I’m going to be showing people how to make perilla leaves kimchi and spicy, stuffed cucumber kimchi. Outside of Korean culture, perilla leaves are not a common ingredient, so I hope my small efforts will contribute to promoting healthy Asian cooking to the American mainstream.

Ever since I posted a video on how to make perilla leaf kimchi on YouTube, some of my readers have surprised me by growing their own in their garden! I don’t have a yard here, so I make an annual trip to Queens for perilla leaves. This year I was too late and I missed the perilla leaf lady, so for the demo I’m going to bring perilla leaves from the Korean grocery store.

If you’re interested in coming to Asian Feastival, let me know. They’re going to give me a promo code for my readers, so you’ll get a discount on the ticket price. A portion of the ticket price will go directly to the New York Food Bank, which is a something I believe in - the proceeds from the New York Kimchi Festival were donated to them, remember?

Click here to view the embedded video.

This event will be sponsored by the 2 Korean food ingredients companies that sponsored my New York Kimchi contest this year: Sempio and Assi. I’m very proud to get sponsorship from the companies like these.

This is going to be a terrific event that all Korean food lovers from around the world can participate in. Around the world! Yes, I’m serious!  : )

A total of 20 winners will be selected and the winners will get prizes from Sempio and Assi. 10 winners will be selected by our esteemed judges and 10 will be chosen by your votes!  To enter, all you have to do is to upload a photo of Korean food made with my recipes.

Categories

1st category – People’s Choice: The prizes will be sent to the winner’s house by Sempio
This category opens today!
Submit a photo here. Submissions will be open until Sep 25 (12:00 midnight EST), and then I’ll open the gallery to voting on Sep 27. The winners will be determined by popular vote.

2nd category – Judges’ Selection: The prizes will be sent to the winner’s house by Assi
This category is already closed!
I’m going to choose 50 photos from my photos page and submit them to a panel of judges. They’ll choose 10 winners. I’m going to choose the 50 photos from the most active cooks, photos that really lingered in my head for a couple of days and the most favored by my flickr readers.

An important message regarding winners

The purpose of this event is to encourage all people who love Korean food to cook at home and share their food with their friends and family.

I wish I could give all participants a prize, but I can’t! I want to pick the winners as fairly as I can but some points are impossible. We can never know if the winners’ food is really delicious or not. Maybe someone who didn’t win made the most delicious food. And maybe your camera is not great, so your photo is not great.

I know that there are limitations to this kind of contest. What I’m saying is that please please don’t get discouraged even if you are not a winner. Promise me! : ) You should always be proud of your food, and enjoy it with the people at your table.

If you’re interested in learning how to take better food photos, our judge Andrew Scrivani has some great articles on The New York Times Diner’s Journal about food photography including How to Take Photos of Food and Four Manual Settings You Need to Know for Shooting Food. His Q&A sessions (#1 & #2) also have lots of tips.

Judges

Soo-Jeong Kang
was born in Seoul, Korea before moving to the US at age nine. She has her degree in photography from Parson’s School of Design and has been working in publishing as a photo editor for 20 years. She was a photo editor for New York Magazine, US News and World Report, and Newsweek and was the Director of Photography at Ladies’ Home Journal producing major food shoots before coming to The New York Times to become the editor of the Dining In, Dining Out section in 2002. She is currently photo editing, as well as producing multimedia pieces, for the Science and Health sections of the Times.
Soo-Jeong lives in Manhattan.

