Chusok: The Korean Harvest Festival

The Korean Harvest Festival — called Chusok, Chuseok, or Hangawi — is similar in spirit to Thanksgiving, but with less football and much more garlic.

Songpyeon, sweet half-moon dumplings steamed over pine needles, and the one item most traditionally associated with Chusok, were unavailable, at least from the prepared-food stalls. It's possible that they were hidden amid the many packaged Korean foods on sale, though as I sampled my way up and down the tents — tastes of seaweed, anchovies, preserved garlic, pumpkin cake, chocolate-covered soybeans, flavored vinegars, and many varieties of kimchee were freely available — I never spotted them.

A fresh seafood-and-scallion pancake ($10) was exceptionally light, and its thin-sliced octopus, very tender; from the same stall, a short-ribs plate ($10) was just OK, and a sample of those tubular rice cakes in hot sauce was about what you'd expect. Noodles were nowhere to be found; I didn't venture the grilled quail or whole grilled fish; beef-bone soup would have been welcome on a cooler day.

An outfit called New York Hotdog, which runs about 150 outlets in Korea, offered this bulgogi-laden version ($4), soon to be available in the Big Apple. The frank itself is a little spicy, but next time I'll dress it with additional hot sauce. Sikhye, the accompanying fermented rice drink ($1.50), was a passing fancy, less for the slightly sweet flavor than for the opportunity to swirl my straw.

Chusok: The Korean Harvest Festival
Flushing Meadows Corona Park, southeast of the Unisphere
Early October

Comments

[young]

I can't believe I missed this ! I am Korean and didn't even know that NY had a The Korean Harvest Festival, I have to make it next year. :(