W Hotel, Austin Road, Hong Kong
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Moving Digital art by Jennifer Steinkamp, USA: “Rapunzel 9″ greets you at the reception. I absolutely LOVE this. I would call it ” Underwater creatures’ Fire works”. It’s very Avatar and Christopher Kane. Love Love Love and I want it!
6th floor Reception.
Lounge at night. I am never into trendy hotels. Or trendy wanna bes with lousy and loud pumping music and cheap decor and all. Especially when it’s a business trip. You just can’t rest. It’s too much. If you even hear all that noise rising to your room, then it’s the worst. But I must admit I really enjoyed staying at W HK on Austin road this trip. Quiet quiet rooms and well pulled off modern and quirky decors. It’s modern and fun in a nice way. And W HK can cook!!
Another great design I really dig. The lamps at the bar on the 6th floor. Illuminating Sting Rays? yeah I think so. It makes a beautiful scene either that is day or night!
20th floor elevator area. It’s a modern day “Alice in Wonderland”
Digital room number book. Built with lighting system indicating need cleaning or not to maids.
“Kitchen” entrance. Beautiful harbor view is impressive in the morning. And the food is excellent here at kitchen. It serves Breakfast, lunch and dinner buffet of fine international cuisine including fresh sashimi and huge selection of baked goodsAnd beautiful decor.
On going floor to ceiling big glass windows along the entire restaurant are absolutely beautiful. And it’s a different take on the view of HK. The Harbor view without the skyline of HK main island and I love it. Especially in the morning the industrial mega size boats look almost shrine and peaceful. It has edge vibe.
Loving the beautiful chairs. Deep red adds a great accent through out the floor.
The wonderful ” Kitchen”! Filled with all the delicious hearty food with comfortable style. It’s beautiful and Not intimidating. Fresh smoothie, juices in farm style bottles, a huge range of baked goods and Japanese and Chinese cuisine and so much more. I think the best thing about this Kitchen is the nice and open layout with a style that feels like you are in your good friend’s house who has a lovely lovely kitchen. It’s inviting and cozy. It’s relevant to today and I love it!
Wonderful Pastry Bar. Home made Jams, Honey, bread, bagels more more more…
The favorite part of the Kitchen: The Communal table with the fantastic Show case filled with stacks and stacks of plates, bowls and ceramic cats. Ahhh, It’s so great! The surreal beauty!
I love everything is being stacked in this kitchen. The luxury of having it all. The luxury of all that space you want and you fill it up! It’s so satisfying. I envy it.
For your next HK trip Check out and Check in at W HK on Austin Road!
La Vida Yucateca, Mexico
Filed Under Architecture, Culture, Fashion, Food, Merida, Mexico, Shops, Street, Travel | 1 Comment
We don’t know why we are so drawn into Mexico but we are drawn into Mexico and Mexico has been really the one country ( beside our home Italy) we keep exploring through repeated visits and researches. I guess it has something to do with unique culture that we are attracted to rather just beautiful beaches and cool drinks to go with… Anyway, our Christmas and New year’s trip has begun on 21st of December with landing on Cancun to get to our beloved home at our heart, Tulum! Relaxing two days first there… Hanging on the beach, visiting local friends to say hi, nice lunch at El Tabano and other usual little things we love to do and always couple new adventures we stumble into at Tulum. Low key and just magical… but then our journey really kicked off by taking off to Merida to explore the city and it’s color and culture and a few amazing historical haciendas to spend our Christmas. Then we did little hops of chenotes and other spots on a way back to Tulum on the road to Coba. Cenote Il-Kil near Chichen Itza to Valladolid to Tulum to Akumal to Tulum again discovering new favorite spots and unbelievable mother nature and maybe couple paradises so called if it is really ever exists… It feels like we have done tons of things yet we know we have so much more we can explore here in Yucatan along the Mexican Gulf or other towns as Celestun, Uxumal, Progreso and many more. Many towns and villages have similarities yet also each has it’s own character and architectural setting along it’s own history. So each visit is always somewhat unique. So far all the people we met have been so kind and friendly to us. We feel welcomed here. Now we have tasted the top of the iceberg of Mexican culture through the last few years, now I feel we definitely had opened up a can of worm to finish it all up . The rest of the iceberg. Traveling allows us to dream, explore, taste, open up our brain, heart and soul. It makes us un-judge or teach not to judge yet also it makes us to get savvier and savvier to navigate and get to new right exciting things in much creative way. We are passionate about it. It’s inspiring and fun to discover and learn. And it definitely helps us to wear our own distinctive color and style.
We had come across many great moments during our trip and here I like to share the essence of Yucateca culture of all!