Pichet Ong
has been named one of the Top Ten Pastry Chefs in America by Pastry Arts & Design and Chocolatier. His desserts, including those from Spice Market, RM, and 66, have garnered numerous “Best of” awards and he is a multiple nominee for the James Beard Award in several national categories. His work frequently appears in Bon Appétit, Food Arts, The New Yorker, Elle, New York Magazine, Time Out, People, Vogue, Condé Nast Traveler, Out, Harper’s Bazaar, W, and O, The Oprah Magazine. He has been on Iron Chef America, Martha Stewart Live, CBS News, Emeril’s Live, and LX TV. Pichet’s cookbook, The Sweet Spot, has been hailed by The New York Times as “a standout and one of the most original dessert cookbooks in years.”
pichetong.com
spotdessertbar.com
villagetart.com
confessionsofasugarholic.tumblr.com

Andrew Scrivani
is a freelance photographer and blogger who makes regular contributions to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Newsweek magazine. He is also the featured photographer in the new cookbook The Very Best of Recipes for Health by Martha Rose Shulman. Andrew writes about food and photography for The New York Times Diner’s Journal superblog and his own blog, Making Sunday Sauce.
andrewscrivani.com
makingsundaysauce.com
twitter.com/AndrewScrivani

Jeremy Zilar
is the Blog Specialist at The New York Times. Over the last four years, Jeremy has started over 160 blogs on nytimes.com. He works with writers and editors to shape and grow their blogs and assess the media and technical landscape they are a part of. He has also helped the Times embrace the culture of the web and adopt the tools and ethics of online publishing.
silencematters.com
twitter.com/silencematters

Prizes

Each category will have a grand prize, as well as a gold, a silver, 2 bronzes, and 5 runners-up.

Contest Rules

Are you interested in entering the contest?

Photos will be moderated, so please follow these 3 rules!

1. Your entry must be a photo of a dish made from a recipe on maangchi.com
   This is so that people looking at the photos can easily learn how to cook the item in the photo. Making modifications to recipes is ok, but please explain any substitutions in the photo comments, so we all can learn.
2. It must be your own photo
   Please don’t use someone else’s photo! : )
3. 2 photos per person
   Submit one or two of your best Korean food photos and make them good!

Photographers retain all copyrights, but allow the photos to be displayed on maangchi.com
You will always own your own picture, but I want to show it to people on my website.

Legal Disclaimer
The judge’s decisions concerning all matters related to this contest are final. Void where prohibited by law. Maangchi.com assumes no responsibility for late entries due to technichal issues. Shipping and postage will be paid for by Maangchi.com with sponsors’ help. Any tax, international or otherwise, related to the prizes is the sole responsibility of the winners.

I’ll be coming to Los Angeles for Chuseok this year. I miss my mom! I want to recharge my energy by talking and listening to my mom! : )

So I would like to meet some of my readers while I’m there. My last meetup in LA was 2 years ago, right?

Meetup

Date: Tuesday Sep. 21

Time: dinner time

Where to meet is not decided yet. Please email me if you have any good ideas where to meet or even what to do!  Email me at maangchi@gmail.com.

I’m excited to meet you!

Last time we met at a restaurant (Garden Grove) which was a lot of fun.

I’m looking forward to seeing you guys!

from Maangchi

She says:

“… my parents in law dont speak English, so all these years we communicate with instant body language and grunts, and it works! When my mother in law really needs to tell me something she tells me in Korean,  then we use my nephews and neices to translate. I love my mother-in-law. If you were stuck in the wild, she would be the person you want to be with! She knows how to survive. : )  In fact all my sisters and  brothers in laws have that survival skills. All they are great farmers.

fascinating story! love to visit their house and meet her mother-in-law to listen to all compliments about her daughter-in-law.

While reading her email, I found she is an adorable person! She makes her whole family including her in-laws happy!

One of my friends Al is very funny.
I gave him my triangle kimbap (samgak kimbap) a while ago and asked if he had ever tasted it before.
He said, no. So I told him that he should be careful when he opens it and gave him instructions: “number 1 first peel it off, then number 2.. 3..”
He said, “thanks, no problem.”

Then a few days ago, I met him and asked, “how did you like  my samgak kimbap?”

“It was very easy to open it and it was very delicious!”

Easy? I think it would be difficult. So I asked him again: “The seaweed that looks like black paper is not soggy at all and crispy, right?”

