Kimchi Mamas

Giveaway!

The Holiday Season is upon us and we, the Kimchi Mamas, are caught up in the Spirit of Giving!  I was out the other day doing some Christmas shopping at a Korean Toy store when I came upon these pretty Hanbok dressed Fashion Mimi dolls (the equivalent of B.arbie dolls here in Korea.)

These two are especially for YOU, our readers!  We will be picking two lucky winners from the comments section below and I will be sending them off personally all the way from the motherland.  How do you get yourself one of these beautiful dolls?  Just comment in the section below what you think this store (sign pictured below) in Korea might be selling:

You will be entered to win a doll just by commenting whether your answer is right or wrong.  Two winners will be chosen randomly from the comments left in exactly one week, on 12/6/11.  The answer to what the store actually sells and the winners will be announced on the 7th.  Happy guessing!

Monday laughs

This was too funny not to share:

There once was a girl named Mary. One semester in high school she got all A's. Except... one A was actually an A-. (It was probably P.E.) Mary was excited to show her report card to her dad. Her dad took one look and said, what's that? Is that a minus?

Even Glee confirmed it. An A- is the Asian F.

Happy Thanksgiving week ya'll. Don't forget kimchi with that turkey!

- Mary

Little Prince Kids Restaurant Review

Five words for you: Meet me at Little Prince!

Little Prince is a Korean-born chain of kid-centered cafes, and it is basically the healthier, cleaner, saner alternative to Chuck E. Cheese's.  Instead of cacophony, consumerism, and chaos, kids can play in a variety of settings: an indoor jungle gym and ball pit for the more active tykes, a dress-up and pretend play area, and a library.  All areas are supervised by attentive staff who speak both Korean and English, and you can also keep an eye on your little ones from your table thanks to the video camera feeds displayed in the dining area.  Littler kids can stay close to their parents by playing in the middle of the dining area in a quieter, more padded zone.

The menu is eclectic, highlighting Korean-style cafe food.  There is pizza, pasta, and house-made chicken nuggets for the kids, and more sophisticated fare for the parents such as hamburger steak, galbi, ddukbokki, and "grown-up" pastas.  My personal favorite is their kimchi fried rice with cheese, washed down by a couple glasses of their iced coffee.

I am not exaggerating when I say that Little Prince has greatly expanded my social life.  It's the perfect spot to meet up with old or new friends who are in town. 

Do your friends have other kids that aren't quite the same age level as your own?  Send them all on their merry way to play with the unnis/nunas/oppas/hyungs at their own pace.  Chances are, they will start playing with each other as well.  

Is your friend childless, but they would like to meet your kids and hang out with you?  Again, perfect venue: your kids can be around to say hello and be hugged and adored, but then they can zoom off without either party being antsy or nervous.  Then you and your friend can catch up in peace.

They also offer packages for birthday parties, and I think it would be a perfect venue for a dol, or any year up to about age 6.  It's especially handy if you expect a mixed crowd of kids, older and younger siblings, and adults without children.

Food is pretty pricey, but the servings are HUGE.  In addition, you pay a per-hour fee per child.  So, if you are in the southern CA area, you should definitely try it out.  Awesomely enough, Living Social is offering a deal with Little Prince right now (and for the next 6 days).  You get $25 credit for $12, which amounts to 52% off!

So, am I going to see you there?  We can do plan a formal Kimchi Mamas meet-up or just keep it small.  Let's discuss.

Little Prince Kids Restaurant
5300 Beach Blvd. #118
Buena Park, CA 90621 
714-690-1432 

Little Prince website
Facebook page 
Link to Living Social deal

--Julie
(No disclaimer needed; I'm promoting them purely because I've been there a half-dozen times and I love them.)

Teaching Kids Korean - how to resolve different opinions?

I have not and am not planning to teach my kids a lot of Korean. I am not ruling it out. If they have interest, I am happy to teach them in the future or enroll them in Korean school. You know, the dreaded Saturday classes?

BUT, I am having some internal struggles on how to reply when my parents or my MIL ask about this subject. They want my children to know Korean. Especially my dad and mom since they don't speak a lick of English. My MIL, even though she lives in Korea, actually has learned English a bit and can converse decently, so she has not yet been insistant on requesting that her grandsons know Korean but I feel the question coming in the near future.

I don't see my parents or talk to them often, so that kind of helps... but it seems like almost every time I do see my dad, one of the things he says is, "You should teach your kids Korean." My response so far has been either 1. no response or 2. the docile "neh" meaning something like "yes" or "sure."

Open Thread Thursday - Almost Friday Fodder . . .

I am a HUGE fan of the PostSecret site! And as I Korean immigrant whose parents seemed to always have (family, past, etc.) secrets, I find PostSecret to be a really neat idea about how just releasing the secret really frees you from the binds of the secret...

Anyhow, I saw this on last week's (11/5/11) secrets and immediately thought about posting it here on Kimchi Mamas. Though I can't read what is written in hangul, I definitely can relate to what is written in English.

And I also think that's another thing that makes PostSecret so neat: almost no matter what a person's secret is, someone out there shares it, too.

It's been a long time folks, it's OPEN THREAD THURSDAY - what's on YOUR mind?

--Angie in Texas is glad to be back in the blogosphere!

 

 

 

 

Milestone Birthdays

There seems to be a lot of milestone birthdays in Korean culture.

There's baek il or 100 days.

There's dol, the 1st birthday.

If I recall correctly, there's something when you turn 20 or somewhere around there, where you are officially an "adult."

There's hwan gap or 60.

There's chil soon or 70.

There's pal soon or 80.

So, traditionally, hwan gap or the 60th birthday used to be celebrated elaborately. My grandmother had a huge 60th birthday party in Korea. It's kind of like a "Yay, you made it to old age!" kind of thing... but since people are living longer and longer, I hear that pal soon is the new hwan gap. You heard it here first ladies and gents. My grandmother had another huge 80th birthday party in the USA. Good thing she had it for her 80th... she's now 92 and has major dementia.