What’s Cooking?

Well today I gathered some of my good friends and set them to work. I made over 200 mandoo today and now I have a freezer full of delicious Korean dumplings.
Stuffed dumplings are labour intensive. You need to squeeze out all the water from the tofu, bean sprouts and then chop all the vegetables, mix all the ingredients and season the stuffing and then finally stuff them into dough wrappers. Overall with about four to five friends you can stuff over 200 mandoo in about 2.5 hours (yikes). Of course there was a lot of eating involved too (you need to do some taste testing to make sure the stuffing is seasoned well).
If anyone wants to try to make Korean meat dumplings here is a basic recipe I like to use.
(Just for the record, I never write out recipes. For one thing, I don’t measure. All of this is purely guess).
Good luck!

Mandoo (100 dumplings)

1lb of ground beef or pork or both
1 medium onion (yellow or white) chopped fine
3-4 scallions chopped fine
1-2 tbl sp finely chopped ginger
3-5 cloves of chopped garlic
1 package of firm tofu
2 cups of mung bean sprouts
2-3 tsp of toasted sesame oil
1 tsp of white pepper
1 tsp of black pepper
2 egg
salt to taste

100 dumpling wrappers (you can buy this at a Korean grocery store or possibly an Asian grocery market)

-boil water and cook mung bean sprouts for about 2 minutes and then strain them and rinse them in cold water
-squeeze as much water out of the bean sprouts with your hands
-chop up the bean sprouts and put into a large mixing bowl
-drain the tofu from the package and then use some paper towels and soak up the water. Squeeze as much water out of the tofu (don’t worry about it crumbling you want that to happen) add it to the bean sprouts
-add sesame oil, white and black pepper, salt, onions, garlic, scallions, 1 egg and meat into bowl then mix thoroughly.
-in a separate bowl crack and whip an egg
-take a dumpling wrapper and using your finger, rub egg on the edge of half the wrapper (like the letter C), put in about a small spoonful of filling in the center of the wrapper. Fold the wrapper in half and squeeze the sides closed.
-sprinkle some flour on the dumpling so that they don’t stick to each other.

-boil water and drop in the mandoo and let it cook for about 5 minutes. Then heat up some oil in a frying pan and pan fry the cooked mandoo (this part is optional)
-you can make an easy dipping sauce by using soy sauce, vinegar and a little bit of sugar.

Enjoy!

So I have made a wonderful discovery: the library! I know that sounds absurd, and it kind of is, but over the past six months I have become a regular visitor and I have been reading a ton. So what am I reading? Well, I must confess that some of the stuff is pretty girlie, not too sophisticated, and with lots of plot driven excitement. To go through all the books in detail would be ridiculous but here’s a list that highlights a few things I liked about them.

Reading List

The Twilight Saga which includes: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
I really enjoyed this entire series. My favourite was Twilight. I won’t go into too much detail but the saga is a story about a young lady named Bella Swan who falls in love with a teenage vampire named Edward Cullen. Lots of danger, hugging and teenage angst. I was impressed by how Meyer described the experience of Bella kissing Edward in the forest. My stomach was full of butterflies and my heart was racing. That NEVER happens to me when I’m reading. Anyone who likes fantasy and love stories should check it out, it’s worth reading.

The Gemma Doyle Trilogy which includes: A Great And Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray.
This is a plot-driven story about a teenage girl in the late 1800’s in England who discovers that she has a magical gift to move into another world called the realms. Sounds cheesy when I say but it was quite fun to read. Action packed and sometimes quite emotional.

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
I loved this book. It was beautiful and sad and it made my heart ache when it was over. This is Niffenegger’s first novel and she really pulls off a great concept. The story is about a man who involuntarily time travels, but during his travels he meets a girl named Clare who becomes the most important person in his life. I can’t go any further - you just need to read it.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
I know that this book is a classic. Bronte’s writing is good but it was a hard read. The language wasn’t difficult but I really found all the characters of this book unlikeable. Perhaps that was on purpose but it made it difficult to enjoy the book. Still, with that said, it’s good writing and worth reading.

