read it if its not hard to read. ill type some random korean stuff that dont make sense to show that i have a korean/english computer :3 .ㅇㅎ너ㅐㅔㅗㅓ내ㅔㅇ러ㅐㅔ너ㅗㅔ너ㅏㅔㅓㅔ애ㅓ레ㅐ너ㅐ대ㅑ허가섯굴라기;ㅡㅗ하처개그러서ㅙ러구러핫 ㄱㄱㄱ(lol)ㅎㅎ(haha) lol i know my koreans foods and i <3 all the food i see in ur pics! :D

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