Around the Hotels

Chinese group dining specials at Grand Hilton SeoulGrand Hilton Seoul’s Chinese restaurant Yeohyang is offering special group dining specials until the end of February. The menu for five-seven people, priced at 430,000 won, includes deep-fried chicken in hot pepper sauce, Hong Kong-style blue crab, sweet and sour pork, a main dish and dessert. It also includes a bottle of the Australian red wine Koonunga Hill or Tianjin kaoliang liquor. The menu for eight to 10 people, priced at 735,000 won, inc

CultureFeb. 21, 2014

Banh mi at Tamarind

A good banh mi sandwich starts with the baguette. Not only because the baguette essentially gave birth to today’s banh mi, but because it seems to matter, deeply, that the very bread cradling all that deliciousness inside be perfectly soft yet crackly, taking the lead gently as the conduit between you and all those tasty fillings. Served up warm, the bread used for the Vietnamese-style sandwiches at Tamarind by Miss Saigon seems to do just that. “Banh mi bread is very important,” said Tamarind o

FoodFeb. 21, 2014

Agujjim (spicy braised monkfish with soybean sprouts)

Agujjim (also called agwijjim) is a spicy fish dish made with agu (monkfish) and kongnamul (soybean sprouts). The dish originated from the southern coastal city of Masan. In the past, this not so good-looking fish wasn’t consumed as a food item in Korea due to its appearance. The story behind the birth of this dish is that some fishermen didn’t want to waste their catches, so they brought them to an eatery and asked the cook to make a tasty dish. That was in the 1960s. The dish is now enormously

FoodFeb. 21, 2014

Kim Go-eun to come back in vicious revenge tale

Actress Kim Go-eun, who made an impressive breakthrough in filmmaker Jung Ji-woo’s critically acclaimed 2012 sensual drama “Eungyo (A Muse),” is making a comeback as a vengeful mad woman in her upcoming movie. Kim made her acting debut in Jung’s 2012 film as Eun-gyo, a teenager who becomes the subject of desire for Lee Jeok-yo (Park Hae-il), a renowned poet in his 70s. The film received much attention for its subject matter as well as its depiction of sexuality. Kim, who had never appeared in a

FilmFeb. 21, 2014

China media sees lessons in Korean TV dramas

BEIJING (Yonhap) ― China’s state-run media on Friday urged the country’s TV drama producers to learn from South Korean dramas, citing the “new round of popularity” in China of the Korean fantasy-romance soap “You Who Came From the Star.” The hit drama series, which is also enjoying a popularity rating of about 25 percent in South Korea, is rapidly gaining wider audience appeal in China, with actors Jun Ji-hyun and Kim Soo-hyun becoming household names among young Chinese people. Running in prime

TelevisionFeb. 21, 2014

[Photo News] Sports culture seminar

PeopleFeb. 20, 2014

Ready to rock

 A few hours after its English-language digital single “Cigarette Girl” became available on overseas music sites Wednesday, YB members quietly awaited listeners’ reactions at an office in Hapjeong-dong, Seoul, near Hongdae area where the band got its start. The members seemed to be in no hurry.The rock band ― composed of vocalist Yoon Do-hyun, bassist Park Tae-hee, guitarists Heo Joon and Scott Hellowell, and Kim Jin-won on the drums ― has been in the business long enough to know that there won’

PerformanceFeb. 20, 2014

Top ballerinas to collaborate in ‘Two in Two’

Two of the most celebrated ballet dancers in Korea will collaborate onstage for the upcoming restaging of choreographer Ahn Sung-soo and fashion designer Jung Kuho’s 2000 piece “Two in Two.”Kim Ji-young and Kim Joo-won, who were colleagues and also “rivals” at the Korean National Ballet, will take to the stage jointly with male dancers Kim Bo-ram and Jang Kyung-min. The last time the two Kims collaborated in the same performance was 14 years ago. Kim Ji-young still remains a principal at the Kor

PerformanceFeb. 20, 2014

Thumb-size statue looks like Buddha’s mother

A thumb-size bronze statue of a woman unearthed at an ancient temple site in the southern old city of Buyeo looks like the mother of Buddha, archeologists said Thursday. If they’re right, it would be the first statue of Queen Maya found in Korea and could provide new clues to ancient Korean Buddhism. The artifact, standing 6 centimeters tall, was discovered by a team of archeologists on site at Wangheung Temple in Buyeo, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Baekje. The temple was built in A.D.