And he said, “Seaweed? I thought it was wrapper so I threw it away!” LOL!  Al ate samgak bap instead of samgak kimbap! (samgak means triangle, bap is steamed rice, and kim is seaweed paper)

BTW, The recipe is here  http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/samgakkimbap.

Amy and me

with MC Jung Hae Lee, me, and the president of NoPAK (Network of Professional Adopted Koreans) John Perry

It is known that more than 13,000 adopted Koreans are living in Minnesota. I always think adopted Koreans living in different cultures are very cool because they have the best of 2 cultures in their roots: Korean culture and another culture. Every single person I met at the event was friendly, open minded, and was eager to learn about Korean cultures, language, and food! When I went shopping with a few people for the cooking demos, even in the car, they practiced some Korean words! Everybody seemed to work hard to make the event successful which really impressed me.

The event was sponsored by Korean Consulate General in Chicago, Korean Cultural Center in Los Angeles, and Korean Tourism Organization. I was surprised at the wide variety of performances featured on the stage: Korean drums, traditional dance, Taekwondo, piano, food tasting, and the most interesting thing for me was Korean costume fashion show! Have you seen the drama “Queen Seondeok”? I met the designer who made all the costumes for the actors and actresses. Her name is Hyun Sook Lee. She said she brought more than 120 costumes for the fashion show from Korea.

This costume is from the drama Queen Seondeok

I did my cooking demos twice on July 9 and 10 at the Mall of America which is known as the biggest shopping mall in the USA. On July 9, I was interviewed by local FoxTV news reporter Todd. He asked me, “what is Korean food?” wha? Can anybody who reads my website answer the question quickly? : )

Click here to view the embedded video.

I met Jon Huston who was on Korean reality show about finding his birth mother. When I read his story, it was  so touching that  I cried!

with Jon Huston and his children

And, And who else!

OMG, my readers! While I was doing cooking demos, I could notice who my readers were among the audience! They were giving me huge smile during my whole cooking demos. They came to me after the demos and we took some photos together. My heart gets warm whenever I meet my readers. Some of their children recognized my face and smiled at me because their moms or dads make their favorite Korean dishes and watch my videos together. So I have many little children fans!

My readers who came to the MOA to see me. We went to a coffee shop to chat

My reader Kerri gave me this candy called “konpeito” in a beautiful box that she made for me. Thank you, Kerri!

with some of my readers who came to see me on July10.

One of my readers, Mr. Bruce Harriongton’s daughter Clare. Clare says, “I like bulgogi!”

with Danyelle and her children Ella and Ben

Kristine’s daughter Alex

with  Breanna Parslow and Carolina Lam

with Eileen

I’ve been invited to appear at “Passport to Korea”, a Korean cultural event hosted by a non-profit organization named NoPAK.org located in Minnesota. “NoPAK” stands for Network of Professional Adopted Koreans. They are hosting their second annual Korean culture showcase at the Mall of America in Bloomington, MN, July 9-11, 2010.  It is Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

They asked me to speak a little bit about Korean food, and also do some cooking demos during my visit.

I’m very honored to be part of the event! Actually the representative of the organization, Amy King, has been one of my long term blog readers.

I will be leaving on Thursday July 8 and come back Saturday late night July 10.

As you see on the calendar, I’ll do cooking demos Friday and Saturday.

If you are living in MN and want to see me, please come to the Mall and see me cook, or just say hello. I’d like to meet some of my readers during my visit there! Just come and find me, and tell me about the Korean food you made.

You know where I will be : )

Click here to view the embedded video.

Hello, everybody!
It was a huge success! What am I talking about?  The New York kimchi contest! Lol.

More than 100 people came and there were 21 entries for the kimchi contest. They were from everywhere. Someone from Maryland, someone from Canada, and some drove hours and hours to come to the event. I was overwhelmed by their passion!

Since 2 popular New York websites mentioned my kimchi contest (Serious Eats and Time Out), so many people came to register to join the event. There were 55 people on the waiting list, but unfortunately I could not invite them all. I had prepared for 80 people, so if I invited everyone it would not have been enjoyable.