Christmas eve at Square, Parque de Santa Lucia, Merida: Dancers getting ready to perform traditional Yucatan dance. Elaborate hair pieces, make up and dressing is all quite beautiful. It’s a small and intimate lovely park. And It totally got me all excite! This was the exact kind of situation I wanted to stumble into! The tradition.
No they are not your typical Mariachi. The traditional songs they sang were quite classy and sort of ” Classic” like.
Christmas Mesa at Cathedral, Merida : I didn’t understand 80% of the mesa, but it didn’t matter to me. We are not even all that religious but it was beautiful to be in the Cathedral of Merida with all the locals to spend the night of Christmas. The quire was humble yet gorgeously beautiful. It nurtured our souls. We prayed for everyone we know and we love. Yes including you. Our life and lives of our family, friends, my people at work, Emiliano’s clients. Everyone. It was fulfilling.
Plaza Grande: stroll after the Mesa on Christmas night. The main square where the Cathedral is. All the buildings were dolled with Christmas lights. Below lovely streets by night in Merida.
Beloved book shop by locals and visitors: Amate Books. A great book shop! Merida.
An amazing Antique shop! I’ll say this shop is quite compatible to the “Olde good thing” in NY. Amazing antique pieces and especially the religious statues and objects are excellent. Circa 1913 statue below. Naive and humble expression is what I learnt about most of folk art and religious figures of Yucatan or it could be through out the Mexico. I also like to blog about Ex Voto: the religious folk art, panel painting with a short story to go with mostly thanking for small everyday life event as we came across through books and visiting antique shops during this trip. They are quite fascinating.
Ahhh, what a beautiful face she has! So wanted to wrap her up to bring with us back home then this shop only accepts cash only. We were middle of nowhere to get close to any bank machine. A good excuse to search more sort of things. And honestly, we felt we needed to learn more about these religious figures before we make any silly purchase.
Selvaged old tiles from colonial homes and haciendas. Quite pretty they are… Below, me standing on the elaborate flooring of the colonial home where we stayed at.
Typical street signs. Street is called “Calle” and the most of street does go by the numbers such as : My home is on Calle 66 between Calle 45 and 47.
Gael in front of our colonial home base on Calle 66. Merida. It gets chilly by night and hot during the day.
The main market in Merida. It was quite intense experience for us to go through this market. First of all, it’s monstrously big. And it was the Christmas eve or what..! The market was absolutely packed. And the way everything is laid out, presented, accepted and lived by the people in Merida. It’s cruelly raw and in your face. We were bit shocked. But then we talked to ourselves… You know what? That’s how human live.
Can you just smell what we are smelling here? Live turkeys walk around next to the taco station. It’s crazy and amazing. Moving on to Fish market. Honestly we have skipped the meat area. We have seen them all at Valladolid market. It gets quite intense. Chunk of half of the cow and everything else hanging by the hooks and blood dripping and all… But we were happy to find the fish section here which Valladolid market didn’t have one. Actually seafood were quite fresh. We got half a dozen blue crab and some shrimps to make Christmas dinner before we attended the Mesa at the Cathedral.
I didn’t write a separate blog about our experience at “Hacienda Ochil“;. But here I like to share a few photos of traditional Yucateca food we had at the hacienda. It was hearty and delicious at very reasonable price. Here the chopped fresh garnish for any Yucateca dishes: cilantro, white onion, red onion and radish. Below, Salsa tomate ( no it’s not spicy) and sauteed red onions ( really yummy and sweet)
Lunch at Hacienda Ochil. A casual buffet style here yet the quality is 4 star restaurant with friendly service. And it’s traditional cuisine you want to experience in one of the most beautiful setting.
Hard boiled turkey egg with turkey meatball in a black sauce. ( actually the texture of the eat ball was bit grainy and powdery like. I did not care for it but I tried at least), pork, osso bucco, chicken, rice, sauteed onion all other usual. But really hearty and authentic. Not your double fried beans you know!
Fried tortilla dough with pork meat inside.
The best tortilla that we ever had tasted. EVER! Hand made with Yucateca love! Warm, fresh aroma of corn and just perfect subtle bite to it. Not papery or chewy at all. The perfection. I usually don’t care for any tortilla, so this experience made me pretty much stop eating any other kinds. Snub!
OK, I got it all. Espresso, a shot of Tequila and Sangrita ( A perfect Tequila chaser. a shot of tomato juice and chili, It’s delicious. It tastes sort of like Bloody Mary but san alcohol). The Sangrita goes after the tequila. And the desert plate ranging Dried papaya with queso ( typical and traditional), Pan dulce ( kind of sugared french toast) and of course, flan. Take a better look at Sangrita!
