Pittsburgh's 2012 Korean Food Bazaar was very good.

I'm not sure how the organizers of the annual Korean Food Bazaar at Shadyside's Korean Central Church of Pittsburgh (피츠버그한인중앙교회) will measure the success of this year's festival---by attendance, by money raised, by new parishoners---but by my humble estimation it was quite good as far as these things go.

There's a lot of noise made by Korean government and tourism officials about the need to globalize Korean food and bring it up to the level of recognition around the world of, say, Chinese, Thai, or Mexican food. Some obstacles in the way of this, at least in the US, are: restaurants unwelcoming to non-Koreans, menus hard to understand because of the Korean language or poorly-rendered English, and prices several times higher than what they would be in Korea. This festival was the complete opposite. There were friendly multilingual volunteers all around offering their help, guiding visitors through the ticket-buying process, and checking up on people who looked lost or confused. The menu had plenty of English and the signs above the food stations had ingredients and cooking instructions laid out in plain English (probably a necessity given all the different dietary needs and preferences of that neighborhood).

Hoddeok was a big seller. (Hadn't had this in years!)

And the prices were right. Well, righter than usual. A few times I've mocked local Korean restaurants for charging $8 for kimbap, or $10 for a small plate of 떡볶이: two staples of poor students and late-night diners that usually cost around a buck a serving in Korea. Charging $8 for kimbap goes against the spirit and the appeal of kimbap. While nothing cost 오백원 today, people could still get their old favorites and try a little bit of everything without laughing out loud at the prices.

The menu (click to enlarge). The naengmyeon was the most popular.

All that said, I couldn't hold it against the organizers if they had made the Korean Food Festival exclusively, um, Korean: Korean signs, Korean-speaking volunteers, Korean-language advertisements. Plenty of church functions strive to appeal solely to their community, their parishoners, and don't feel any need to reach out any further. However, that they made the effort shows they're keen to share with their neighbors and build local awareness of both the church and the Korean culture(s)---immigrant, international student, adoptee, 2nd-generation, scholar, enthusiast, the curious---that comprise it. Who knows, maybe the popularity of this annual food festival will inspire other Korean festivals throughout the year.

Grillin'

Most of the food was in the basement. Here's bulgogi and chicken.

Hoddeok on the griddle.

Some smoothies and jewelry for sale.

Even if you don't think about Korean food very much, or don't care about how it's globalized or how bloggers over-emphasize the talk of its globalization, it's still a pretty good time. It's similar to your average church festival, complete with church ladies, cooking in the basement, and kids running around. It's one of several big food festivals in Pittsburgh each May, and it draws a decent mix of people. I'll be posting about it next year, too, hopefully with more details and better pictures.

Designer toy trading at Pittsburgh's Kawaii, May 6th.

Lots of cute stuff at Kawaii in Shadyside. Pay them a visit on Sunday to join their semi-annual Designer Toy Trading Party.

2012 Pittsburgh International Children's Festival, May 16 - 20.

The Pittsburgh International Children's Festival will be held in Oakland May 16th through May 20th, and will have events and activities spanning various cultures and themes. Highlights for readers of this blog may include: Origami Tales from the 16th through the 20th, daily Nationality Rooms tours, Chinese dances on the 19th, and on the 20th an origami storyteller and a Mixed Chinese Martial Arts Showcase.

Kennywood Asian Heritage Day, May 13th; Pittsburgh Folk Festival, 18th - 20th.

Kennywood has long been known for the ethnic and national heritage days it hosts throughout the summers, and this year the Asian Heritage Day will fall on May 13th. (Kennywood has also long been known for being a lot of fun.) Few details are available, but I did pull this flyer off the Pittsburgh Chinese Association of Science and Technology messageboard:

Also, I should probably mention the 55th Annual Pittsburgh International Folk Festival will be held at the Monroeville Convention Center the next weekend, from the 18th to 20th. The cost is $12 at the door. And very advanced notice for the McKeesport International Village Festival, August 14th to 16th.

Pittsburgh-born enka star Jero to make New York debut, June 9th.

From music-lounge.jp

Not exactly local news, but the Japan Society says enka star Jero---who was born in Pittsburgh in 1981 and graduated from Pitt in 2003---will be performing in New York City on June 9th.

Pittsburgh-native, Tokyo-based enka superstar JERO makes his New York debut at Japan Society! With his smooth voice and hip-hop stylings, JERO has breathed new life into this sentimental Japanese music genre often associated with themes of one’s hometown, lost loves and sake. Often referred to as the “Japanese blues” or “Japanese country music,” enka’s melodies and required vocal techniques make it a quintessentially Japanese musical style.

