Thanksgiving in Korea

The holidays can make it particularly hard to be away from your home, family, and friends while you're in Korea. However, Korea's expat community has gathered together to help foreigners and Koreans alike observe and enjoy foreign holidays as traditionally as possible. More and more, restaurants, hotels, and caterers offer home delivery, specially prepared traditional meals, and holiday promotions to celebrate certain holidays.

This year, American Thanksgiving was no exception. Hotels such as the COEX Intercontinental and the Grand Hilton in Seoul offered Thanksgiving meal buffets which included turkey and all the fixin's and then some. The only downside to these festive options is the price. The cost for one person ranged from 50,000 KRW to almost 90,000 KRW!

Several restaurants offered a special T-day food fare as well as more affordable options. American-style and ethnic restaurants alike offered Thanksgiving buffets and set menus for approximately 40,000 KRW per person.

Finally, there's the DIY option. Many restaurants and the USO offered catering and delivery for a small fee. HSK and friends opted for this one and ordered 3 meals (2 turkey and 1 ham) with all the sides for a grand total of about $200 USD. Divided by 15 people attending the celebration, the total cost per person only came to about $15 USD. This was by far the most economic and seemingly traditional choice!After the dinner, we enjoyed cards, lively and animated discussion and drinks. Not quite the same as home, but a very nice second.

Fan Death TT

In ever culture there are myths and urban legends. In Korea, a major ongoing story is Fan Death. It is said that should one leave an electrical fan running over night with all windows closed, those inside the room could potentially perish due to suffocation or hypothermia. There is much debate surrounding this myth as many are convinced that it is real while others staunchly state that it is impossible.

Today, you'll hear the facts and you can make up your minds for yourselves!

There are many theories regarding this topic. A few of the many include :
~ The Korean government imposing this idea to reduce the waste of energy.
~ The circular motion of the fan blades can create a vacuum in which all the room's occupants' air will be taken from them because of this vacuum. The life is literally sucked out of them.
~ The fan blades cut up all of the oxygen molecules making them unusable to the beings that need them and therefore, those in the room will suffer from oxygen, or suffocation.

A Korean government organization also at one time supported this belief by making an official statement saying that fan death was one of the top 5 reasons for injury or accidents in the summer.

Many experts in the medical field deny this idea and claim that it is only folklore. Some also go as far as to blame the Korean government for propagating this ridiculous notion. In an excerpt from the Korean Joongang Daily newspaper, Pr Gord Giesbrecht states :

"It's hard to imagine death by fan, because to die of hypothermia, one's body temperature would have to get down to 28 [°C], drop by 10 degrees [Celsius] overnight. We've got people lying in snowbanks overnight here in Winnipeg and they survive. Maybe if someone was elderly and they were sitting there for three days in a sealed room with an electric fan turned on. Someone is not going to die from hypothermia because their body temperature drops two or three degrees overnight; it would have to drop eight to ten degrees." In addition, "the only way to verify whether someone had really died of hypothermia during the night would be to take a core body temperature the following morning. Waiting three days while the body was in the morgue wouldn't work because the corpse's temperature can drop during that time."

However, the writers for the well-known blog Ask a Korean! asserts that some professional medical opinions may be mistaken. They admit that it is rare, but not completely unheard of. They say that if in a completely enclosed room with no air flowing in to replenish your body and only air in mass quantities is being pushed on to your body, you risk catching hyperthermia. They compare it to the operation of a turbo-overn, but in the opposite sense. (Cool air instead of hot air.)

With all these contradictory assertions being made, how can we know whether fan death is real or not? I suppose there is no real way to find out unless you feel like putting the fan on high and sealing off your room. Are you willing to take the risk in order to prove this supposed urban legend false?

*Note : HandS Korea has chosen to take a neutral stance on this one! ^^

Watch Korean movies & dramas for FREE!

Having a hard time finding Korean films and/or dramas with English subtitles? Interested in discovering more Korean titles?

As you may have already learned, it's sometimes difficult to find the variety of Korean films that you may want. However, there is a site called http://www.mysoju.com/ that will fulfill all of your Korean cinema needs. Korean dramas and movies are divided into two categories (dramas and movies) and further categorized into alphabetical order, most popular and newest.

A couple of HSK favorites are the films Dirty Carnival and Seducing Mr. Perfect (with the dashing Korean-American, Daniel Henney). Check out these films or suggest more to add to our soon to arrive "Movie Review" section!

In addition to Korean films and dramas, there are also Taiwanese, Japanese, Hong Kong and Chinese films for you to view. (These films also have English subtitles.)