Main Entrance to Hacienda Ochil: about 1o mt car ride from Hacienda Yaxcopoil
Not all Haciendas are this rustic. But we thought it was one good way to dream about how it would have been in it’s shining era. There are many beautiful haciendas available to rent out by the room or even the entire property renovated in fanciest way. They are drop dead gorgeous yet who knows how it had changed from the original condition and details.
The Ceiba tree of Mayan: The largest tree of the Central America beloved by Bats and Harpie eagles. They are gorgeous!
It’s so great to know where things come from. When we stopped by at the local bakery shop after the visit to Ochil and saw those bread, it all made sense. The Ceiba bread!! and below the turtle…
Yes , they are Churros!!!. Hot, Crispy and Swweeeet!! You can really taste the potato. The Churro man told me he uses red potato flower.
An awesome vintage photo we found at the small flea market at Parque de Santa Lucia on Sunday, Merida. This must have been carneballe back in the days somewhere in Mexico. Fantastic costumes and make ups!
I had bit of hard time ot pick out a few photos here out of millions of pictures from millions of moments at Yucatan.
The last picture above will be an anecdote of our new interest in "Ex Voto", especially in religious small paintings done by everyday people. They are fun, naive, shocking and amazing.
Hope you got to taste little bit of it. If you have any question and need more info about specific thing, drop me an email, I can help you.
Go explore!!
Hacienda Yaxcopoil, Merida, Mexico
Filed Under Architecture, Merida, Mexico, Travel | 3 Comments
Hacienda Yaxcopoil.
One of the main interest for us to explore Merida was to visit these rich and historic Haciendas in and near Merida. ( thanks to Emi’s creative research as always..!) Hacienda and museum Yaxcopoil, the 17th century Plantation house is located 13kms from Merida and it’s magnificent despite how much it has run down by today. It was a bit cloudy day, so actually it was perfect for us to do a bit of field trip by car and we planned to visit also one more hacienda Ochil which is located very close to Yaxcopoil. After an early breakfast of “pan tostatda and nutella (always our favorita!) at our lovely colonial home with beautiful tiled floor we rented during the stay at Merida, now we are hitting the road to Yaxcopoil!
The exterior of much weathered and washed hacienda Yaxcopoil (it means the place of the green Alamo trees) over last 4 centuries…
Hacienda Yaxcopoil was once considered as one of the most important rural estate in the Yucatan due to its size and magnificence. It covered about 22,000 acres of land at the time of its greatest splendor, operating first as a cattle ranch then later as a henequen plantation ( Agave platation; mainly seperated fibers from agave plants to make ropes). It’s hard to believe the remained hacienda today is only less than 3% of it’s original size due to continuous political, social and economic changes. It’s very sad. I can’t even imagine how rich the hacienda would have been at it’s best period!
Beautiful interior of Casa Principal, the main building contains large lounges and drawing rooms with original European furnitures from 19th century, spacious corridors with high ceilings (about 30 feet at least!!!) and extensive gardens with varieties vegetation in colors and species… The Casa Principal has 5 rooms that stretch out to both east and west in symmetry with most amazing colorful tile work that changes from room to room. Here check out all 5 different tile work.
The center room.: the reception room is presided over by two oil paintings showing Don Donaciano Garcia Rejon and his wife Dona Monica Galera, who acquired the hacienda in 1864.
The first room off the center one in west wing.
The last room in the west wing.
Old photos and paintings of residents at Yaxcopoil are still hung from room to room. Either that is power of Government or a rich and considering private investor, we really hope things will remain and preserved in safe ways. The hacienda’s decaying is being stopped by special treatment using some sort of mixture with honey to allow the visitors to experience the authentic charm of the haciendas and feel the echos of old history yet also it breaks my heart to think that all of this could be gone in any time or further decay and get destroyed… The hacienda is up for sale to public at this moment.
The transfer of tile work from the center room to the first room of the east wing.
The second room into the east wing. The beautiful tiled floor continues and changes. As the tiles feel more as marble like texture, matt yet colorful but not shiny and slippery as ones in new days. Contrast to today’s modernism in less and minimal approach to the beauty, these old hacienda’s intricate tiled floor works as warm and more is more kind of attitude. I absolutely love the patterns and colors. They are done in immaculate taste.
The terrace right outside of the east wing toward the back of the hacienda. The view from here to the open court yard in between the casa principal and the hall, and the entire site of historic plantation field where Machine house is located is quite amazing.
