Some laughs

If this doesn't make you smile or laugh your seat off, you are a tough stoic person.



This is one of many, you need something to cheer you up (?) - go to youtube and search for 'Jo Kwon dance'. Jo Kwon is a member of a Korean boy band called 2AM and they sing songs which are predominantly ballads.

In this video, Jo (on your screen, left) is mimicking (or should I say exaggerating on purpose) the dance moves for the song 'GEE' by SNSD (Korean girl band).

Can I dub Jo Kwon as the dancing version of Mr Bean?? He obviously loves the attention but must give him credit as he is able to pull it off hilariously well and with a cool poker face (remaining oblivious to the ruckus he just caused)!

Here's another, same dance.

Cucumber banchan (Oninamul)

Banchan (also spelled panch'an) refers to side dishes of food served along with cooked rice in Korean cuisine.

Got this from Perpiplus cookbooks. A gem of recipe since its really quick and easy to make. And yes, it tastes pretty good and refreshing too.

Ingredients

4 cucumber, remove skin and sliced

1.5 tbsp coarse salt

1 spring onion, thinly sliced

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp Korean sesame oil

1.5 tbsp roasted sesame seed

1-2 tsp kocharu or Korean red pepper chili flakes (to taste)

Drop of soya sauce and Korean fish sauce (optional)

Method:

1. Soak cucumber slices in cold water and salt for 30 min. Reason for this is to keep texture of the cucumber crunchy.

2. In meantime, prepare sauce by mixing rest of the ingredients in separate bowl.

3. Rinse cucumber slices with fresh water and squeeze out excess water.

4. Mix properly cucumber and sauce, cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Note that mixture can be prepared at least a day ahead.

Bench note - If living in humid country, best to store kocharu in an air-tight container in the refridgerator as otherwise it may get mouldy.