Korea Day in Central Park

Korea Day in New York happened on Tuesday, August 16th, almost 2 weeks ago. This post is way overdue, but I still want to share some pictures from the day. Also, the video clip is poorly shot with my iphone, but I thought it would give you an idea of the vibe of the day.

It was overcast earlier in the day, but slowly cleared and became sunny by early afternoon. The event was at Naumberg Bandshell in Central Park, same location as last year. It was bigger in size and better organized this time, with two main lines of same popular Korean food samplings and an attendant for each dish. This allowed people to move quickly, get a sampling of variety of Korean food - bulgogi, japchae, kimchi, jeon, tteokbokgi, jeyuk bokeum with ssamjang on a lettuce leaf - on one plate, and fill up on otherwise a small portion of each food. The smart ones who navigated the area first got on the quick bibimbap line and got a bowl of bibimbap. Then they ate bibimbap while they waited for their turn for the main sampling plate. Well, I wasn't one of them, but I know better for next year. ^_^

You didn't have to get on the everything-on-one-plate sampling line. You could walk around and find kimchi tacos, rice cakes, melon-flavored popsicles, aloe drink, grain tea and free giveaway of Shin Ramyeon (in no relation to my name) to take home.

There was also music entertainment going on on the stage of Naumberg Bandshell. I caught in my iphone clip the group Sorea playing popular k-pop tunes with traditional Korean instruments and a samulnori team performing exciting beats to get everyone in the mood for a fun day.

Check out what else happened from the picture below. I had to leave around 2PM so this is missing other fun parts of the day. There are also many clips of the kpop contest out there if you want to search for those.

This is how real sticky rice cake is made - pound hot rice until all your anger transforms into soft, warm, sticky rice cake.

You can taste fundamental flavors of Korean food here. Gochujang and doenjang tasting just with your everyday baby carrots and celery sticks.

Handing out bibimbap from a giant bowl.

Kimchi taco on hand.

This is an old-fashined Korean popcorn machine. Every few minutes, the guy would yell out 'Bbeong-e-yo!' and run to the other direction. Then you hear this loud POP! with a bit of smoke, followed by puffed popcorn everywhere. There is another guy (not shown) in a corner of this tent handing out bags of fresh made popcorn. Loved it!