I had to be tough. So if you were one of those on the waiting list, I have to say I am very sorry. Next time I may organize a bigger event, then you will be more than welcome! You will be my VIG! : ) (Very Important Guest)

One of the volunteers, Justine, came all the way from his house in Brooklyn to my house in Manhattan to pick me up to carry the prizes. The prizes were boxes of Korean ingredients: hot pepper paste, hot pepper flakes, soy bean paste, soy sauce, fish sauce… so you can imagine how heavy they were. Giving me a ride was big help to me! Thank you Justine!

I asked him in the car he was driving: “Justine, were you born here in USA?”

He said, “Yeah born and raised.” That day I met many born and raised Korean 2^nd generation, just like Justine.

Kimchi contest started at about 11:20 am. I was surprised to see the effort the contestants put towards making their kimchi tasty and look cool. Most of them brought napa cabbage kimchi. I saw one kimchi contestant put ice bags under the kimchi bowl so that the kimchi would be kept at a good temperature!

Someone made non-spicy kimchi with cabbage and chunks of apple. Someone made very innovative kimchi – watermenlon kimchi! My grandmother used to make watermelon salads. After eating innards of watermelon, she peeled the skin and sliced it into bite size. Then she salted and added garlic, hot pepper flakes, and soy sauce.

There were more different types of kimchi: cucumber kimchi, yeolmu kimchi, and normal cabbage kimchi.

If I ever hold another kimchi contest, I should divide it into 2 categories: traditional kimchi and fusion or inventive kimchi.

Our 3 kimchi  judges tasted 21 different kinds of kimchi and gave each entry a score. And all people voted for The People’s Choice Award!

The grand prize went to Alan Kwon who is one of my devoted readers. If you want to know more about him check his blog and his about page. I put the crown on his head. Yes, he is The King of Kimchi! The second prize went to Kristi Sangster who cooks Korean food at home on a regular basis. She sometimes makes Korean food with her friends. Last time she said she made Korean mandu (dumplings) with her friends together and shared it when they went back home. The 3rd prize went to Mi Soon Burzlaff and Joanne Kim aka The Kimchi Sisters. Misoon is a Korean adoptee, and Joanne is 2nd generation Korean American. They said they made up the recipe by themselves after 2 years of experimenting. They would like to start a small, local, NYC based kimchi company The People’s Choice winner was Kayshinn! She brought a huge camera and took so many photos. I asked, “Hey, you look so professional” She said, “Yes, I am.” Her job is a photographer so she is professional. Her torn blue jeans and white shirt looked cool! I may wear torn blue jeans just like her. : )

Now it’s time for me to thank all of those who helped to make this event possible. I have been very thrilled while I organized this event from the beginning because so many people surrounding me were willing to help!  I had exchanged emails so many times with my sponsors and judges to organize this event. When I contacted them, I found  they didn’t have any commercial purpose for this. They trusted me and helped me to make this event possible. All of the representatives of the 3 sponsor companies came with food, and free Korean ingredient samples to give away to all of us.

To the judges:

Thank you very much for your hard work! I know it is not easy to give a score, especially when all entries are great. I owe you. When you need my help anytime, I will be here for you!

From left to right they are: Orianne Consentino (chef & culinary artist http://upchefcreek.com/),
Rudy Bednar (TV producer), and Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan (food & fashion writer http://www.atigerinthekitchen.com/)

To sponsors:

H&Y Marketplace brought the BBQ: marinated beef short ribs, beef, saury fish, and all vegetables (lettuce, perilla leaves, green chili pepper, sliced raw garlic, dipping sauce), & rice, as well as all the chopsticks & plates.

Mr. Han Taekseon, the president of the company, is very interested in globalizing Korean food. He couldn’t come but his wife and several employees came to cook for all of us.

