Around the hotels

‘Very Vary Berry’ at Banyan Banyan Tree Club & Spa Seoul is launching the “Very Vary Berry” dessert buffet at Chez Blanc, located on the lobby floor, until March 1. The buffet offers 19 different varieties of the hotel’s favorite sweets, Mont St. Clair’s desserts, with a seasonal strawberry flair. The list includes macarons with strawberry ganache, strawberry cream Mont Blancs, choux and éclairs filled with strawberry cream and cream cheese.The “Very Vary Berry” buffet is open Monday to Thursday

Jan. 22, 2016

[Weekender] Makgeolli School, only for the devoted

Every Thursday evening, a group of 20 people gather at a hands-on food lab on the 10th floor of a quiet building in Jongno, central Seoul. The lab of Makgeolli School is clean, with five smooth countertops surrounded by barstools, and earthen pots and ingredients stacked against the walls. There are huge sinks for washing rice, pots for steaming it, huge earthen jars for fermentation, and smaller jars and bottles labeled with the names of herbs and medicinal ingredients for flavoring. Students h

Jan. 22, 2016

'Rebuilding dining and drinking culture from scratch'

During normal get-together parties at the year-end, Koreans chat and share past memories while roasting their beef and pork bellies over hot grills. But these parties can’t start without shots of distilled liquor soju or boilermaker drinks -- mix of beer and soju.After endless and unstoppable shots of drinks not only in glasses but also bowls, some get up quietly and leave early, while others who stay behind get emotional which sometimes leads to tussles while their minds go blank, with no memor

Jan. 22, 2016

Sansawon provides historical look at traditional Korean liquor

There’s an ancient folktale that tells the story of a monkey who blushed and smiled uncontrollably after gorging on a fermented apple he found on the ground. After a farmer noticed the monkey’s pleasant reaction to eating the old piece of fruit, he wondered if humans could enjoy the same blissful side effect, which led to the invention of alcohol. Visitors learn the history of traditional Korean liquor products at the Sansawon gallery in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province. (Park Hyun-koo/The Korea Heral

Jan. 22, 2016

Oldest Christian monastery in Iraq razed

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) -- Satellite photos obtained by the Associated Press confirm what church leaders and Middle East preservationists had feared:  The oldest Christian monastery in Iraq has been reduced to a field of rubble, yet another victim of the Islamic State group's relentless destruction of heritage sites it considers heretical. 　St. Elijah’s Monastery stood as a place of worship for 1,400 years, including most recently for U.S. troops. In earlier millennia, generations of monks tucked candl

Jan. 21, 2016

[Herald Interview] Hyatt Jeju seeks to be ‘home away from home’

Patrick Verove, general manager of Hyatt Regency Jeju, says he was destined to work in the international hospitality sector -- not just at any hotel, but ones located near the sea.　Working and living by the sea has always been in his DNA, he said in a recent interview, noting that his father was in the French Navy, which took him and his family to many ocean-side locales. Moreover, he was born in Cameroon, Africa, near the ocean. Patrick Verove, general manager of Hyatt Regency Jeju (Hyatt Regen

Jan. 20, 2016

Japan‘s ’Tuna King‘ laments Tsukiji market move

TOKYO (AFP) - Kiyoshi Kimura‘s ear-to-ear grin is tough to miss in Japan -- it’s splashed across ubiquitous billboards advertising his nationwide sushi chain.　But the self-styled “Tuna King” isn't smiling about plans to move Tokyo’s famous Tsukiji market, the world's biggest fish emporium, and warns that its unique identity is at risk of being destroyed.　Kimura’s office is a block away from the historic site where in 2013 he famously slapped down a record $1.8 million bid at the traditional New

Jan. 20, 2016

French museum returns looted statue head to Cambodia

PHNOM PENH (AFP) - A French museum has returned the head of a statue of a Hindu god that was taken from a Cambodian temple 130 years ago, the Culture Ministry said Tuesday.　The head of the Harihara statue, a combined representation of the Hindu gods Vishnu and Shiva, was returned by France‘s Guimet Museum on Saturday at the kingdom’s request, according to Thai Noraksathya, a spokesman for the Ministry of Culture.  The head of the Harihara statue is seen at the national museum in Phnom Penh on Tu

Jan. 20, 2016

KOCCA eyes overseas with ‘big killer content’

Song Sung-gak, president and CEO of the Korea Creative Content Agency, said the agency will seek to discover and enter new overseas markets this year with “new big killer content” created through the convergence of emerging technologies and other content from areas such as health care and tourism.　“In this new era, which I call the ‘multi avant-garde age,’ where everything changes very fast and things are converging, we cannot create new things the way we used to,” Song said at a press conferenc

Jan. 19, 2016

New generation of Korean abstract art

Amid the unprecedented boom of Korean art in the global art scene driven by the popularity of dansaekhwa, monochrome painting, Korean galleries are raising their antennas to search out the post-dansaekhwa generation.  Untitled-12050 by Lee Kang-wook (Arario Gallery)In their relentless search for new artists, Arario Gallery has introduced artist Lee Kang-wook in its first exhibition of the fresh new year.  Lee has just returned to the local art scene after a seven-year hiatus. In 2009, Lee left K

Jan. 17, 2016

Top Korea image award praises ‘creativity of hallyu’

K-pop sensation Psy accepted an award from a nonprofit organization as a representative on behalf of the “creativity of hallyu,” Tuesday night. At the Corea Image Communication Institute’s annual awards ceremony, CICI Korea Image Awards 2016, in Seoul, Psy was joined by the cast of the popular cable TV talk show “Non-Summit” and violinist Clara Jumi Kang in accepting awards for spreading Korean culture overseas.Awards recipients pose for press photos with CICI president Choi Jung-wha (third from

Jan. 13, 2016

Sparking education for girls

 In Korea’s turbulent path toward independence and nation building, there were foreign nationals who stood steadfastly by the Korean people, although their contributions have been largely overshadowed by those of Korean patriots. The Korea Herald, in partnership with the Independence Hall of Korea, is publishing a series of articles shedding light on these foreigners, their life and legacies here. This is the 11th installment. ― Ed. The missionaries and their families in the Busan Missionary Uni

Jan. 11, 2016

From Ethiopia to Colombia: On a quest for ethnic jewelry

Director of the World Jewelry Museum Lee Kang-won remembers vividly an Ethiopian woman she saw 37 years ago in the corner of a local market in Addis Ababa. The woman, dressed in a white cotton dress, was wearing a meticulously detailed, “ultramodern looking” silver necklace. Her necklace captivated Lee, who had just arrived in the country. “Her necklace was breathtaking,” said Lee, in an interview last month at the museum in Hwa-dong near Samcheong-dong.The handcrafted silver necklace was the wo

Jan. 8, 2016