June Tea Meet

We met at Lee Young Hee museum for our June meeting.  Lee Young Hee museum always welcomes us with her beauty and stunning color.  If you had not had the wonderful opportunity to see the museum yet, I recommend highly to go see the place.  It is the place where culture explodes with color and line.  It is a definate delight for the senses.  And unlike regular museums, I can actually purchase the beauties that are exhibited in the museum.  If you ever wondered who designed all those fabulous costumes in all Korean historical dramas, it is none other than our Madam Lee Young Hee. 

First we had a nice private select custom designed tea from a French tea shop located in Soho.  The tea was very, very fragrant and fruity.  The smell was extraordinarily colorful and went well with the museum.

Then we added some fresh parsley to the tea mix from the garden of Mrs. Gillham.  It is actually called minari in Korean and somewhat different from parsley, but it belongs in the same family group.  According to the most famous Korean herb book published during time of Josen dynasty, minari is the best plant for fighting cancer.  The taste was mildly intoxicating with the mixture of minari.

Then we tasted this years green tea from China.  Chinese green teas are not roasted so it has the taste of spring rain.  I could literally taste the humidity and freshness of the spring in the tea.

We had an opportunity to taste this year's green tea from Korea.  It is from a private tea garden located at a Buddhist temple at the bottom of Jiri mountain.  As such it does not have a label.  It is given out as gifts every spring.  Korean green teas are roasted and has a very distinctive taste.  It cannot be mistaken for Japanese or Chinese green tea.  The taste is thick, fresh, and savory.  

We compared this tea to the last year's green tea from Korea.  This was the green tea that won the taste award last year.  And it was still very flavorful, meditative and friendly.

For our August meeting, Bob and Wolhee invited us to spend an afternoon at their wonderful garden in Woodstock.  So in August we will have our garden tea party at Bob and Wolhee's place in Woodstock on August 13, at noon.  We will meet in front of Lee Young Hee Museum at 9:30 and leave together if you need a ride, or you can come directly.  You are welcome to bring food items for lunch.  I will bring teas from Korea.  See you there.

The happy faces of tea drinkers.  The director from Korean Cultural center joined us.

The original Hanbok by Lee Young Hee

Don't you think the original by Lee Young Hee is definately more stately than Herrera collection?  Her Hanbok is on sale at the museum at a really really low price.  Get them before they are gone!

Seeing the director of Korean cultural center reminded me our first meeting at the cultural center....  So here are some pics.

See you in August.



Korean Spring in NY

It has been raining alot in NY this spring.  The buds are out everywhere.  Covering the sky with fresh light green.  We had our May tea meeting at a Korean restaurant called, "Danji." 

Cooked by a master chef, Hooni Kim whose fame comes from the French restaurant Daniel, and the Japanese restaurant Masa.  The food was delicious.  However, the service left us with a bitter taste.  The restaurant is still in its infancy and obviously needs its staff to be trained properly.  Hope it improves soon.

This definately has been the spring of Korea in NY.  There is a PBS series being aired in NY called "Kimchi Chronicle," on Sundays.  Catch it!

Also Carolina Herrera had her NY runway spring collection of Hanbok "wannabe."  What do you think?  Do you like her interpretation better, or the original hanbok?

We are going back to Lee Young Hee museum for our June Tea meeting.  We get to see real Hanbok at the museum!  And these works of arts made by Lee Young Hee can actually be bought and be worn!  It will be held June 16, thursday, 6:30pm.  And we will taste the real spring of Korea.  This year's green is out and tempting our taste buds.  See you in June.