How do I know Mr. Han is interested in boosting Korean food globalization? Soon after I was on Korean TV news, H&Y Marketplace gave me an award for contributing to the globalization of Korean food. I never mentioned this on my blog, but when I accepted the award I had a chance to meet with Mr. Han. He told me about his goal of spreading Korean food and culture to the world.

So when I organized this event I asked him if he wanted to be involved. I knew he would say yes. That’s right! He said yes without any hesitation. Everybody said the food was delicious and everybody thanked H&Y for their generosity.

Sempio sent me several boxes of Korean ingredients. Thanks to them I could give all participants a gift and huge, generous boxes of prizes for winners, judges, and volunteers. When I wrapped each gift, I was very happy that I could give good wishes and encouragement to everybody who come. And when they got their prizes, they were almost too heavy to carry home!

Sempio has a long history as a Korean ingredients production company, and their ingredients are top quality. I have been using their soy sauce for decades since I was very young!

Thank you very much for giving us chance to taste your unique beverage (baeknyeondongahn)! It was served in large dispensers with ice, so it was very refreshing and delicious treat for all of us especially on hot summer day. I love honey and citrus flavor, but my friends said they liked ginseng taste, too.

Assi donated kimchi kits: fresh and top quality of  hot pepper flakes, fish sauce, and sweet rice flour. I gave them to winners, judges, and some volunteers. I overheard someone in the video said, “OMG! holy sh*t, it’s huge!” The package is maybe 3 kilograms? : )

Kevin Rhee from Assi gave me money to rent tables and chairs and buy supplies. Thank you very much! He also brought cases of products and gave them to whoever wanted them: sesame oil, hot pepper paste, soy bean paste, and even aprons! I was happy to see that everyone who came went back home with at least a few items! He also donated bags of rice which we raffled off at the end of the day.

Thanks to all of these sponsors, the event could accommodate many more people, and be much more generous, than I could achieve by myself. Last year I had to pay all the expenses myself. This year I only spent $200.00 of my own money for the BBQ grill rental for this entire event!

To my volunteers!

Without your help, I could not do this event! Kina Pak and Kristi collected $5 from each registrant, so we gathered $345!  Joon and Chihiro calculated the judges’ scores, Elfreda helped with the table setting for the kimchi contest, Samuel helped to set up chairs and tables, and Michelle Im helped people register.

The money we collected, we can send to charity! Omg, it’s so cool! Actually, I forgot to pay my own money, so the real total we earned is $350 (some people who came didn’t pay). I will let you know how we’re going to donate for charity later.

Update!

Aug.4,2010 the money we collected $350.00 is donated to the Food Bank through on line and here is the receipt.

Here are the photos that we took on the day. I am posting these chronologically from 11;00 am to 2:00 pm until we finished.

Don’t forget to get this name tags everbody!

hoho! I came here to judge kimchi! I’m ready to taste it now!

What is the number of the kimchi just I tasted?

ooh, spicy but I love to taste them all!

Men in sunglasses!  Our mission is to grill this meat to the best taste! Nobody can stop us!

yes, we are being cooked happily for you guys!

yummy perilla leaves!

oops! fish face!

“I found your website through timeout just a couple of days ago, I love your website!”

The mat is mine! : )

“I can do anything for my lovely baby!”

” yes, I love this wrap and I can eat sliced raw garlic!”

They look similar! Don’t you think so?

cute people with cute puppies! Bo says, “I made your gamjatang recipe and it turned out really good!”
Thank you very much for the book! She is the author of the book “bravo your life”

My lovely readers!

HanYang man!

Samuel, Be red! lol

Su- Yun! You got lots of prizes in your green bag! Nice!

Check the background of the photo! The winner of people’s choice Kayshinn is biting something! Are they wooden chopsticks? : )

Who is the winners!

Winner is!

boxes of prizes

3rd place kimchi made by Misoon Burzlaff

The 2nd place kimchi made by Kristi

The people’s choice winning kimchi made by Kayshinn

The grand prize winning kimchi made by Alan Kwon!