Tickets are $22 for Japan Society members, $28 for non-members, and can be purchased online. Here's a sample of Jero live:

US troops in Okinawa "WWII leftover", Post-Gazette says.

A thoughtful editorial in Tuesday's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on the announcement that the Marines will reduce their presence on the Japanese island of Okinawa by nearly half. A couple of excerpts from the short piece, which concludes by saying this limited withdrawal should be the "first [step]" toward removing the military presence from Japan:

U.S. taxpayers are still left pondering the logic of keeping 90 bases and 40,000 Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and U.S. civilians on Japanese territory. World War II ended 67 years ago; it's hard to argue that the United States must still "watch" Japan. Japan also has the world's third- largest economy, behind the United States and China, and is capable of paying for its own defense. The latest evidence is it has offered $3.1 billion to help finance the cost of moving the U.S. forces off Okinawa.

. . .

The claim that the United States must maintain forces in Japan to stand watch over China also doesn't hold water. In fact, U.S. troops there serve as a provocation to China.

Our country's fascination with war and its obsession with militarism is extremely troubling, not only for peaceful Americans but for the rest of the world. It's especially ironic when we consider that seven decades ago the United States sought to punish Japan for those very same tendencies.

The Marines really aren't leaving---they'll still be all over Japan, and these 9,000 will be just be moved to other islands---and this shift isn't really a victory for pacifism, or for intelligent foreign policy. After all, the editorial really tries to appeal to America's wallet, and not to its conscience. Nevertheless, reading an editorial like this is refreshing: a positive step, but it should be only the first one toward building a culture that considers peace, not war, as the true victory.

Korean food and culture festival in Pittsburgh, May 5th.

The Korean Central Church of Pittsburgh (피츠버그한인중앙교회) will host its annual Korean food bazaar on May 5th from 10:30 to 4:00pm. As the advertisement says, the menu will include bulgogi, naengmyeon, kimbap, kimchi, pajeon, yukgaejang, and other well-known Korean items. It might be your only chance to try kimbap for under $10 in Pittsburgh.

The church is at 821 S. Aiken Avenue in Shadyside, a block south of Walnut Street, the trendy shopping district in the neighborhood. The Korean festival will coincide with the annual "Walk on Walnut", benefiting local victims of domestic violence, and running May 4th through 6th.

Update: The Tribune-Review has a profile of the 2012 festival now.

2012 Silk Screen Asian American Film Festival, opens May 11.

Pittsburgh's 2012 Silk Screen Asian American Film Festival will open May 11th with The Lady, starring Michelle Yeoh as Aung San Suu Kyi. The festival will run through May 20th, with 24 films at three venues throughout Pittsburgh: the Regent Square Theater, the Harris Theater, and the Melwood Screening Room.

Ugh. So the 65-year-old allegedly responsible for sending threatening emails to current and former University of Pittsburgh professors, and the man behind some bat-shit crazy ramblings against Pitt on his Facebook page and another website, was an English as a Foreign Language teacher in China (here he is on a Chinese EFL jobs site). It's the oddballs, eccentrics, and misfits that Asian EFL attracts that help give the rest---the motivated, the curious, and the sincere---and the industry itself a bad name.

Stats on Asians seeking permanent residency in Pennsylvania, 2011.

Via Nullspace comes a set of links from the Department of Homeland Security about the numbers of, and certain trends among, internationals seeking permanent residency in the United States. Incoming residents from Asia and Oceana to the Pittsburgh region has gone up from 2006 to 2011, Nullspace writes, culminating with 1,826 last year. In 2011 there were 9,197 to the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington area, according to the DHS's Supplemental Table 3.

Looking at Pennsylvania as a whole in 2011, which had 12,071 from Asia based on Supplemental Table 1:

* 159 from Cambodia
* 2,247 from China
* 120 from Japan
* 13 from Laos
* 48 from Malaysia
* 584 from Philippines
* 481 from South Korea
* 94 from Taiwan
* 190 from Thailand
* 940 from Vietnam

Pittsburgh Sakura Festival, April 29.

The First Annual Pittsburgh Sakura Festival will be held April 29 at Pittsburgh's North Park. A short press release published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Saturday reads:

The Sakura Project, which has been planting cherry trees in North Park for three years, will plant more trees and hold a Cherry Blossom Festival from 3 to 5 p.m. April 29 next to the boat house in North Park.

Activities will include folk dancing, musical performances, kite flying, a tea ceremony, a raffle and an appearance by Takumi Kato, a world champion taiko drummer from Japan.

The Pittsburgh Sakura Project has been planting cherry blossom trees in North Park for several years.

