New Malden

New Malden is estimated to be the most densely populated Korean area outside of South Korea and the largest Korean community in Europe.

So whilst I was there visiting my friends who just moved to the area (neither of whom are Korean by the way) I went to a Korean restaurant for some tasty Kimchee stew.

Pop Goes the World

My friend and I decided to run our very own Club Night

It's going to be a bit like Salla that I visited a couple of times and that has since closed down.

We're going to play some: kwaito, azonto, reggaeton, eurovision, Kpop, Greek and Turkish pop, chalga and much more!!

It's going to be in Firefly bar in St Paul's on Friday 9th August 2013. Come along and party around the world with us.

Asian Movies Meetup Group - Christmas in August

The Asian Movies Meetup group hosted a free film night in the Roxy bar in Borough.

The bar itself has a cinema set up at the back with a mismatch of sofas, arm chairs, booths and seats to choose from.

The film shown was Christmas in August, a bitter-sweet Korean romance by director Hur Jin Ho.  I have to say that I found the film a little bit slow and uneventful, but overall it was a pleasant way to spend an evening.

 
The Asian Movies Meetup page is here: http://www.meetup.com/AsianMovies

Kim Beom at the Hayward Gallery

Kim Beom's exihition at the Hayward Gallery is one of the strangest I've seen.  I seem to recall that the installation below was the artist reciting a poem to a stone.

Another installation showed a group of tool sitting in a classroom watching a video of the bottom half of a teacher's face giving them a lecture on the nature of their tool existence.  All very odd.

Asadal

Asadal is a small Korean restaurant right next to Holborn station.  It's a very stylishly decorated place but the prices are reasonable.  We had some rice wine with our meal.  It was a brief visit so not much to report, but an enjoyable dinner nonetheless.

There are also some decorative dolls on the way to the toilets.  I like this mix of cool and kitch.

All Eyes on Korea

As part of the All Eyes on Korea summer festival the Saatchi Gallery is hosting Korean Eye, an exhibition bringing together work by lots of Korean artists.

I think this is by  Hong Seung Hee - the labelling was a bit confusing in this room

 Chair II by Jung Seung

 The Photosynthesis by You Myung Gyun

 The Structure of #1, #2, #3, #4 by Je Baak

 Above the Timberline by Lee Jiyen

Wherever you will go by Lee Jiyen

This piece of art is so overwhelming that I forgot to make a note of who it's by

BiBimBap

BiBimBap is a small, bright Korean restaurant in Soho that serve their tasty food still sizzling in the bowl.  I finally tried kimchee - a fermented vegetable dish.  It very nice and the whole dining experience was very quick (which was perfect for my afternoon of studying).

Lots of Polaroid photos of diners.

If you say the name BiBimBap and add a Bap and repeat it lots of times it sounds a bit like you are singing 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight.' And you can't ask for more than that from a restaurant.

International Art Fair

5) South Korea

The Waving Block and Tackle by Seung-Pyo Hong.

Seung-Pyo Hong had a solo exhibition in Bear Space gallery in Deptford back in 2010.

I got Seoul but I'm not a soldier

This is a little shop near the British museum selling South Korean, Japanese and Chinese products.