New York Kimchi Contest

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

By Maangchi

Register here: https://www.maangchi.com/kimchi-contest-registration

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.

June 17th Update:
Hi, everybody, the kimchi contest is coming soon!

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!”