The Uglies Saga which include: Uglies, Pretties, Specials by Scott Westerfeld and Extras by Scott Westerfeld and Rodrigo Corral
This is a sci-fi saga about earth 300 years in the future. It’s action packed and fun.

Lonely Werewolf Girl by Martin Millar
I have luke-warm feelings about this book. I read it because I had just finished Eclipse and was in the vampire/werewolf frame of mind. It’s about a young werewolf named Kalix living in London, England who is a drug addict and sort of a sad character. Not my favourite book.

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
This was my first graphic novel and it was a sad one. It was actually a memoir of Alison Bechdel’s relationship with her father who she finds out is gay. It was a quick read and engaging. I recommend this one.

Tom Jones by Henry Fielding: audio book radio show by the BBC
I highly recommend this particular recording. The BBC did an adaption of Tom Jones and it was delightful. It’s full of humourous sexual escapades and a lovely happy ending. The actors are great and it was a pile of fun. Check it out.

The Looking Glass Wars Trilogy which include: The Looking Glass Wars and Seeing Redd by Frank Beddor
This is a dark version of a childhood classic. Alyss Heart is the queen to be of Wonderland until her aunt Redd starts a war and all hell breaks loose. Alyss escapes to our dimension and the rest you’ll have to read to find out. Actually I’ve never read Alice In Wonderland (although that’s on my list now) but these books are for an older audience or at least readers in the teenage years and up. I have been enjoying this series and I look forward to reading the last book once it’s released.

Blood And Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause
I really didn’t like this book. It was very popular and they even made it into a movie (who knows why). Disappointing and not worth reading.

Forever by Pete Hamill
This was an interesting read. I was disappointed with the ending but very impressed by Hamill’s detailed knowledge of New York City and it’s history. The story is about a young man (17 years old) and he ends up in New York City in 1741 (I think) and becomes immortal (you need to read it to know why) and stays immortal only if he remains in Manhattan. I quite enjoyed the book even with the ending. It’s worth checking out.

Well that’s it for now. I am currently readingThe Book Thief by Markus Zusak and so far its good.

Although I have linked all the book titles to Amazon, I have borrowed all these books from the library. I never took advantage of the library in the past and I keep kicking myself for waiting so long to do it. I was a really late bloomer in the book reading thing and I have so much to catch up on. I have been discovering what kind of books I like to read and its been an adventure. If anyone out there has any great recommendations I would love to hear about them and I love reserving the books on the library website (ah the small pleasures in life). I have a huge list to get through and I have at least eight books at home to read (more on them later).

Happy reading everyone!

Well I finally did it. I have always dreamed of doing a pop/rock show and now I’ve gone and hooked it up. This Saturday, June 21st is Make Music New York and I will be performing with my rock band, 5 Feet in front of a church at Church Ave and Flatbush Ave at 3:00pm in Brooklyn. We will be playing some original songs from each band member. It’s going to be super fun. I have been loving the sessions we’ve been playing and I can’t wait to perform the music. I hope you can come.

5 Feet

Yoon Sun Choi - keyboards, vocals
Geoff Kraly - bass, vocals
Jesse Stacken - keyboards
Vinnie Sperrazza - drums

Saturday, June 21
3:10pm-4:00pm
(corner of) Church Ave and Flatbush Ave
Q train to Church Ave

Free

I have a show this Friday at the Brooklyn space, I-Beam. I will be performing with Jacob Sacks and Vinnie Sperrazza. It’s been a while since Vin, Jacob and I played trio so I’m totally psyched. Come on down to Brooklyn and come see the show!

Friday, May 30
9:00pm
I-Beam Music
178 7th Street (between 2nd Ave and 3rd Ave)
Park Slope, Brooklyn

I am happy to welcome New York drummer Vinnie Sperrazza and alto saxophonist Matt Blostein’s newest cd Ursa Minor to the Yeah Yeah Records catalog. Vinnie is an amazing drummer who I often play with in my own projects. Matt Blostein is a horn player who plays beautiful, fluid lines and writes tasteful music. Both Vinnie and Matt contribute original compositions to this wonderful recording. Go and check it out on Yeah Yeah Records.

