Culture.licious: Kyunga's Seoul Meal from Korea

Culture.licious (Facebook: Culture.licious, Twitter: @Culturelicious) hosts intimate cooking events at various GTA locations where guests learn how to make cultural dishes. Inspired by her backpacking days in the Far East, Wendy Chung, founder of Culture.licious, wants guests to experience a "journey to a different world and acquire knowledge of different cultures and traditions, learn about foreign ingredients and cooking techniques, as well as personal stories of our Cooks". In addition to learning how to make delicious ethnic dishes (with recipe booklets to take home) guests will also enjoy an elaborate three-course meal at the end of class that they've made together with their Culture.licious Cooks. And who are these Culture.licious Cooks exactly? They are a group of hand-selected immigrant home cooks from around the world who loves food and their heritage, and are passionate about sharing their recipes and kitchen secrets to anyone who wants to learn.

I was invited to Culture.licious' "Kyunga's Seoul Meal from Korea" cooking class last Saturday at Whole Foods Market Square One's (@WFMSquareOne) cooking studio. Kyunga, a Culture.licious Cook, is from Seoul, Korea, and was brought up with her mom's home cooking there.

The class started off with Kyunga showing us how to make haemulpahjun, or Korean chive seafood pancake. 

All of us paying close attention...

WOW! Restaurant

My parents and I usually stay home for dinner during weeknights. This is because there aren't many good Chinese restaurants in Mississauga;  it's just better to stay in for Chinese food since my Mom is such a good cook anyway (don't believe me? Check out some of my Mom's cooking here). But the reality is, even though my Mom is a good cook she still needs a break from cooking every once in awhile - she deserves and needs a break, simple as that.


Knowing that Chinese food sucks in 'sauga, we steer away from it and opt for other Asian food such as Japanese, Vietnamese, and Korean. For Korean, we frequent WOW! Restaurant (not a very creative name). It is a small restaurant in a small plaza - the exact address is 55 Dundas Street East, major intersection is Dundas and Hurontario. I find the area pretty ghetto though; well maybe not ghetto, not like I think my life would be in danger or something, it is just not in the nicest looking plaza / neighbourhood, that's all. Nonetheless, we don't really care because we are not there to fine-dine, we just want a delicious and quick meal.


WOW! is a family owned, typical mom & pop restaurant - the husband is the chef, the wife and kid(s) serve the customers. You actually feel like you're eating at home when you're at WOW! because there's really no decor. It is always very quiet on weeknights.

I always order the same thing there, which is the Soon Tofu - I alternate between the Seafood and Vegetable Soon Tofu.

Swish by Han

My friend from Ottawa, Tiana, was visiting Toronto a month or so ago and we had lunch at Swish by Han on Wellington. I remember how we were trying to figure out where to go for lunch near my work. When she suggested Swish by Han I immediately said "yes" since it would be a nice change to have some Korean food, which is a rarity around where I work (Yonge & Adelaide). 


Without fail, every time I walk by Swish I will look through those large windows to see what people were eating inside. Well, no more of that! I was finally on the other side of those windows that day =D

I guess you can tell from these pictures that Swish is not a big place. It basically has three sections for seating; a section against each wall, and a section in the middle with three 2-person tables (I was sitting in the middle table in the middle section). 

I turned around to take the shot below. The kitchen is straight to the back. A big chandelier hangs right above the bar. I love the brick wall. 

This is to my left. Not sure if there is seating inside that "enclosure".