HSK Restaurant Review--Via di Napoli

Via di Napoli

Seoul is littered with Italian restaurants that claim they are "authentic" Italian cuisine. However, in my experience, this is not always the case. Many of the dishes offered in these "traditional" Italian eateries are severely disappointing and very catered to Korean tastebuds. While I appreciate complimentary pickles before every Italian meal as much as the next guy, sometimes this appetizer choice isn't always perfectly paired with your favorite risotto or preferred pasta dish!
In my neverending quest for a veritable Italian restaurant that tells the truth when it touts the most authentic Italian cuisine in Seoul, I came across a new place not far from my domicile thanks to KissMyKimchi : Via di Napoli. We went for an early dinner and entered a Sicilian rustic cavern with romanesque arches adorning the interior. We each ordered a different dish and decided to share it, so we could all experience the authenticity of Via di Napoli. I ordered a fresh Tuscan salad and my friends ordered a pizza and a chicken paella dish. For dessert, we shared a pine nut meringue pie.
I found the salad to be fresh and tart with avacados, peaches and mascarpone cheese to top it off. A light vinaigrette gave the dish an extra kick. The pizza was the hit of the evening. I usually find pizza in Korea to be a bit bland and the tomato sauce just doesn't do anything for me. However, the tomato sauce for this particular margherita pizza was a pleasurable mix of sweet and sour, which in my humble opinion, is the way any tomato sauce on a pizza should be! The one disappointment was the chicken paella of which the majority was encrusted to the side of the dish and extremely bland, even after squeezing some fresh lemon juice over it. The pine nut meringue pie had mixed reviews, but it certainly held true to its title. The pine nuttiness was very present and appreciated more by some than others.Overall, the experience was a delectable treat despite the paella disaster. If you're looking for a real Italian pizza in Seoul, hit up Via di Napoli and you won't be disappointed!

To get to Via di Napoli, take the subway to exit 5 of Samseong station (green line 2). Walk straight for about 300 meters and take your first right on the first major intersecting road that you approach. Walk another 300 meters until you see the Oakwood Premier hotel and Seven Luck Casino on your right. Across the street, you will see Via di Napoli. It is located on the B1 level.

Climbing Yongmasan

Yongmasan

South Korea is a very mountainous country. Even within a major city, like Seoul, there are many opportunites for hikers and nature lovers to explore Korea's topography. Koreans young and old also enjoy a good hike to get the blood flowing and to benefit from some fresh air.
Yongmasan (Yongma Mountain) is one of the many places to go hiking. (Achasan is also another place that is frequented by avid hikers.) Yongmasan is just inside the Seoul borders and can be accessed by subway in Seoul.In order to take advantage of a lovely fall day, HandS Korea and a friend took a short subway ride to Yongma Mountain to do some exploring and enjoy a traditional Korean meal afterwards.
To get to Yongmasan, take the subway (olive green line 7) and descend at Yongmasan station.

Cafes--Deux Crèmes

Deux Crèmes

Seoul does not lack in restaurants and cafes. Many Koreans and foreigners alike are gourmands and are always in search for that new and chic restaurant or lounge to please their palates. Sinsa-dong (신사동) is one of the neighborhoods that is a host to a cornucopia of fabulous restaurants--some over priced and some truly touting the best--where a large portion of the trendy Seoulite community gathers for food and drink. One of HSK's favorite spots is a café and pâtisserie called Deux Crèmes.
Deux Crèmes is a small, but smart café that offers a variety of beverages and more importantly...tartes! This French-inspired locale is one of a kind and offers a variety of fresh-made tartes ranging in flavors from chocolate cream to fig and beyond! They also have an extensive champagne and wine list (availability sometimes varies.)
To get to Deux Crèmes, take the subway (orange line 3) to Sinsa station. From exit number 8, walk straight for approximately 5 minutes and take a left on Garosu-gil. Deux Crèmes is on the left hand side.

Exploring Samsung-dong/COEX

Samseong-dong

Gangnam-gu (강남구) is a district in Seoul that is very urban and offers much to do and see. The HandS Korea office is also located in this particular district. Within Gangnam-gu are various neighborhoods, one of which is very well-known and it is called Samseong-dong (삼성동). Samseong-dong contains a couple of famous places in Seoul : COEX Mall and Bongeunsa (Buddhist) Temple. These two things are a prime example of the mélange of modern and traditional that attracts many people to Seoul. Samseong-dong is filled with modern buildings as it is home to many head offices of worldwide corporations.
COEX Mall is as close to a Western-style shopping center as Seoul offers. It is comprised of many different stores (electronics, restaurants, clothing, trinkets, etc.) and often hosts many events and concerts. There are many Western clothing retailers in COEX such as Zara and MNGO. To get to COEX, take the subway (green line 2) to Samseong station and by way of exit 6, one can enter directly into the shopping mall.
Bongeunsa Temple is just next to COEX Mall and is one of Seoul's largest Buddhist temples where those who practice this ancient religion still go to worship. It is proof of Korea's ancient past among its contemporary present, visible in the avant-garde architecture found all over South Korea.