The trees have been planted near the boat house, though I think they would look nicer planted closer to the water. The trees are still quite small, but have yielded some blossoms already.

A rainy day on March 24, 2012.

This festival won't coincide with a viewing party, as blossoms in Pittsburgh---like the ones at larger festivals in Washington D.C. and Philadelphia---have come and gone thanks to an atypically warm March. The Pittsburgh Sakura Project plants trees twice a year, spring and fall, so check their website for details and how to get involved.

Students deal with the University of Pittsburgh bomb threats in different ways:

Annmarie Grant, also an engineering major, said that she hasn’t been able to focus on her schoolwork with all the threats.

“It feels like everything is so surreal at this point. We aren’t focused on homework,” Grant said. “I colored all day and watched Korean television.”

lol wut?

Japanese film Anpo: Art x War at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Art, April 12.

The Japanese documetary Anpo: Art x War will be showing April 12 at the Frick Fine Arts Building Carnegie Museum of Art in Oakland. (The location was changed on April 9th due to repeated bomb threats to the Frick Fine Arts Building and other locations on campus.) The University of Pittsburgh Center of International Studies writes:

The 1951 US-Japan Mutual Security Treaty (ANPO) gave the U.S. the right to maintain armed forces on Japan’s soil. This sparked a protest movement in 1960 in which millions of Japanese citizens took to the streets. The film uses the work of Japanese artists, photographers, and filmmakers to guide the viewer through the opposition to the government response and the presence of U.S. military in Japan.
The director, Linda Hoaglund, is a filmmaker, raised in rural Japan by American missionaries.

Round table discussion with the audience to follow, with speakers Linda Hoaglund, Geralyn Huxley (Curator of Film and Video, The Andy Warhol Museum), and Charles Exley (Assistant Professor, East Asian Languages and Literatures).

Free lecture on "traditional" "Korean" fusion music, April 13.

The University of Pittsburgh Department of Music presents a lecture by R. Anderson Sutton "on Fusion Music and Contemporary Korean Cultural Identity". An excerpt from the abstract:

The notion of cultural purity is demonstrably a myth, as any careful historical analysis of cultural expression anywhere in the world can reveal multiple origins, blends, syncretisms, hybridities that are the inevitable result of human contact. Yet in Korea, as in many countries around the globe, some forms of cultural expression have come to be recognized as “pure” or “authentic” indigenous forms, often celebrated in official discourse as invaluable assets, to be nurtured and preserved against the perceived onslaught of foreign mixture and “pollution.” Korean official discourse on the arts and government-supported cultural policy in Korea has strongly favored the forms with the least evident influence from other countries and cultures, but the vast majority of Korean people today and in the recent past have felt remarkably little appreciation for many of these forms. While most would not deny that these forms are indeed part of their cultural heritage as Koreans and are clearly and unambiguously identifiable as “Korean arts,” they also feel culturally “estranged” from them. That they enjoy other forms of music in almost all contexts presents us with a challenge as we try to come to terms with Korean notions of identity and music. Korean fusion music, a broad and somewhat controversial category of diverse musical practices, all of which involve at least some perceivable cultural mix between unambiguously Korean elements and other elements with foreign origins that are readily apparent, is becoming an increasingly important response to the unsettled cultural terrain on which musicians find themselves in contemporary Korea. This paper considers examples of Korean fusion music, both mainstream and marginal, in an attempt to illuminate aspects of contemporary Korean cultural identity and its discourses in music.

These discussions on "pure" Korean---and "pure" anything, really---are not new among people who pay attention to contemporary South Korean culture, but it's nonetheless nice to see the discussion happening close to home, too. The lecture is free and will be held on April 13, 4:00 pm, in room 132 of the University of Pittsburgh Music Building.

Dangdut Cowboys and their Indonesian pop at Shadow Lounge, April 6.

via ShadowLounge.com

The University of Pittsburgh Asian Studies Center tells us Pittsburgh group Dangdut Cowboys will be playing East Liberty's Shadow Lounge on April 6th.

The Dangdut Cowboys ride again! Dangdut (pronounced dahng-DUT) is Indonesia's most popular dance music. Created in the early 1970s, the genre blends Malay, Indian, Arabic, Latin, and Western musical elements. Pittsburgh-based band The Dangdut Cowboys mixes classic dangdut songs with country, blues, rock, and reggae.

Japanese film Jiro Dreams of Sushi in Squirrel Hill.