Tonight at the Tribeca Film Festival is the premiere of my friends, Adriane Geibel (line producer) and John Walter’s (director) documentary Theater Of War. This is a wonderful documentary about Bertolt Brecht’s play Mother Courage that stars Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline and is adapted by Tony Kushner. I had the honour of viewing the film while it was still in it’s preliminary stages and I am very excited to see it in it’s finished form tonight.

Anyone who is free tonight in New York should come and check this film out (if there are tickets left). John is a great film maker with vision and real artistic integrity. Check out his documentary How To Draw A Bunny (a doc about the artist, Ray Johnson) at MOMA next month. MOMA is featuring films with jazz scores and How To Draw A Bunny is scored by the late Max Roach. This was (I think) Max’s final work before he passed away. It’s great and you should all go!

This Sunday at Barbes my voice will be on a multimedia performance that will include live improvised music, film and lighting. The film is by Ana Isabel Ordonez and the musicians will be Herb Robertson, Dave Ballou and Matt Darriau. I recorded my voice a few months ago and I have no idea what the final product is. I’ve never attended a show where I’m in the audience and I’m listening to my own voice. Should be interesting for me… If anyone is free, come on down to good ole’ Brooklyn and check it out. Flim noir is so great. Anyone ever checked out Gilda? Too cool.

So I’ve decided to write about shows that I intend to see and/or if I can’t make them, I highly recommend you checking them out.

Monday, April 14th
Eivind Opsvik
Overseas with Tony Malaby, Jacob Sacks, Kenny Wolleson
at Knitting Factory Tap Bar 8 pm $13

If you haven’t checked this band out, you should really go. Eivind’s compositions are beautiful and memorable. All the members of the band are incredible improvisers and spectacular performers. I love this band!

Tuesday to Sunday, April 15th-20th
Bill Frisell 858 Quartet with Jenny Scheinman, Eyvind Kang, Hank Roberts
at Village Vanguard 9, 11 pm $30

If you have the coin to see Bill Frisell, go and check him out. I haven’t heard this particular ensemble but I usually like anything that Bill Frisell does.

Friday and Saturday, April 18th and 19th
Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society
with Erica vonKleist, Ben Kono, Dan Willis, Mike McGinnis, Josh Sinton, Ingrid Jensen, Seneca Black, Tom Goehring, Ryan Keberle, Mike Fahie,
James Hirschfeld, Jen Wharton, Sebastian Noelle, Mike Holober,
Matt Clohesy, Jon Wikan
at the Jazz Gallery 9, 10:30 pm $15

Normally I’m not the biggest fan of big band but Darcy has a cool thing going on and it’s worth checking out. His compositions are modern and relative to the times (if that makes any sense). I admire what Darcy does and his blog is great too. He is as articulate with his words as he is expressive with his music. You won’t regret going to hear his band.

Well that’s what I am going to try and check out this week. I hope to see you there.

Today is the official announcement of the Yoon Sun Choi/Jacob Sacks Duo’s upcoming release of Imagination. After almost two years of work this recording is finally going to be made public. This was a labor of love and I can’t wait to share it with everyone.

The music on this CD is from the composer Joe Raposo. Most of you may not be familiar with his name but you all know his music. Raposo wrote for the great children’s television shows like Sesame Street, The Muppets and The Electric Company. He also wrote musicals, movie scores and much more.

It was a difficult process trying to find which songs to record. We love the famous works like Bein’ Green and Sing. But we loved the songs that were not as well known like Not Much Of A Dog and Blue. We love every track and Jacob and I hope that when you get your hands on this CD you’ll love them too.

Remember that date: July 1st, 2008
Buy the CD!

It is finally here! Our record label Yeah Yeah Records is now up and running. Below is an excerpt from our mission statement and business plan. If you want to read the full scoop, please visit the website.

We want to build a place that jazz fans, new or old, can come to in order to browse, listen and discuss the kind of music we love to play. We figure that if you find our links section useful, you might come back. And if you find our forum interesting, you might come back for that. You’ll come back, we hope, if the blog on the front page turns out to have useful and interesting posts. And if our catalog turns out to be a handy place to do comparison shopping and get information and ideas about new artists of potential interest to you, then perhaps you’ll just give in and hang out here all the time. So this is how we’re trying to get your attention: By making it worth your while to stick around.