“Yes, I am the kimchi king!”

hmm what is inside?

yeh yeh, I’m gonna drink tonight to use this dried pollack to make hangover soup!

“mom, I made it! You gotta pick me up because this box of prize is too heavy for me to carry”

Alan Kwon, Kayshinn, Joanne Kim O’Connor, Mi Soon Burzlaff, Kristi Sanster

“What is that, daddy?” “yeah, I won this bag of rice! We won’t be hungry anymore..” : )

“heh..as the king of kimchi, I’m picking raffle number. To be fair, I am digging and digging this box”

Hello everybody, do you know what is bachelor kimchi in Korean? If you know the answer, I will give you this bag, or a bottle of sesame oil! Open sesame! lol

At first I wasn’t going to get a permit because you only need one if you have more than 25 people at your picnic. I wasn’t sure how many people would come to the contest, and although the permit is only $25 I wanted to save some money. : )

But on Thursday I contacted the park office, and the park person told me I was too late to get a permit, because there was a waiting list of 40 people for the best spots! I couldn’t change the date, so I asked her what I should do. She told me to come in the next day and she would see what she could do. She said if my group is too big and I don’t have a permit, someone with a permit could call the police and make me leave. I couldn’t sleep all night.

Early morning Friday I went to Prospect Park and talked to the woman. She had 2 spots left, one with a BBQ pit and one without. Without hesitating I chose the one with the BBQ pit.

I gave her one of the Maangchi stickers I keep with me. This sticker has a picture of me with a pink wig from my egg plant side dish (gajinamul) video.

She recognized me from my sticker! She said: “I know you!”

Now, everything went smoothly. “Your permit will be mailed to you in 2 weeks.”
“What’s your name?” I asked. “Dignity”, she said. It didn’t sound like a name to me. So I asked again, “I’m sorry, what’s your name?” and she told me Dignity again. : )

Dignity and me

So I walked through the park to check out our spot. Prospect Park is so beautiful, I saw the lake, and geese and turtles.

Can you see the cute turtles?

This trip to Prospect Park was very fruitful, and I have new information about the Kimchi Contest! Check back to my original post to read the updates!

Yay! Korean food lovers! Since our last meetup, it has been almost 1 year!  It’s time for us to get together! I’m announcing my 3rd New York meetup with my readers today. This year, let’s make our meetup more exciting. How about a kimchi contest?

We’re going to choose a king of kimchi or a queen of kimchi! Bring your homemade kimchi to enter the contest, and I’m going to invite some kimchi connoisseurs as judges. Of course each of you will also vote. (Don’t vote for yourself. : ) )

I’ve been thinking and thinking about where to meet and I eventually decided to meet at Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York. I’ve visited the park 3 times to check and make sure we got a good spot.

We’re going to have lunch together with the kimchi you bring.

Wha wha? We eat only rice and kimchi?

Don’t worry! I’ll bring rice, meat, and fish for BBQ! That’s why I chose Prospect Park, it’s the only place where you can BBQ with many people in New York.

I’m very excited to meet all of you. I’m sure you’ll feel the same way.

Here’s some details on the schedule for that day. I’ll update it one more time right before June 26, so stay tuned please.

New York Kimchi Contest
Where: Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY
Our spot is behind Prospect Park Circle, see the map above for the exact location
When: Saturday June 26, 2010
Time: 11:00 am – 2: 00 pm
What to bring:

• Kimchi (a family or group of friends should bring 1 pound)
• Funny stories related to your cooking
• $5

You don’t need to enter the contest to join us, but it would be better if you did, and prizes are waiting :)

How to register:

Each person who wants to come has to fill out this form. Even though you and your family members or friends come together, each of you will have to fill out the form separately because that’s the only way to the count number of participants for my sponsors.

Schedule:

10:30 am -11:00 am: Registration
Be sure to sign up on my website and bring $5.00 exact change please. If you enter the kimchi contest, we will set up the table to display.