Not sure how popular this hacienda is during this time period, but honestly we only had handful of visitors the day we visited. Above is Senor, Mario who was born in the Yaxcopoil Hacienda and raised and worked for all his life at the hacienda. He was sent to school right in front of the hacienda and had one doctor for all his life also right in front of the hacienda. Senor Mario gave us priceless private tour of the entire remaining site . Senor Mario had countless stories and memories to tell us with such a pride and nostalgia. I mean Yaxcopoil Is his life and himself. He’s 67 years old today.
Maybe one of our favorite rooms at Yaxcopoil hacienda. The ‘ Hall’ that turned into a small museum of Yucatan potteries and objects. The beautiful flooring again and rustic bowls and hefty stone grinders are quite fabulous here.
Here the Maya Room displays numerous pieces of ancient potteries and other archaeological relics of the ” Classic Period” ( A.D.250-900) found in the Mayan ruins of Yaxcopoil.
Once it was a cattle farm that bred 2000 cows, the Hacienda now has 2 horses outside of east wing of the casa principal. They are peaceful…
We follow the trail of senor Mario on his special private tour for us. Walking through the garden of the Hacienda. He points out impressive water system for the entire hacienda including US made water pump that still works for today .
Collected water by the water pump from the well underneath will be collected here and get to distribute to entire hacienda through stone water way that is built all the way around the property. It’s a huge system if you think then the hacienda was covering 22 ,000 acres of land and fed 2000 cows and other thousands of workers.
The Machine House: Casa de Maquena…
Ahhh it has been so run down… missing a few walls and all. But also it’s very beautiful. Senor Mario had specially opened up the engine room for us to see (actually I was impressed that this room was quite well maintained). The henequen (agave) shredding machines that were used to render fibers from the henequen plant is actually sitting outside from the engine room. The engine was used upto 1984, when the production of henequen fiber has ended… It was more than a century of operation.
The 100 HP German Diesel motor.
This old photo well represent how rich and prominent work that Yaxcopoil has done at it’s best time.
The Chapel of hacienda.
Now..It’s the end of our 2 hour tour with Senor Mario… What a great man with a pride of the hacienda and the life he had in and for. It naturally came to our emotions, appreciation, broken hearts and uncertainty of the future of this hacienda, Yaxcopoil. We all broke down to tears…
Senor Mario. Thank you so much again for your generous time and stories that you shared with us.
This one single visit to the Hacienda Yaxcopoil made this entire trip worth and more. Sipping mixed cocktails and munching on chips on the beach just can’t beat this kind of experience. It’s nice but it’s not enough. It enriched our little lives that much more with this one visit. Our better understanding of culture of Mexico. It completely satisfied our hunger to taste what a great authentic Hacienda meant. Also we know where to take this learning and how to apply for our new future trips with Gael to experience the ” Real” things.
I am so tired of lousily embellished insignificant commercial uneducated pretentious Bourgeoisie of this modern days. It’s everywhere and it pollutes our mind. You know what I mean!!!!!
I believe a visit to a few prominent haciendas is important to understand the past rich history of Yucatan. The hacienda represents 3 great periods in the Yucatan Peninsula: the pre-Columbian period, the Spanish Colonial period and the boom years of henequen cultivation during the late 19th and early 20th century. While many haciendas have been destroyed or allowed to fall into ruin or in a contrary, they have been completely renovated in great deal of commercial way to be used as high end hotels. But Hacienda Yaxcopoil has been preserved to stop the time.
If you are visiting Merida, this is one must check out. Step back into its history!
Streets of Merida: Facades of Colonial Homes!
Filed Under Architecture, Merida, Mexico, Street, Travel | 1 Comment
Typical Colonial residential and commercial homes of Merida, Mexico
It’s day 3 now since we have arrived in Merida, the 470 years old cultural Capital of Yucatan Peninsula ( 35Km from the Mexican gulf and 350Km from Tulum, Riviera Maya) to spend our Christmas, and we have taken million pics already and have so much to talk about. Colorful colonial homes despite once the city was nick named as ” the white city”, absolutely amazing grand scheme Haciendas in and out of Merida we had visited today and quite intense experience at super lively open markets, stumbling into traditional Yucateca singing and dancing in beautiful costumes at the piazza, our proper attending a Mesa at the Cathedral on Christmas eve… And, I thought of starting our stories with quick sketch of beautiful, much broken yet carrying elaborate metal work and washed in both bright and faded colors Colonial homes where people of Merida live. The weather has been perfect around 75 degree F, not too hot or not too cold, so it has been really great for us to stroll poking our heads around this city of 1million people ranked at 12th of the most populous Mexican Metropolitan areas. I have not been in Havana in Cuba, but I would imagine both cities may share some sort of similar vibe as far as that run down beauty in this rustic yet vibrant colors. And also the old mobiles… ( The beetle is the far #1 car people ride here in Merida)
Here come and stroll with us to enjoy many facades of colonial homes of Merida!