Chris has put so much into the site and helped build the concept of our label. Jacob Sacks and I are so excited about this. We know that record labels are sort of a thing from the past. This is an idealistic, and optimistic approach to gathering our musical community together and making it stronger. We hope you like it cause we love it!

So tonight I will be heading to The Stone to hear Jacob Sacks and Eivind Opsvik play with Mat Maneri and Billy Mintz. If you haven’t had a chance to hear this band I highly recommend it. The music are all original compositions written by Jacob or Eivind and it’s loose and unpredictable (definitely my kind of thing).
Jacob and Eivind recently released a recording with Mat Maneri and Paul Motian called Two Miles A Day and it is a fantastic recording. It’s playful, beautiful and texturally interesting. There is a lot of wonderful interaction going on and you feel like you’re part of the journey when you listen to it. Check it out and come to The Stone tonight, they play at 10:00pm!

I can’t believe it. We are approaching the end of March and I feel like I was left back in December 2007. What happened?!?! I haven’t had the heart to write any posts since Coltrane died and I’m finding it difficult to even attempt this.

For the past three months I decided to take some time off of booking gigs and doing all that performing stuff to concentrate on writing music and practicing. To my dismay, I have only written half of a song and I am too ashamed to tell anyone how little I practiced in the past couple of months. Now I can’t beat myself up too much, I have been practicing with my two best buds Jacob and Vinnie almost every week. We get together and work on a very specific improvising exercise. We finally finished the exercise in one key and now we are venturing to the next one. The goal is do be able to do this in all 12 keys (yikes!) Well now that I’ve said that I guess I should elaborate a bit.

Back when Jacob was a MSN (Manhattan School of Music), Jacob and Dan Weiss decided they wanted to work on an improvising exercise that Garry Dial (their improv teacher) gave them. The concept was to practice chord tones in all their different permutations in all 12 keys over the tune Autumn Leaves. For example, 1-3-5-7 is the first permutation, then 1-3-7-5, then 1-5-3-7 and so on. Now Jacob being the crazy guy he is, decided that he wanted to be completely thorough with the exercise and do ALL the chord tones plus their extensions. That makes 96 permutations in one key. So now, Vinnie, Jacob and I are practicing this. Jacob has done this before so he works on his drum set playing while I play piano and Vin plays marimba. It is grueling and super fun with those guys. About a month ago we just finished the first key and are moving on. The first key takes the longest according to Jacob and the other keys are a lot easier once you have the patterns memorized. After doing this I could already tell that my improvising was getting better and my agility over the keyboard was improving.

I haven’t had a improv session with Vin and Jacob for a few weeks and I’m itchin’ to get back into it. It’s been really great practicing with my fellow musicians. I feel that we really encourage each other and have a lot of fun hanging out.

Currently I have been asked to write some lyrics to some music a friend of mine wrote. I took on the challenge but it’s been hard. Writing lyrics is not easy and I feel that I really need to hone my skills. I’ve had a lot of fun thinking about it and testing things out. I only hope that my end results will satisfy my friend.

I am amazed that I actually feel a bit better blogging again. I’ve forgotten that it can be therapeutic (not that I was a big blogger to begin with). I seem to have a lot on my mind these days and I shouldn’t try to keep all of it inside me. I always feel like I’m walking on the edge of a complete freak out! Well, no freak outs today, whew!

On Monday, December 17, 2007, my beagle, Coltrane passed away due to cancer. It was fast, with very little suffering and he was surrounded by the people who loved him and we all had a chance to say our goodbyes.

I have never felt such loss in my life. I know that there are more tragic events that are happening in this world than someone’s pet dying but he was a huge part of my life. He made my life rich with happiness and love and helped me become a more compassionate, don’t take life so seriously, loving person. I can’t express how wonderful he was and I can’t capture in words all the great, hilarious, heart-melting things he did for me. My husband Chris wrote a really touching post on his blog, Explananda. There are some great photos of Coltrane and my favourite is at the beginning. Chris had given me a framed, blown up version of this photo for my birthday and it was the greatest present I ever received. It means even more to me now that Coltrane is gone. I miss him everyday and there will always be a part of me that will never be the same but I don’t want it to be.

