The Korea Herald

Philippines Tourism Promotions Board gives away mangoes

TravelMay 4, 2012

The Korean branch of the Philippines Tourism Promotions Board is giving away a box of mangoes each this month to 20 people selected from a Facebook event. Participants should post a thank-you message to their friends and family on the Facebook page of the tourism board (www.facebook.com/phltourism) with photos. Ten people who received many “likes” by others and another 10 people randomly selected by the tourism board will be presented with a box of mangoes. The event runs throughl May 31 and the
San Juan’s walls are full of history

CultureMay 4, 2012

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico ― The walls around Old San Juan are tall and very imposing.They are as tall as 42 feet and as thick as 45 feet at the base, 2 feet at the top. The muralla or city wall features two walls of sandstone blocks, filled with sand, mortar, limestone and water.The walls served San Juan well, thwarting pirates and foreign invaders for hundreds of years. That includes the English, the Dutch and the Americans.Slaves began building them in 1630 and continued for 150 years. The walls f
A look at digital devices overuse

BooksMay 4, 2012

iDisorder: Understanding Our Obsession with Technology and Overcoming its Hold on UsBy Larry D. Rosen(Palgrave/Macmillan)No matter where we go ― to a restaurant, a movie, a public restroom, and yes, even a funeral ― people are seen clutching and using a slim device that allows them to do just about anything they can do from an Internet-enabled computer at home. Who hasn’t attended a so-called business meeting in which every person is staring at a MacBookPro and talking on a cellphone simultaneou
Fountain offers microcosm of America

BooksMay 4, 2012

Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime WalkBy Ben Fountain(Ecco)An embedded Fox News crew has filmed a bloody firefight between Bravo Squad, a 10-member unit of the American army, and Iraqi insurgents. Although suffering two casualties among its badly outnumbered unit, Bravo Squad prevails, thanks especially to the courage of Spc. Billy Lynn, a 19-year-old from a small Texas town.The TV footage has gone viral in the United States, Bravo Squad has been hailed as heroes, and Billy has been awarded the Silver
Alain Mabanckou’s wry novels, written in French, are finally being translated for U.S. audiences

BooksMay 4, 2012

In a UCLA classroom one day not long ago, Alain Mabanckou was teaching a course in post-colonial African fiction, which he instructs in his French mother tongue, one of several languages he speaks.With his easygoing yet focused manner, soccer player’s graceful body language and a way funkier fashion sense than the average college don, the 46-year-old Mabanckou kept his students’ attention, framing moral quandaries for them to consider and regaling them with technical explanations of an African a
American scholar publishes collection of her Korean poems

BooksMay 4, 2012

Theresa Hyun delves into the ordinary lives of Korean peopleImagine writing poetry in a foreign language, and translating it back into your mother tongue.That’s what American scholar Theresa Hyun has done. The French, English and Korean-speaking professor, who had lived in Seoul from the early 1980s to 1992, recently published her first bilingual collection of poems, titled “A Cup of Tea at P’anmunjom (DMZ).”“Mostly I wrote about the things that I experienced living in Korea,” Hyun told The Kore
Wine of the Week: 2001 R. Lopez de Heredia Vina Tondonia Rioja Reserva

Food&BeverageMay 4, 2012

Spain’s Rioja region produces some of the best red wines in the world. And most have a terrific price-quality ratio. That holds even for some of the most famous wines, like Lopez de Heredia’s Vina Tondonia Reserva Rioja. The 2001 is the current release from the family-run winery that dates back 131 years and three generations. The blend is 75 percent Tempranillo with 15 percent Garnacha, the rest made up of Graciano and Mazuelo grapes. Open a bottle a half hour or so before you want to drink it
Oiseon (stuffed cucumber)