The city offers plenty of inspirations in colors and patterns everywhere, especially when you get inside of any colonial homes. There is also great deal of Mexican culture you can’t taste in areas as Cancun. It’s very busy yet also tranquil at the same time. People are nice in Merida. You will see a huge high and low of the rich and the poor. The shocking rawness and the reality of people’s lives at the open markets vividly contrasts with any sort of technology here in the city. This city makes you think about everything we have and don’t have. It’s one interesting place where real people live.
It’s Merida!
Autumn in New York : Patrick Dougherty’s Natural History.
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Japan Garden at Brooklyn Botanical Garden: I totally had Monet moment here…! All the beautiful leaves…
Ahhh, It was a beautiful sunny autumn day to stroll around Brooklyn. We had visited Brooklyn Botanical garden to check out an artist, Patrick Dougherty and his work, “Natural History“: a first site specific art project that was done for Brooklyn Botanical Garden for garden’s 100 year anniversary, an amazing stick work that Dougherty had done for 3 weeks time period back in August this year. It’s a beautiful work and I’m just about to share some pics and my thoughts with you, but also please enjoy the peak of beautiful autumn in right here in Brooklyn, NY! It is almost a privilege to be able to see seasonal changes of the mother nature around us in a big city like NY. Gorgeous Autumn light and colors…
Patrick Dougherty’s woven-wood sculpture in honor of Brooklyn Botanical garden’s centennial.
The woody materials come from Ocean Breeze Park on Staten Island. The harvest site was chosen of garden’s director of Science because of its proximity to the Garden and it’s large population of nonnative willow, which is designated an invasive species in New York State. The exhibition will run for a full year.
Weaving, snagging and flexing sticks into nest-like architectural forms evoke themes of shelter, habitat and sustainability. Created of organic matter, Dougherty’s works have a natural life cycle that changes over the time as the sticks settle and decay, eventually returning to the earth where they came from…
The sculpture gives you endless possibilities of new shapes and angles. Honestly, I felt like I could stay at the site forever. It was hard to leave. Look up, look down, go in, come out, follow the surface in circle… I kept feeling like my hair will start swirling with curved sticks. I can’t pinpoint out what exactly it is but it almost gave me a bit of butterflies in my stomach. I felt like I was a little kid and envied and imagined what if I had such a thing in our massive garden….
Gael mingled with bunch of excite kids for a while… If you only had a furry costume on, it could instantly turn into “Where the wild things are…”
Here we have a book purchased at Storm King Art Center: ” Natural Architecture“, The cover work is by Patrick Dougherty.
The Artist above and more shots from the Garden…
Get out there and Embrace this beautiful Autumn!
Back to Heyri Art Valley, Korea: It’s family time!
Filed Under Architecture, Art, Book, Design, Family, Food, Seoul/Korea, Shops, Travel | 1 Comment
This trip is coming to an end and actually I am not feeling so great, so staying at Aunt’s home for a day with family feels priceless. Aunt and uncle have been living in Heyri Art Valley now for a few years and I think that is so great and am very happy for them to have such a beautiful living space in this artistic community sharing all the creative thoughts and life style. So excite to have really hearty good home food after the 2 weeks of trip on the road!!
A fine artist ( oil painting and pottery), story teller, farmer, amazing organic home cook and my aunt chopping and cooking. These leaves( Sorry, I do not recall what this was at all! Aunt had used maybe good 10 different kind of herbs and some kind of leaves from her garden to cook with) are going into her steamed rice with shitake mushrooms.
Sauteed home grown squash: Cut them in chunks and start them with olive oil in a hot wok, garlic, fresh red chili chunks, salt cured baby shrimps… And Mom helping!
Oven broiled herring; Aunt poured over soy sauce with chopped green scallion right before serving it and below is quickly blenched calamaris on the bed of fresh baby sesame leaves and mixed green from aunt’s garden. You dip them in the vinegary chili sauce. Delicious!
Dinner table is coming together! Sliced cucumber dressed in chili paste and vinegar, baby radish kim chi, mountain vegies steamed and dressed in sesame seeds, garlic, onion, olive oil…
Yeah, dinner is on the table! Steamed vegie rice, Kim chi soup, calamari, more kim chi Broiled herring, steamed squash leaves for ” ssam: wrap”, and many more. And a glass of red… Happy Happy! Cousin Yoonhee on the left and her hubby, Sanghun back in the kitchen area. That was the most amazing Korean food in a long time! We chatted, laughed and ate again and again. It was so nice to have everyone together in one place and enjoyed each others…!
