Culture

NANTA is what’s Cookin’

Liz once said, “Leave it to Rooster to find the food.” And food it is!

This October 10th will mark the 10th Anniversary for the stage show Cookin’.

 

Stop playing with the produce!

But wait a minute, stage show? There’s no actual cooking involved? Bummer!

Cookin’ (or NANTA) was first presented on stage in Seoul in 1997 and since then has been one of Korea’s most popular theatre performances. NANTA is a term used to refer to “reckless punching as in a slugfest at a boxing match (tour2korea.com).” But no bloodshed on the stage here, NANTA in this case is a non-verbal performance of haphazard rhythms creating high-energy infectious beats. In Cookin’, kitchen utensils such as pots, pans and kimchi vats are used as percussion instruments. STOMP, if you will, if it took place in a kitchen.


In celebration of 10 years of kitchen music, Cookin’ will hold its 10th Anniversary festivities tomorrow at the Westin Chosun Hotel in Seoul. It is said that four young stars, including Yoon Eun-hye and Andy from Shinhwa, have been appointed as cultural envoys for the event.

Aw, and here I was thinking that a festival of sumptuous culinary delicacies has arrived when the picture of flying lettuce caught my eye while surfing the hallyu.

Source: Korea Times
Pic Credit:
Korea Times, Tour2Korea

 

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6 thoughts on “NANTA is what’s Cookin’

  • IN`vincible

    oooh, you’re missing out on a lot! hahaha i think i still have a video on SMAP’s history somewhere in my old blog, if you’re interested:

    (video)
    http://www.box.net/public/static/9nxlxrttxg.wmv
    (subs)
    http://www.box.net/public/static/rfpacar60t.srt

    anyway… i had the impression that you guys here at k-popped have been interested in korean stuff for a while now~

    glad i could share the love! ^o^ i’ll be poppin’ whenever for more info to share 🙂

  • Orchid

    Hi IN’vincible,

    Thanks for sharing about SMAP and contributing all that info.

    I am not familiar with Kimura Takuya either. For Japanese stars, names that come to mind are Takashi Kaneshiro and Ken Watanabe. 😉 (& Takashi is not even 100% Japanese?).

    Before year 2007, i did not know a single Korean celeb either. But am learning fast as i read up and watch Korean movies doing research for this blog. It’s quite fun recognizing more and more faces.

    This blog is a journey of my Korean pop culture discovery.

    So your sharing is invaluable to me and all the newbies to Asian entertainment out there. 🙂

  • IN`vincible

    O_o wow, i’m surprised you don’t know SMAP… SMAP is like the oldest (thru time and maybe age too, lol) group in Japanese they’ve been together for 16-17 years!? ShinHwa actually looks up to them~ 🙂 if you’ve never heard of SMAP maybe you’ve heard of Kimura Takuya – the hottest man in Japan ?! he’s part of the group SMAP! ^o^ so anyway, they have this show called SMAPxSMAP (since 1996) and one part of the show is Bistro Smap where 4 of them are grouped in 2 and they will cook for the guest and the guest will pick w/c group has the best and delicious food!!! They’ve had guests like Madonna, Michael Jackson, Jackie Chan, other famous icons (even Korean celebrities) ~
    here are some pictures of them wearing the chef outfit:
    http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/3600/smap061221oe5.jpg
    http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/3285/post2590111128772944xw2.jpg
    http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/7195/92461171kv4.jpg
    http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/3341/bistrosmap51268mb2.jpg

    names: (red) kimura takuya (yellow) tsuyoshi (green) shingo (blue) goro (host/pink) nakai masahiro

    are you sure you’ve never i guess since this is blog is purely Korean-related I guess that’s a given~ but some of them have worked with famous korean celebrities like: choi ji woo, lee byung hoon, shinhwa, etc~ and takuya was recently in korea to promote his movie (with lee byunghoon) – HERO and I heard he also won ‘something’ in Seoul Drama Awards!

    ok I think I’ve shared enough… sorry, just really suprised with the question!

  • In`vincible

    their clothes (chefs’ outfit) reminds me of SMAP! 🙂

  • Sounds like a good show. Me wanna watch…if the opportunity presents itself 😉

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