CultureFeb. 20, 2014

SM launches global auditions

For talented K-pop hopefuls looking for their opportunity to become the next Girls’ Generation, BoA, TVXQ or EXO, the wait is over. The nation’s biggest entertainment agency SM Entertainment has launched its annual global talent search starting today in Jakarta, Indonesia. This year’s “2014 S.M. Global Audition” is being held for the first time in Indonesia for four days and has already attracted more than 20,000 applicants. The global auditions will continue until May 25, stopping at 18 cities

PerformanceFeb. 20, 2014

Boy band EXO to extend Japan concert series

Popular K-pop boy group EXO has expanded its Japan concert series scheduled for April, SM Entertainment announced. By adding one more concert to their original itinerary, the band is expected to reach out to about 100,000 fans in Japan.EXO is slated to deliver five “EXO Greeting Party in Japan ‘Hello!’” concerts at the Saitama Super Arena in Tokyo over three days from April 11-13. Originally, the group had planned to only perform two shows each on April 12 and 13, but added one more performance

PerformanceFeb. 20, 2014

Absent David Bowie steals show at Brit Awards

LONDON (AP) ― David Bowie stole the show at Wednesday’s Brit music awards without even showing up, while Arctic Monkeys took home two big trophies at British music’s leading prize night. The 67-year-old Bowie, who is enjoying a renaissance with his first album in a decade, “The Next Day,” was named British male artist of the year. The trophy was accepted by supermodel Kate Moss. She was sent, presenter Noel Gallagher joked, as New York-based Bowie’s “representative on Earth.” Moss wore one of Bo

PerformanceFeb. 20, 2014

Jackie Collins is still ‘Wild,’ steamy

LOS ANGELES ― Author Jackie Collins still has the steam engine chugging. Her newest novel, “Confessions of a Wild Child,” released last week, is a prequel to the Lucky Santangelo books and centers on the treasured heroine during her formative teen years ― the book has already landed a film deal with Amber Entertainment. The 76-year-old scribe talks about finally getting into character and staying clued-up.Q. “Confessions of a Wild Child” is the seventh book to feature the character Lucky Santang

BooksFeb. 20, 2014

A quiet mystery from Laura Lippman

After I’m GoneBy Laura Lippman (Morrow)Few of us ever completely recover from the loss of a loved one. Life, of course, goes on and can be rich and fulfilling. But that loss never entirely disappears.Laura Lippman explores how a disappearance affects a family for decades in the enthralling “After I’m Gone.” In her eighth stand-alone ― and 19th ― novel, Lippman tracks the history of five women united by the betrayal of one man. “After I’m Gone” is a quiet mystery ― no car chases, barely a gun in

BooksFeb. 20, 2014

Young lives haunt Oates’ latest novel

CarthageBy Joyce Carol Oates(Ecco)When a book begins by telling readers that a young woman, 19, has vanished into the deep woods, the expected outcome is rarely happy.But in Joyce Carol Oates’ newest book, “Carthage,” perhaps the outcome is not quite so bleak. For the first half of the book, readers make their own assumptions about what has happened to Cressida Mayfield, the younger of Zeno Mayfield’s two daughters, and whether she indeed met a gruesome fate at the hands of her sister’s former f

BooksFeb. 20, 2014

‘Lincoln’s Boys’ examines president’s secretaries

Sometimes political careers are born of chance.John Nicolay and John Hay were two young men working in Springfield, Ill., when they became involved with the political life of Abraham Lincoln before his 1860 U.S. presidential campaign. Tireless and smart, the friends, still in their 20s, proved themselves indispensable to Lincoln, who brought them along with him to the White House as his personal secretaries ― in effect, the president’s gatekeepers.In his new book, “Lincoln’s Boys: John Hay, John

BooksFeb. 20, 2014

CEO of Wichcraft, ‘We only hire people who are willing to take out the trash’

Successful New York restaurant owner Jeffrey Zurofsky thinks that too many of today’s college graduates want a quick path to making money and don’t want to get their hands dirty, business and technology news website Business Insider reported.In an interview with Business Insider, Zurofsky made it clear to young, ambitious professionals that they‘re going to have to get their hands dirty.If someone wants to work for him, “You’re going to learn how to be the porter, be the delivery guy, be the cas

Life&CultureFeb. 20, 2014