If anyone is interested in reading Chris’ tribute click Coltrane.

It’s hard to believe that tomorrow is Thanksgiving. This is technically my second Thanksgiving for this year since Canadian Thanksgiving was in October. My friend Akiko and I are doing a combined effort of cooking and Jacob Sacks will be baking lovely pies (pecan, pumpkin and apple YUMMM!!!!) I am going to do my best to document this event. It is the first time that I have some partnering chefs for Thanksgiving and I have cooked with Akiko and Jacob together in the past and we’ve had a lot of fun together. Hopefully there might even be a podcast out of this (I hope this will actually happen). I am in charge of cooking the turkey, gravy, dressing and a side dish. I do the whole works on the turkey. I brine it the night before and I make stock for the gravy and the other special ingredients the day before also. I haven’t made a turkey in the past year and a half so I hope my cooking chops are still good.

I know that this is a time to reflect on things we should be “thankful” for. I am grateful for many things in my life, a great husband, family, friends, my dog, music, my health etc… Sometimes you can get so caught up in all your crap that you can forget why life is so good. I’m constantly stressed out, I’m always worried about everything and I’m always complaining about having no money, being a struggling artist and not losing enough weight. When I actually write these things down I start to feel really foolish. I don’t live in a war stricken country, I’m not homeless, I’m not dying and I am a working artist. It really doesn’t get any better. Sure, we can always bitch about money, a better career and losing an extra five pounds but the bottom line is that life is pretty damn good and I am thankful for that.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

So a month ago I got this crazy idea that I wanted to make a music video. I recorded a demo of a new tune and I plan to use it for the video. I don’t have any concrete ideas yet but would love input from anyone who is interested in giving me some. This is a somewhat conservative version of this piece which when played live is completely different. I have some incredibly talented friends helping me with the video. Also, my main musical boys are on it too (that means you, Jacob Sacks, Thomas Morgan and Vinnie Sperrazza!).

Here it is.

• The file YoonSunChoi-GlassHeart.mp3 identified by urn:sha1:RTENPMWLM64QDE4WWEXJFFNHZICYN3QN is licensed to the public under the Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

So my E-String Band is finally performing in Manhattan at this great art gallery called
S P A C E Gallery. I am really psyched to play. The original members of E-String will all be there and we haven’t played together in about three months so it’s going to be great. I hope you can come by and check it out.

Yoon Sun Choi and The E-String Band
Jacob Sacks-melodica
Khabu Doug Young-ukulele
Thomas Morgan-guitar
Vinnie Sperrazza-percussion
and Me on toy piano and vocals

S P A C E Gallery
207A Front Street (South Street Seaport)
New York City, NY

Thursday, October 11, 2007
8:30pm
$10

So last night I went to see Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society band. Darcy is a fellow Canadian musician living and working in New York. Darcy is also a very articulate and intelligent writer of both music and music events (you should definitely check out his blog if you haven’t done so already.)

Anyways, last night was the first time I had a chance to check out Darcy’s music. The last time I heard Darcy’s music was in 1999 when we were both participating in the Jazz Workshop at the Banff Centre.

Darcy’s Secret Society is a large ensemble group whose instrumentation is like a big band. Now the reason why I didn’t say that Darcy’s group is a big band is because I feel like there is a real stigma to the “big band” and rightfully so. I am not really a huge fan of big band and I find that most compositions for big band are uninteresting and pretty cheesy. Darcy’s compositions were none of those things. I really enjoyed the fact that Darcy’s music had influences from his own lifetime. What does that mean? I was raised on rock and pop music. I actually didn’t get into jazz till after I graduated from high school. When listening to Darcy’s compositions I related to the sounds and textures of his music. I could hear elements of rock and pop music as well as modern classical music (i.e. Darcy’s composition “Habeas Corpus” had a Phillip Glass thing kinda going on). I understood it. It was fun, groovy and he had elements of surprise that I found really refreshing. Some compositions stuck with me more than others but overall I had a good time.

I feel a little extra fuzzy inside knowing that Darcy is Canadian (I know, silly…) and that he’s creating some cool music. I recommend that if you get a chance to hear Secret Society go, and have fun. I did.