The next morning after another big morning meal ( ha!), Aunt, Mom and I went out for a stroll around the Art Valley. There were quite a few exhibitions including a famous Korean singer, Jo Young Nam’s Solo exhibition at ” Hangil Gallery” right by the Aunt’s place.
These plastic pieces with design are called ” Wha-To”: pretty much Korean ‘Cards”, like Poker in a sense. The artist had used wha-to in such a clever way. Wha-To is such a gamble that is beloved by entire nation for a longest time and also a national issue since people over do this down to loose their homes and family. Some people get so addict to this… like any other gambles out there.
Oh The Artist loves, the poet ‘ Lee Sang’..!
And again, the whole culture of architecture in Heyri Art Valley is quite innovative. Every building in the valley needs to be consist of using Metal, Glass, Wood , Rocks and Concrete as main materials with no pointy roof and painted exterior. It sounds bit limiting yet also it harmonizes the valley as a whole and also I believe it pushes the architects to be creative in different area such as shape, light and space.
The ” Book House”, a book store above the Hangil Gallery.
Underground level of Moa Gallery is just as bright as or even brighter than any spaces on the ground level. Smart usage of minimum amount of glass panel allows to have maxim effect of enough natural light for the space.
Outside of “Ssamji” galley and below: the stair case to the gallery space.
4 very different Rooms to crash for rent with organic cooking classes and a small roof garden growing greens then 2 gallery spaces: all with peaceful hearty and artsy farming and nature in mind. It’s called ” Field Art School” ( Non Baat Art School). They are not just fully opened yet. The rooms are available for rent already though. Below, the cooking class schedule.
The cooking class room and dining room.
The outdoor lounge: a part of lobby/cafe’ they are building. We have the same lamp in our kitchen!
Cool outdoor passage way. The natural wall-field I like to call it. Love it!
The roof top green garden.
One of the 4 room to rent. Each room is completely different in sizes and layouts. 4 different artists were hired to design each room.
Above and below: 2 gallery spaces and Mom and Aunt…
By the way, I picked out this book ” Seoul, have you ever been places like this? 100 spots you want to check out!” at Hangil Book House. (Aunt’s treat) This book excites me so much!! Beautiful pics and interesting places!
It’s so interesting to me to see all these great movement and ideas at Heyri. Ideas to be closer to the nature in style and a peace in your mind, I feel everything here feels modern yet peaceful but not trendy or fast. Maybe forward and ahead but not fast.
Hopefully Heyri Art Valley will be always the leader of the pack showcasing what you can do with your finance and ideas. A forward thinking that is good for your body and soul!
VivA, HeYri!!!!!
Strolling Book Chon Han-Ok Village, Seoul
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Book Chon Han-Ok ( Traditional Korean Homes with pagoda roofs with open living room and typically a court yard in the center) Village is just next to Sam Chung Dong where houses traditional Korean homes since the early 30’s. Especially the area falls in the postal code ” 30″ is where you want to check out. Walking around area ” 30″ completely reminded me of my home back in Brooklyn, Clinton Hill and our own home, a brown stone house of 150 years old. Regardless the cultural back ground, people’s mind to preserve and protect things are about the same. Cynthia and I had spotted a couple Han Ok been getting taken care of while we strolled the beautiful hilly Book Chon Village.
Watch this video to see how Han Ok is built and it’s typical interior and exterior details. And if you are interested in staying at Han Ok style guest house in this area in Seoul, please check out this site I had found. It looks quite lovely. www.seoul110.com
The real charm of Book Chon Village to me is actually the mix of old and new. I am loving the juxtapose of almost 100 years old traditional homes real people living in and many small galleries showing mostly contemporary fine arts through out the area tucked in between small boutiques and restaurants. This nice contrast makes this homes real and relevant to today’s modern life I believe.
Subodh Gupta Exhibition at Arario Gallery in So Ghuk Dong ( a little area that connects with Sam Chung dong and Book Chon Han-Ok village) . I totally remember seeing Gupta’s work and his published book at Venice Art Bienalle last summer! I only have couple pictures here but Gupta had done a series of larger than life scaled sculpture work out of white marbles for his debut at Seoul for the first time. Below shows the roar of the ocean covered in oil.
A beautiful installation by artist Kim So Yyun. I find them quite beautiful yet also bit sad. I can’t pin point it out. Is it a little one trying to fish something from the small hole out of stack of construction bricks…? Is the artist trying to say kids living in this modern day society lacking real thing..? For more details, Check out the website, www.suncontemporary.com
And to finish up, the under passage way near this area below. Quite modern, isn’t it?
