For Christmas this year I decided to get myself some well deserved presents. I went to our local bookstore and discovered the Korean cook books section. I was tempted by two books in particular “KOREATOWN” by Deuki Hong & Matt Rodbard and “Korean Food Made Simple” by Judy Joo. As a student, on a measly student budget, around Christmas, I could not justify the purchase of TWO rather expensive cook books. I was conflicted! I ended up purchasing “KOREATOWN” only to come back a few days later to purchase the other.
Sitting on my couch opening up these books with greedy eyes, and a guilty heart, I was throughly fascinated with the recipes presented before my eyes. Hong and Rodbard’s book explores fusion food and besides the very artistic and alluring pictures the recipes inside are exciting ; where traditional Korean cuisine meets the American Korea-town. The second book shares recipes more authentic to the Korean tradition. There is some overlap in recipes, both having the staple dishes of Korea, namely: Kimchi, Bulgogi, bibimbap, and the holy grail of Korean BBQ the Marinated Kalbi Beef. Just a few off the top of my head. But while I was looking for something to make for our channel, I discovered the Kimchi Fried Rice in both books. They were fundamentally the same but one recipe used bacon as a main ingredient. As a devout bacon lover, this caught my attention. I decided to make this Kimchi fried rice, combining my favourite parts of these two recipes.
Kimchi Fried Rice, aka Kimchi Bokkeum bap (김치볶음밥). It’s spicy, salty, crispy, gooey, moderately healthy (there are vegetables = win in my book), and its just a great all around recipe for any night of the week.
Getting to the point, for those people in a rush, or who are broke af, this is a great recipe for you! The ingredients are cheap (except for bacon…but it can be your splurge item for the week) and the instructions aren’t overly complicated! it is also super delicious!
Recipe
Korean Fried Rice
Ingredients
1 large carrot, diced
1 green zucchini, diced
1 white or yellow onion, diced
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbsp (about 1/2 inch) ginger, minced
1 tbsp Sake or Soju (optional)
1/2 lb of bacon (i’m not great with precise measurements, I used about 3/4 of a package)
1 1/2 cups of Chopped Kimchi
1 1/2 – 2 cups of Rice (i’ve heard its best if the rice is day old, if you make it fresh use slightly less water than usual to get a good fry on)
Optional
1 tbsp butter or margarine
1 tbsp Gochujang (Korean Red Pepper Paste: https://amzn.to/2HSwZ74)
Fried eggs (one for each person eating, or 2 if you are nice)
Sesame Seeds
Instructions
Start by slicing the bacon into 1/2 inch pieces and fry till crispy.
While the bacon is cooking, dice the onions, carrots, and zucchini. Set the bacon aside and start frying the carrots and add the onions and zucchini in a few minutes later to accommodate the varied cooking times. I fried them in the grease from the bacon, but could substitute for olive oil. Mince the garlic and ginger and add it to the vegetables.
Coarsely chop the kimchi and add it to the vegetables along with the soju, after the vegetables are mostly cooked. Keep the heat medium high heat as you reintroduce the bacon to the mix. Allow all the ingredients to warm up before folding in the rice. Smooth the rice mixture down and reduce the heat. Keep cooking for as long as desired to create a crispy exterior to this rice dish.
Optional
Mix the butter and Gochujang together and smear over the top of the rice to increase flavour and moisture. Garnish with chopped green onions, crispy fried eggs, and sesame seeds.
Stray Kids have released a new album Cle 1: Miroh.
It is an 8 track album including:
Entrance
Miroh
Victory Song
Maze of Memories
Boxer
Chronosaurus
19
Mixtape #4
The JYP group have been slef-producing innovative music since their debut a year ago.
The group though new, has their own unique sound, their music filled with bold and boisterous music and lyrics.
The new album “Miroh” is a play off of the word “miro” (maze).
Their previous three part album I am... experiments with ideas of self identity. This new album follows suit, navigating through our complex world.
“Miroh” the title piece, is a creative song filled with rhythms, chants, alarms, and animal sounds creating an impressive cacophony of sound. This intensive rap is the brainchild of 3RACHA -produced by Bang Chan, Han and Changbin.
This song is quite repetitive in its form bringing back the same chorus over and over. While this is in part a criticisms it made the music more accessible and gets it stick in your brain for days… I know it did for me. Going beyond the obvious reasons for the repetition, they redeemed themselves by making something musically interesting with this repetition. After introducing this thematic material in the “post-chorus” interlude they move into the first verse where Hyunjin and Changbin are rapping. Behind the foreground that is the rapping line, the rest of the group are repeating
Woah-oh-oh woah-oh-oh woah-oh Higher
I’m going up over there
Woah-oh-oh woah-oh-oh woah-oh Higher
I’m going to fly higher
Woah-oh-oh woah-oh-oh woah-oh Higher
I’m going up over there
Woah-oh-oh woah-oh-oh woah-oh Higher
I’m going to fly higher
This creates a musical background for the instrumentals to harmonize as well as creating texture to the music through contrast; Rapping versus singing.