So I haven’t been talking about any cool music that I’ve seen over the past little while. I will try my best to remember what has happened in the past month. In September I went to the Vanguard to see the Paul Motian trio with Bill Frisell and Joe Lovano (killin’!). I am always amazed at how fresh everything sounds when those three musicians play together. The music is playful, spontaneous and beautiful. I was excited to see their last show of the night and week. I also went to The Stone to see a solo bass show by Mark Dresser (that was amazing as always). Mark Dresser was one of the first bass players I checked out when I moved to New York. Mark’s use of texture on the bass is mind boggling. I feel like I’m listening to a string quartet when he plays.

A fun show that I performed at this past month was Vinnie Sperrazza’s tribute show to Tony Williams. Tony Williams wrote some far out music with vocals and it was a challenge and adventure to perform it. Vin did a great job putting it together and I was happy to be a part of it.

Well that’s it for now.

This Thursday night I will be going to the Jazz Gallery to see Darcy Argue’s Secret Society so that should be fun. Maybe I’ll see some of you there.

So yesterday as most of you know marked the sixth year anniversary of 9-11. It was a difficult day for a lot of people in New York and I was moved by the events and tributes that were happening all over the city.

I was part of a Global Peace Day event yesterday and it was bit strange but ended up being cool. Vinnie Sperrazza, Jacob Sacks and I were to perform for about 15 - 20 minutes of free music at a place called the Hop Devil Grill. I didn’t know the venue or what the rest of the night would entail. When the three of us got there we got real quiet and started looking at each other rather suspiciously. The bar/restaurant was packed and extremely loud (like most bars in the east village). I couldn’t imagine how voice, melodica and percussion were going to cut through all the talking and bustle in and out of the bar. Also, the music before us was rock and singer/songwriter sets. I was wondering, “who is going to listen to us?” Well, turns out that there was a small group hanging out near the upper level where the music was happening and they were really into it. I think they found it really interesting not to hear the normal bar music thing. The three of us really took it out and had a lot of fun.

Even though it didn’t seem like everybody was feeling global peace, I was glad to be a part of something that I believe in promoting. Also, I personally witnessed what happened on 9/11/01 and I will never forget it. I know that horrible things happen in this world and I only hope that we can be better human beings and try to make things better.

Peace.

So I just finished a couple of books that I think are worth mentioning. “Mindless Eating” by Brian Wansink is a fascinating book about how we are not aware of what we do when it comes to eating. I have to admit that he has some serious evidence for that. Here’s a well-known example: The size of your dinner plate can have a real influence on how much you think you’ve eaten. But a lot of what he says is less well-known, and some things you might find shocking. Anyway, my doctor says that I need to lose 10lbs. I’m a little stunned and embarrassed by the thought but this book gives a bunch of smart and safe ways to lose weight. It’s not really a weight loss book but more about becoming an informed eater. It’s cool. Check it out.

Chris says that I’m a sucker for a good story. He recommended a mystery book since those kinds of books are really plot driven. So I read P.D. James’ “An Unsuitable Job For A Woman.” The writing was good but I found the story to be too predictable. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen way too many “made for T.V. movies” from stories like this. I knew very early on who the killer was and that made it a little anti-climatic for me. Still, good writing, so at least I wasn’t annoyed by that. I don’t know if mystery books are for me.

After P.D. James I finished reading “The Dogs Of Babel” by Carolyn Parkhurst. I must confess that I bought the book for it’s cover and the fact that the dog was a main character in the book. I wasn’t blown away by it but it was an interesting enough read. Whether it stays in the permanent library is up for debate.

I am currently reading P.G. Wodehouse’s “Mating Season”. I just love the characters Bertie Wooster and Jeeves. Wodehouse is like a T.V. sitcom in book form. The stories and tone of his writing are absolutely hilarious. There is never a dull moment when Bertie is involved. I never thought that I would get into Wodehouse but when I picked up my first book (which was “The Code Of The Woosters”), Wodehouse got me on the first page. I was giggling my way to the end. I know that there will be comical chaos throughout and that there will always be a wonderful ending. It’s a jolly good read.