Sam Chung Dong, Book Chon village and So Ghuck Dong all together is a great small area you want to check out if you are ever in Seoul. It’s a short cut to find out where Korea is from and heading to in such a diverse way. Taste hearty and delicious traditional Korean food to most amazing authentic coffee shops that make Italians shy then tasty nostalgic old street snacks in the most humble manners to lavish historical emperor’s cuisine then experience the Korea’s contemporary art scene today.
Drop me an e-mail if you need any more info, I’m glad to provide! Visit Seoul, It’s a fascinating city!
Apgujung-dong & Chungdam-dong: Seoul
Filed Under Architecture, Design, Fashion, Food, Restaurant, Seoul/Korea, Shops, Street, Travel | 1 Comment
Galleria Department Store, Apgujung-Dong, Seoul : Filled with Korean designers and also international designers as Louis Vuitton and all. The Facade covered with giant metal disks are impressive.
Paris to Tokyo to Seoul. It’s getting into week 2 now and this is our last stop for this trip and we are excite to learn about the city. Personally I only started exploring Seoul since the late last year, and it has been pleasant surprise and eye opening for me to re discover my home city where I was born, and I must say it has been hell out of good time and much inspiration I get every time I’m in Seoul, so I am only thankful that I get to do this quite often.
Apgujung-dong was already trendy and popular area then ( south side of Han River since the mid 80’s) to all the hipsters, teen agers and beautiful good looking people chasing the newest trend in fashion and food culture. I still hear the Apgujung-dong is quite popular. Is it the most inspiring? I’ll say ” No” to that but if you ever visit Seoul, You want to check it out. There is a trendy street called ‘ Rodeo’ after the famous fashion street in L.A and there are ton of cafes and bars for entertaining.
Korean peeps looove coffee. And every place me and Cynthia dropped by were delicious. There’s a big chain” Coffee Bean” from L.A and also “Star Bucks” as well but also there are million places of independent coffee shops with all the charm and great ideas.
Then we had stopped for a lunch at ” Gaeh Wa Ok” in this area. Concierge at Park Hyatt in Seoul had suggested for their clean and hearty traditional Korean food. I’m already liking the store front. A traditional Pine on the side and simple wood and iron decor is quite chick and beautiful. ( It’s located right off the Rodeo Street)
White cloth covered chairs become the focal point of this restaurant. Simple and serene wall almost feels like a gallery space.
The menu.
While waiting for the food, a bottle of water and a brass bowl containing a humble steamed corn, sweet potato and garlic is served. The table looks like props arranged for a painter to start his still. And typical hot towels for the customers to refresh before their meal.
Clear Dikon ( radish) kimchi . Not spicy at all. Got clean and refreshing taste. Miso paste to dip fresh cucumber sticks and loose cabbage wraps. Miso paste also works as touch of garnish for any kind of wraps.
Restaurants in Korea love to slice things on the table. It’s typical to see waiters using kitchen scissors to do so. This applies to cut noodles, BBQ meat or any other things on the table.
Now our ” Bossam” is ready. Bossam was a treat for the family and a good excuse for Dads to go through a bottle of Soju when moms prepare for ” Kim Jang” : a tradition of big quantity Kim Chi making for long and cold Korean winter. Kim Jang was a good source to take fresh vegetable to survive cold winter especially back in the days where there wasn’t much of winter farming. Clockwise from the left top corner:Filling for Kim Chi with chilli, garlic, salt and other spices before it gets fermented. Pretty much left over from Kim Jang. A stack of salt pickled Korean cabbage ( all cabbages prepared this way before the filling is filled to make Kim Chi), Regular Kimchi with Sesame oil, a bowl of salt cured baby shrimp ( a garnish to add on to Bossam) and finally, the main guy, steamed Pork Belly. How do you eat it? Take a piece of Salt picked cabbage, then a pice of meat, then bit of everything else all stacked up and a big bite out of it. It’s delicious! I believe Momofuku in NY is famous for this and also many restaurants in Korean Town serves this.
This is Soon Dae: kind of Korean sausage with clear noodles in. Steam and sliced and dip it in the simple rock salt with chili flakes or this restaurant also served it with Soy dip with bits of Scallion. Yum!
This restaurant is clean and simple with delicious hearty food! We had very much enjoyed the meal. Here for more info, www.gaewhaok.com
After a delicious lunch, Cythia And I headed out to Chungdam -Dong which is located right next to Apgujung-dong. Chungdam- dong is a quite fancy and rich area of Seoul with expensive residential homes and both international and Korean high end boutiques.