Join the Pittsburgh Japanese Culture, Language, and Food Meet-up group for dinner and a movie on April 6th to watch Jiro Dreams of Sushi at Squirrel Hill's Manor Theatre. The film is a story, says the official website,

of 85 year-old Jiro Ono, considered by many to be the world’s greatest sushi chef. He is the proprietor of Sukiyabashi Jiro, a 10-seat, sushi-only restaurant inauspiciously located in a Tokyo subway station. Despite its humble appearances, it is the first restaurant of its kind to be awarded a prestigious 3 star Michelin review, and sushi lovers from around the globe make repeated pilgrimage, calling months in advance and shelling out top dollar for a coveted seat at Jiro’s sushi bar.

For most of his life, Jiro has been mastering the art of making sushi, but even at his age he sees himself still striving for perfection, working from sunrise to well beyond sunset to taste every piece of fish; meticulously train his employees; and carefully mold and finesse the impeccable presentation of each sushi creation. At the heart of this story is Jiro’s relationship with his eldest son Yoshikazu, the worthy heir to Jiro’s legacy, who is unable to live up to his full potential in his father’s shadow.

The group will have dinner at Chaya---like the Manor Theatre also on Squirrel Hill's Murray Avenue---considered by a lot of Japanese in the area to be the best Japanese restaurant in Pittsburgh.

Pirates trade Japanese pitcher to Toronto.

The Pittsburgh Pirates are again without an Asian player, trading relief pitcher Ryota Igarashi to Toronto for future considerations. The site Jays Journal says he

won’t be considered for a position in the Jays’ bullpen given that it’s already full, so he’s purely a depth pickup and that will spend the season with Triple-A Las Vegas. As a pitcher with a decent splitter that can generate ground balls but also rack up strikeouts, though, he’s a solid, low cost pickup for Vegas’ bullpen.

Igarashi, a 32-year-old out of Chiba who has 5 wins in 79 Major League appearances, signed a minor-league contract with Pittsburgh in December, a move that completely escaped my notice.

Pittsburgh has experimented with a few Asian-born players, but none have lasted an entire season, as I noted in a December post about some rumored free agent targets. My favorite, for sentimental reasons because he was a guy I wanted to see succeed after finally getting to the US, was Masume Kuwata, the 39-year-old pitcher signed in 2007. The sequence on his Baseball Reference wiki, though, shows a typical Pirates acquisition:

"1987-1994: The Glory Years," "1995-1996: Injury," "1997-2002: Post-Injury," "2003-2006: Further decline," "To the USA."

See Korean cartoon "Leafie" in Pittsburgh, April 4th.

The animated film Leafie, a Hen into the Wild (마당을 나온 암탉) is the third and final installment of the University of Pittsburgh's small 2012 Korean Film Festival (풍산개 and 시 the others), and will be showing Wednesday, April 4th at 6:00 pm at Posvar Hall.

Here's how a Winter 2011 review in Koreana Quarterly concludes about the film's significance:

Despite minor flaws in the scenes presented with 3D imagery, “Leafie, a Hen into the Wild” has what it takes to signal a new era for the Korean animation industry, thus far limited to a student-age audience, in terms of its uplifting theme, advanced technology effects, brilliant artistry, and beneficial synergy created through the joint efforts of the animation and live-action film sectors. Korea has already seen a number of its animation directors and animators receive high praise at prestigious international film festivals abroad. As such, the doors have now been opened wider for their growing ranks.

New Korean bakery / cakery in Squirrel Hill.

Squirrel Hill is starting to feel like a teeny-tiny Koreatown: there's a Korean grocery in Young's (영스), Korean food at Green Pepper and Aseoma, and now a Korean bakery on Murray Avenue. Sumi's Cakery opened yesterday, March 24th, and is located on 2119 Murray Ave., in the spot formerly occupied by Sweet Tammy's. It's open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 am to 6 pm; get there early for the full selection of cakes, cupcakes, rice cakes, and other items.

There are some photos on the Facebook page.

New Japanese restaurant in Highland Park.

Teppanyaki Kyoto Restaurant soft-opened last month in Pittsburgh's Highland Park, with an authentic menu that includes okonomiyaki, Hiroshima okonomiyaki, yakisoba, and other dishes. It's located on 5808 Bryant St., a short drive from the Pittsburgh Zoo, and right now they're only accepting reservations (no walk-ins); call 412-441-1610 to make one.

Check their Facebook page for pictures, updates, and activity.

KTV on South Craig Street

Few details available so far in English, but some Chinese students at Pitt and CMU have opened a KTV (karaoke) spot in Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood, on South Craig Street. Stay tuned to the KTV@Pittsburgh Facebook page for updates (in Chinese for now). Given the large number of Asian, and Asiaphile, students at the local universities in Oakland, the absence of a proper Asian-style karaoke establishment in Pittsburgh was puzzling.