11:00 am -12:00 pm: Kimchi Contest Judging
3 judges will judge your kimchi and choose the kimchi king or queen (1st prize), 2nd prize, and 3rd prize. After the 3 judges finish judging all the kimchi, you’ll taste the kimchi and vote to choose a winner of the People’s Choice award.

For those who enter the contest:
Bring any type of homemade kimchi (1 pound) and please chop it up into small pieces so that everybody can taste your kimchi to vote. I’ll provide bowls to display the kimchi in, if you need them.

12:00 pm-1:20 pm: Lunch
Yay, while we are judging the kimchi contest, our sponsor will be grilling Korean beef BBQ. We’re all going to have a delicious BBQ lunch. oh, you can’t eat meat? Don’t worry, they will bring some fish, too!  During lunch, let’s get to know each other. Please don’t miss a good chance to talk to each other. All of you could make good friends because you have one thing in common! Korean food lovers!

1:30 pm-1: 50 pm: Announcing the winners
4 winners will be chosen. Let’s congratulate them! The prizes are boxes of Korean ingredients. :)
2 of my sponsors will be sending me boxes and boxes of ingredients, which will come to my house soon. Once the packages arrive, I will make prize packages for the winners. If I have more than enough, I will bring a surprise for all of you!

1:50 pm-2:00 pm: Cleanup
Let’s clean up the area all together and say good bye. You can exchange emails if you make friends there.

Our 3 sponsors:

A representative from each of our sponsors will appear on the event. Isn’t it cool?
HanYang Mart is supplying the BBQ lunch for all of us.

Sempio is providing prizes for all the winners. A representative from the company will be there with some sample products and a really unique Korean beverage that you probably never tried before.

Assi is also providing prizes for all the winners, as well as paying for the chair and table rental. Their representative will also come to the event to give us some samples of his products.

I’m very grateful for these 3 sponsors. They are very interested in encouraging all of you because you like Korean food, you make Korean food at home, and you spread Korean food by sharing your food with your friends and family.

Contest judges:

Orianne Cosentino (chef, culinary artist):

“As a lover of Korean food, I feel fortunate to have been chosen as a judge for Maangchi’s annual Kimchi Contest. I regularly make kimchi in the restaurant where I work as a chef for two years and have tasted kimchi from so many sources in NYC, both fresh made and jarred, commercially produced and homemade. I am familiar with the many different types of kimchi that exist in Korean cuisine and I love them all. I am also a big believer in the many health benefits that come with eating kimchi on a regular basis. There are three varieties in my refrigerator right now.”

Rudy Bednar (TV producer):

“I’ve been eating Kimchi everywhere. Korean restaurants in New York, New Jersey and in California. I had homemade Kimchi in Seoul, South Korea, and in Ullugdo, Jeju Island as well! I even had Kimchi in PyungYang, North Korea when I was there for work.
Of course, I eat Kimchi at home, too. I think I’ve developed the Kimchi-fied palate to judge the best Kimchi. Every Korean or Non Korean family has unique Kimchi recipes and I’m ready to try more Kimchi at the contest.
Wife and I always smile and buy Kimchi in unexpected places; markets in rural America or at out neighborhood deli. Maybe one day I’ll dig my way through the back yards of the Korean peninsula in search of ancient family recipes fermenting under the lawn.”

Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan (food writer, blogger, cookbook author)

“I’d be a good judge of Korean kimchi because I love spicy food — I’ve been eating it all my life — and, being married to a Korean-American, I’ve been eating a lot of it over the last 10 years! My mother in law makes fantastic kimchi!”

How to get there:

The closest subway is Fort Hamilton Parkway (F Train) (Google Maps directions).

When you get out of the Fort Hamilton subway, head towards Fort Hamilton Parkway.

Head along the Parkway, then go down this ramp.

Just walk a few minutes down this peaceful road.

Behind Park Circle is this pagoda. We will be in here if it rains. I hope not! : )  We will be where those people are having a picnic.

Here’s our spot. Looks nice! See you on June 26!

Keep checking for updates!