In this song, you see principal rappers Changbin, Han, and Hyunjin laying down some sick raps, while Bang Chan is leading the song with vocals. While the use of a rap line to create different textures in the music is not a new concept, their rapping styles are each unique and enticing. Changbin is by far the harshest sounding. He creates intensity and darkness in the music with his speed, sharpness, precision, and raspiness of his voice. Following the style of Bangchan, Han matches in intensity and speed but sounds less like the devil is crawling out of his soul (in the best way possible). He also tends to rap a little bit higher in the register. Both these voices show extreme contrast when paralleled with Hyunjin’s softer style of rapping, and when they alternate between the two styles so quickly it creates an interesting musical texture.
The song’s powerful message of “it’s not hard in this rough jungle” is an act of rebellion as the group declare their confidence. The song starts with only a few references to the jungle with the roar of the lion, but as the song becomes more intense musically and lyrically they begin adding in a lot of different sounds of animals, creating imagery of going deep into the jungle where the sounds can be overwhelming.
The choreography is heavily inspired by Haka, Māori culture a ceremonial warrior dance. Besides the visual quotation of the Haka they also use the music to reflect this by adding the yelling (used in the Haka) intermittently.
The song ends not with a conclusive cadence but drifting off repeating their thematic chorus material.
While I fell in love with this band for the diversity of their music, their recent albums have leaned to a more serious side. Overall, this album gives the impression that they are identifying themselves as a serious music and we might not see as much “Get Cool” style songs.
I know I mainly talked about “Miroh”, but listen to all the other songs too! For some super cool rhythmic metre changes listen to Maze of Memories!
Also- Felix’s deep voice is highlighted beautifully in the new album and we can’t stop listening to it! Featured especially at the beginning of Miroh and throughout Victory Song look out for his deep, dare I say, sensual voice.
Also listen for the french- I mean it could be a Canadian thing- but its SUPER SEXY
Check out this unique album following the Stray Kids coming of age story.
The song is a fun synth-pop track that highlights each of the members’ unique charms.
What can we say? they are absolutely ADORABLE!
What You Need To Know About the Band
TXT stands for Tomorrow X Together
The boy band has five members:
Soobin:
-Leader, Vocalist
-December 5, 2000
Yeonjun:
-Rapper, Vocalist, Dancer
-September 13 1999
Beomgyu:
-Vocalist, Dancer
-March 13 2001
Taehyun:
-Vocalist
-February 5, 2002
Hueningkai:
-Vocalist, Visual, Maknae
-August 14, 2002
Moving On?
BTS made their debut in 2013 and its members, Jin (26), Suga (25), J-Hope (25), RM (24), Jimin (23), V (23) and Jungkook (21) have reached their prime.
As the members age, we can’t help wonder how long they will continue to produce music together- will they continue to be the boy band we all know and love even well into their 30’s?
Will their popularity drop as the demographic changes? Will these sexy men continue to appeal to teenagers?
Maybe TXT is Big Hit Entertainment’s way of phasing in a new group before BTS phases out- carefully sculpting a group that the next generation of kpop fans will adore.
Given how huge BTS has become, we’re sure that Big Hit Entertainment could only have chosen the best for their new group- and we are excited to watch them grow!
No matter how cute TXT is, BTS will always be in our hearts #BTSArmyforever
Tickets went on sale yesterday morning March 2 2019 at 10:00.
After missing out on our chance to see BTS last August, Candace and I were absolutely devastated. We have been determined to find another concert to go to.
When we heard that Stray Kids was coming to the USA we decided this was our big chance and started making plans.
This will be our very first kpop concert and we are absolutely thrilled!
If you have any tips or tricks around attending big concerts please reach out and let us know!
We were up bright and early watching the ticket-site’s countdown, ready to go. We figured buying tickets would be easy- we knew which tickets we anted, were logged in on multiple devices and had the two of us to try and snag them. BOY WERE WE WRONG!
Although we were among the first groups to be let onto the site, we kept clicking and clicking but were unable to buy tickets!
After what felt like ages, we were finally able to buy a single ticket- unsure of whether we would be able to snag another, we glanced at each other wondering how we would decide which of us would go to the event.
We kept fighting.
Thankfully, we were able to get another ticket, made the purchase and heaved a sigh of relief.
We were disappointing not to have gotten our hands on Hi-touch or photo op tickets, but were thankful just the same as we watched the auditorium sell out v=before our very eyes.
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