ENTERTAINMENT NEWS > Lee Jee-hoon to Release Album in Japan in July

Singer/actor Lee Jee-hoon held two solo concerts, entitled “Lee Jee Hoon 2007 - The Live Act: Zero In Tokyo,” on March 25 at the Tokyo FM Hall in Japan.

At the two-hour concerts, each consisting of two parts, the singer sang 15 songs including his hit songs “Promise” and “The Doll,” and even hosted his own concerts personally in fluent Japanese to demonstrate his versatile entertaining talent.

Lee said the concerts marked his full-fledged activities in Japan, drawing a favorable response from his fans.

At a news conference following his concerts, Lee, who marks the 11th anniversary of his debut, said he chose the FM Hall as the venue of his concerts because he wanted to start afresh in Japan, where he is still a new artist. The singer also said he wants to release a new album around July but has yet to choose a record company.

ENTERTAINMENT NEWS > Ko Ah-ra Cast as Lead for Japanese Movie

Actress Ko Ah-ra, who has gained popularity in Japan recently, was cast to play a lead in the joint Japanese-Mongolian movie “The Blue Wolf” by beating competition odds of 39,157 to one.

The movie’s producer, Haruki Kadokawa, offered Ko the role at a March 25 event held in Tokyo that marked the release of Ko’s first photo album. Nicknamed “Midas Touch,” Kadokawa decided to produce the movie after a ten-year hiatus.

Ko’s photo album, entitled “Ara in Rome,” was produced by Kadokawa personally for the first time, attesting to the high interest in Ko as an actress. The album is based on the famous movie “Roman Holiday,” which stars Audrey Hepburn. The photo shoot was held in January in Rome, Italy by the famous Japanese celebrity photographer Kishin Shinoyama.

Ko says she has always been interested in Rome and learned a lot about the city during the photo shoot, adding that the album includes photos of her with both long and short hair.

“The Blue Wolf” is a large-scale movie costing 23 billion won and depicting the life of Genghis Khan. Ko plays the role of a woman-warrior named Kuran, the principal lover of Genghis Khan. The movie opened in Japan on March 3 and topped the Japanese box-office in its first week. It remained in the top-ten for three weeks in a row, taking the third spot in its second week and the eighth spot in its third week.

CUISINE > Green Pepper Japchae

Green Pepper Japchae (Stir fried green pepper and assorted vegetables): Japchae is a traditional Korean party food. Korean traditional holidays would not be complete without this dish, a mixture of healthy vegetables and potato starch noodle. But today I gave this japchae recipe a little twist to the traditional offering, so try this new version of Korean traditional fare.

Ingredients:

200g beef
1 large green pepper, or 4 green chili pepper (mild ones)
1/2 medium onion
30g bamboo shoots (canned)
3 cloves of garlic
1 small piece of ginger
1 stalk of green onion
Cooking oil
1Tbsp cooking rice wine
1Tbsp soy sauce
Sesame seed oil1
1/2Tbsp oyster sauce

Marinating sauce
1Tbsp soy sauce
1Tbsp sugar
1tsp sesame seed oil
1Tbsp minced green onion
1tsp minced garlic
1Tbsp cooking rice wine

Direction:

1. Slice beef into thin strips, about 3-4 millimeters-thick. Marinate beef in the marinating sauce for about 30 minutes
2. Slice onion and bamboo shoot in the same thickness as beef.
3. Take out the seeds in green onion and slice it into long thin strips too.
4. Slice garlic and ginger into thin strips as well. Green onion should be first cut lengthwise and then sliced into long thin strips.
5. Heat up wok on high heat. Add a tablespoon of cooking oil to coat the pan and put in the sliced garlic, ginger and green onions to add aroma to the oil.
6. Before garlic, ginger and green onions get too crispy or burned, put marinated beef and cook until the outside is done. Then add sliced onion and stir fry until onion becomes transparent.
7. When onion is done, season the meat and onion with a tablespoon of cooking wine and soy sauce. After that, put in the remaining ingredients, green pepper and bamboo shoot, and stir fry them until they are done. Before turning off the heat, don’t forget to add oyster sauce and sesame seed oil and stir until mixed well.

Tips:

1. All ingredients should be sliced and ready before stir-frying, because speed is the key in making japchae. When cooking, be sure to use high heat because the nutrients in vegetables may be destroyed when overcooked.
2. If you add egg white and potato starch when marinating beef, it helps retain juice and tenderize the meat.
3. Some of the vegetables that can go well with this type of japchae are carrots and mushrooms (especially black, enoki and oyster mushrooms).