15th Newsletter

Hello there

This is your A.thentic Jong Hee

And this is my 15th Newsletter for you.

How are you today? How have you been? 💜

It’s been a while since I sent you the previous newsletter with the love story for piano I’m writing. I hope you enjoyed it.

Well, since this month, June, started, I have been so busy working on several projects simultaneously. And today, Saturday night, I finally finished one project.

Actually, I finished a single album. It’s a piano piece, but not one of the romance piano projects.🎹 It’s something else. And I’ll only tell you now, because you’re my newsletter subscriber and also my big supporter.

The piano single is about ‘rain’, and it will be released one week from now.

In this month, June, Korea starts the rainy season, which lasts until the end of June or sometimes the end of July. People outside of Korea, like those at CNN, call this the ‘monsoon’ season, but that’s not the right terminology.

Anyway, as you can see from the many rainy videos on my Instagram, I took pictures and videos with rainy views.

I have other songs about rain, like vocal songs and other piano instrumentals, but I don’t have enough time to put them all together into one album. However, one day, I will make an album all about ‘rain’.☔️

So like I said, I barely finished one single for piano about rain, and I’m also developing other song projects. I’m literally behind on writing the love story for piano. But I will try to keep up.

Okay, now it’s Sunday and I will continue to write this letter. From now on, I want to talk about one of the popular desserts in Korea: churros.

I dropped by a churros cafe, which is one of the franchises here, and had some churros with coffee and a vanilla shake. Did I like it? Yes, I kind of, liked it. 

To Korean people, churros are so familiar, even from childhood. You know why? Because we used to eat churros at any ‘amusement parks’. We could only eat churros at amusement parks a long time ago. So, back then, every kid or young people ate churros in the amusement parks, just like popcorn at movie theaters. You know what I mean? They were so popular at amusement parks.🎡🎢

Then, Around 10 years ago, or earlier, they started to sell churros at cafes in cities, and they started to become more popular at that time. I still remember the churros at a cafe in Seoul 10 years ago; the churros and chocolate were sooo good. I can’t say I know the real taste of churros, but I know what good chocolate is.🍫🍫💓

And these are made by private dessert cafes in Seoul. The cafes are very popular now.

(I found all from Google. So, please don’t re-use them.)

Anyway, I just googled it, and now there are at least 7 big churros franchises in Korea. This is the current situation when they open in Seoul. 

The company is called ‘Street Churros,’ and it is based in Korea. They have franchise shops in Korea and seven other countries, including the USA and China.

Korea, especially Seoul, has a unique character. They import everything from other countries, especially foods and desserts, if those foods are popular elsewhere. I can say that you can find almost every dessert or food in Seoul.

They are literally obsessed with experiencing new or popular things. When I lived in Seoul, I was one of them.

When I lived in New York in 2015, there was a food court, ‘Eatery’ where all the Italian foods were sold in Manhattan. But within just one year, I found the same brand of ‘Eatery’ food sections in a city near Seoul. If there is something unique or cool that satisfies Korean tastes (mostly young people, of course), they import it, and it becomes very popular.

One of my favorite restaurants in Gangnam, Seoul, when I lived there, was a French bread shop and restaurant. The co-owner of the shop was from France. He is French, and they import flour from France to make the bread.🥖🍞

(I used to eat their bread for my breakfast or lunch. I was a regular customer, and the manager still calls me to say hi even after 2-3 years.)

In another favorite Italian/pizza restaurant of mine in Seoul, the main chef was from Italy. They invited a famous Italian chef from Italy and offered him a house to stay in Korea. There are many places like that. The main chefs of certain foods are from the original countries of the foods, because people in Korea, especially in Seoul, love the best quality food. If the word spreads about the quality, they line up to eat the food even for 30 minutes to an hour outside.

So you can find restaurants or shops where the food is cooked by chefs from the original countries: American, Italian, Spanish, South Asian, Middle Eastern, etc.

But still, I’m thinking about the ‘originality’ of other countries’ food. Even if they invite the main chefs/cooks from those countries, do they cook with the original taste based on the tradition of their countries? I doubt that.🤔

They have to reflect the taste of the people in the other country, in this case, Korean people. There is a Vietnamese restaurant here whose owner and chefs are from Vietnam, and their rice noodles don’t contain ‘cilantro’ which most Korean people don’t like. To me, it’s so-so, I can eat that but honestly I prefer not to have too much cilantro in Vietnamese noodles and even in burritos, Mexican food, but I love both cuisines.💓

Anyway, the churros at another cafe in Haeundae here have cheese inside. It’s weird to me. (I don’t like mozzarella cheese that much. I like cheddar and brie cheese a lot.) I’m not sure if this can be good, but it’s not my style. It’s a little disappointing to me.😶

But are there churros with mozzarella inside originally in Spain? I will be waiting for an answer from one of you who is in Spain.😊

Anyway, this is it for today’s newsletter.

I just wanted to talk about this food here, and I will continue to develop the love story for piano when I have the time. Sorry to keep you waiting for that.🙏💜

Okay, that’s all. Thank you for reading. 🌹

Have a nice week 👌🌺

See you next time.

Bye

From A.thentic Jong Hee 

P.S. If you didn’t watch my live piano performance of “Confession of Love” yet, why don’t you see it now before you leave?

<“Confession of Love” - Variation and Main theme>

Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8aWVTkvn3A

Thank you 💖