A leather bags and accessories with silver jeweleries. A cool building.
I find this last shop, “Boon The Shop” as an ultimate high end and most beautiful store in Seoul. Apart from architectural beauty, We saw may be the most complete and well edited selection of Marni, Jason Wu, Balenciaga and everything else out of all 3 cities we had visited ( Paris, Tokyo and Seoul). By the way, I really liked the Jason Wu for TSE line…!
It’s exciting to see how Seoul is changing and developing. Seoul is moving forward yet keeping beautiful traditions with modern day twist. A good and tasteful twist. I like it. People go back and see where we had come from and are making the best out of it. Especially if you are an architect, you should really check out Seoul. A lot of interesting things are happening here in Seoul now!
Boon the Shop Address: Gang nam Gu 89-3 tel 542-8006, www.boontheshop.com
Louise Goldin: Paper Dress
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Where We all can breath: Storm King Art Center, Hudson Valley.
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Above and Below photos: Alexander Calder The Arch, 1975, Storm King Art Center
Emi has been talking about us visiting Storm King Art Center for a while now and We finally did during this gorgeous 3 day Labor day weekend. ( Thank you for the most amazing weather!) About little over one hour car ride from NYC , Storm King Art center is located on beautiful Hudson Valley of New York State. Impressive 500 acre of this artsy land is masterfully landscaped with the most natural nature in mind and proudly showcases more than 100 prominent larger than life scale sculptures of Serra, Carder, Noguchi, Goldsworthy and other numerous artists from 1960s to now including a few sight specific master pieces as Noguchi’s MomoTaro and Goldsworthy’s Storm King Wall. The park is sectioned ( if you ever notice it) by main 4 areas : North Woods, Museum Hill, Meadows and South Fields, and I just can see how this park will turn into a each seasonal beauty and can’t wait to come back for the peak of Autumn and for the park that’s beautifully covered by snow in winter. There are little lakes, amazingly open and free beautiful meadows and hill top of Museum site is just breathtaking and also serene. We felt in love with Storm King Art Center and are supporting this amazing park by having become members of the Art Center: We got a family membership for all 3 of us at only $50.00 for an entire year. Unlimited visits throughout the year, invitations to special events and specially guided 1 winter tour and other benefits… ( I highly recommend it!)
Here Enjoy a few pics out of over 100 post-Word War II sculptures. Here’s my favorite quote from the center’s walking guide: ”At Storm King, exhibition space is defined by earth and sky”. And it is exactly what it is.
From the top: Beautiful old Cattle farm time then passage roads, Nevelson, Mark di Suvero, Richard Serra, Alexander Liberman.
Here’s the Museum/visitor center of the Art center. The house was built back in 1955. The first floor has a small book shop and the ground floor main room with a beautiful view to the outside park rotates and runs various exhibitions throughout the year.
Totally true…!
The model of the Art center at Museum in the main room on the ground floor.
Calder’s Five Swords. 1976. The model, a pic from the one of passed winter and this weekend. By the way check out my past blog about Calder.
A view outside of the museum. These columns are Not sculptures actually. These were found and saved by the founder of the Art Center.
And then, there is Andy Goldsworthy. One of our favorite artist who explores and works with Nature in most clever and respectful way. We have been following him over 10 years now (thanks to Miriam then my big boss). I remember going to see ” Rivers and Tides”, a documentary film of Andy Goldsworthy’s work and life came out then. I think it was at IFC film center… AMAZING…. Anyway the letter above is the letter from Goldsworthy writing about his possibility of work, “Storm King Wall” the famous site specific project and love for the Art center ( 1995).
Check out some Youtube clips of Storm King Wall and his other works. There are millions of Clips of his work on youtube. And you must Check out Goldsworthy’s film, ” Rivers and Tides”
Ursula Von Rydingsvard’s wood sculpture right outside the museum. Quite intriguing.
The Viewing Scope by Alison Shotz. Right by the Museum. I find this scope extremely beautiful. Cold to touch, sleek, feels much high tech yet somehow this scope carries futuristic serenity. Love it!
Grace Knowlton, Spheres. Awesome.
3 of us on a tram: you can get an initial overview of the center by choosing to get on this free tram. I thought this was a relaxing way to start the park and get to see some of main pieces with short yet efficient guide. Then you can walk around and get lost, take pics, hike, take a nap or do whatever you wish to do. You can also rent bicycles here. Don’t forget you have 500 acres to cover!
I only shared a fraction of what you can see and feel here. It’s a truly amazing place. Go and go back again and again and again…!
lOve Art.!!