Park Yong Ha and Korean BBQ.

I mentioned that we were going to a Korean hip hop concert. That was only partially true. Our friend Jeannie dances with some b-girls, and they, along with some b-boys, danced back up for Korean pop artist Park Yong Ha. I tried to find a good page with pictures, but I couldn't. He is a Korean drama actor (read: Soap Star), also a singer, and he is huge in Japan. Most of the women at the concert had traveled from Japan. So big is he in Japan that all of his songs are in Japanese and most of his dialogue with the audience was in Japanese, which was fun for Dan to try and decipher. Anyway, Yong Ha is meant to be pretty dreamy.



It was a rainy walk to the college for the concert.


Jazz Feel made me laugh.


Because this performance was on White Day, Yong Ha was billed as the Candy Man, giving a gift to all the women in attendance.


We got free pink glow sticks.


Here he is. There were huge banners everywhere.


We didn't realize when we agreed to go to the concert that it would be such a big deal, but these tickets were probably worth a significant amount of won. Yong Ha has a good voice, he does, but the music was not what we were expecting. It was a cross between schmaltzy 90s ballads and, like, Barry Manilow type music. Yong Ha himself is fairly charismatic, and he must be a real stud on those Korean dramas.


Glow sticks!


Cameras were not allowed during the concert, but I had brought my camera along to take pictures of dinner, so we snuck it in and then I hid it under Dan's sweatshirt the whole time. I did point and click from my lap once for the picture on the right. I continue to fail at that type of photography.


Okay, so this is Korean barbecue. It has nothing to do with sauce. They bring out a bucket of hot coals/burning logs and put it in a recess in the table. Then they cover it with this grill and cook your meat for you. We had pork. It was really, really good. You do leave smelling like cooked food, though.


Our many banchan. I cannot have kimchi usually, because they often make it with shrimp paste, but there were several other banchan that I tasted and enjoyed. There was a salad with a sweet gingery dressing, a green that looked like grass with red pepper flakes, and raw garlic and an amazing bean curd sauce that you could, with sesame leaves or cabbage, make into neat little wraps.


We picked up a birthday cake from Paris Baguette on the way home. There is a cake inside of this cappuccino, and Dan said it was maybe the best cake he'd ever had. They included candles, poppers, and matches with the cake. Dear America, please visit Korea and learn how to be a better country.


26 and counting.

-Serenity