Food&BeverageMay 4, 2012

Oiseon is a dish of cucumbers stuffed with beef, brown oak mushrooms, and egg white and yolk garnish. The cucumbers are slit and the filling tucked inside. They are then sprinkled with sweet vinegar sauce. It has a tantalizing sweet and sour taste and a beautiful color. This dish stimulates the appetite and is usually served as an appetizer.Ingredients● 1 cucumber, 1 cup water, 1 tbsp salt ● 30g beef, 2 sheets brown oak mushrooms ● seasoning sauce: 1 tsp soy sauce, 1 tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp minced gr
The magic of macarons

Food&BeverageMay 4, 2012

Ethereal to the tongue, bright and pleasing to the eye, the dainty Parisian pastries known as macarons are tiny bites of luxury.Made of little more than almonds, egg whites and sugar, often dyed to a bright, lacquer like sheen, the shells are tantalizingly crisp, with a slightly springy interior. Dissolving in the mouth, they give way to fillings of beguiling and delicious variety: ganache, buttercream or citrus- and whiskey-soaked concoctions dancing with complexity.All this decadence comes at
New batch of brews hail from U.S.

Food&BeverageMay 4, 2012

Tavalon, La Colombe Torrefaction, Think Coffee have landed in SeoulJust when you thought a new wave of coffee and brew stops from abroad could not possibly squeeze into Seoul’s already saturated turf, they did. If the West Coast ― i.e. Starbucks and The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf ― is largely credited with being the motherland of the first generation of overseas drink chains to help popularize the caffeinated brew, the new generation ― Tavalon, La Colombe Torrefaction and Think Coffee ― hails from
Vogue bans too-skinny models from its pages

FashionMay 4, 2012

Vogue magazine, perhaps the world's top arbiter of style, is making a statement about its own models: Too young and too thin is no longer in. (AP-Yonhap News)The 19 editors of Vogue magazines around the world made a pact to project the image of healthy models, according to a Conde Nast International announcement Thursday.They agreed to ``not knowingly work with models under the age of 16 or who ap
Seohyun of Girls’ Generation to promote U.N. Pavilion at Expo

PeopleMay 3, 2012

Seohyun, a member of Girls’ Generation, will serve as goodwill ambassador for the U.N. Pavilion at the 2012 Yeosu Expo, which will open in the southern port city of Yeosu, South Jeolla Province, on May 12.Seohyun, the youngest of the nine-member group, accepted the post because she supports the pavilion’s objective of promoting the importance of the world’s oceans and coasts, according to the pavilion’s secretariat Thursday.The appointment of Seohyun as goodwill ambassador was made at the end of
Study: Heavy teens have trouble managing diabetes

HealthMay 3, 2012

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― New research sends a stark warning to overweight teens: If you develop diabetes, you’ll have a very tough time keeping it under control.A major study, released Sunday, tested several ways to manage blood sugar in teens newly diagnosed with diabetes and found that nearly half of them failed within a few years and 1 in 5 suffered serious complications. The results spell trouble for a nation facing rising rates of “diabesity” - Type 2 diabetes brought on by obesity.The federally
Garlic may help kill food poisoning bacteria

HealthMay 3, 2012

Garlic can help prevent food poisoning, new research has found. Researchers at Washington State University in the United States said Wednesday that a compound in garlic is 100 times more effective than two popular antibiotics at eliminating one of the main causes of food poisoning, citing their latest laboratory test results. The finding suggests that the compound called “diallyl sulphide” easily penetrates and kills Campylobacter bacterial cells by combining with an enzyme containing sulfur and
Dutch ban takes aim at foreigners buying pot

HealthMay 3, 2012

AMSTERDAM (AP) ― This country of canals and tulips is also famous for “coffee shops” where joints and cappuccinos share the menu. Now, the Netherlands’ famed tolerance for drugs could be going up in smoke.A judge on Friday upheld a government plan to ban foreign tourists from buying marijuana by introducing a “weed pass” available only to Dutch citizens and permanent residents.The new regulation reins in one of the country’s most cherished symbols of tolerance ― its laissez-faire attitude toward