Busan’s Unique Venues: The Face of Korea

The last airline to receive the iconic Boeing 747-8i passenger jet was Korean Air. 

New York City is home to 73 Michelin Star restaurants, with a new batch of awards due this fall. Before the official ceremony on November 7, the world renowned guide has announced a batch of 15 new restaurants that can be up for stars or Bib Gourmand recognition this coming year.

Delta Air Lines is making changes to its onboard food and beverage offerings, just in time for autumn.

Korean Air is one of the very few airlines in the world still flying the Boeing 747 jumbo jet, despite many other carriers ditching it during the pandemic.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Rowena Shek. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Seoul is a megacity, with a population of nearly 10 million and a name pronounced like “soul.” There were times when I couldn’t stand its scale and pace of change, but I have managed to find a tranquil corner and continue to live in this city.

Since leaving my native Norway, I find myself constantly telling people about brunost. Pronounced “broon’ust,” it simply means “brown cheese.” But brunost is nothing like any other cheese.

The Brazilian artist Wanda Pimentel’s “Envolvimento” paintings (1968-84) are hard-edged domestic vignettes — kitchens, bathrooms, the insides of cars — rendered in a lean, almost festive palette of mostly reds, greens and yellows. In these claustrophobic spaces, feminine-seeming thighs, ankles, feet and hands make fetishistic cameos, jutting out at awkward angles or lingering near water puddles and toilet-paper rolls. Sometimes, they’re framed by thick, windowpane-like lines that cast the viewer as a peeping Tom. “The house is not only a space of intimacy but also of fear,” says Alexandre Gabriel of São Paulo’s Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel gallery, which will present Pimentel’s work at the Independent 20th Century art fair in New York City next month.

South Korea’s capital is electric. Among its neon lights, K-pop and fast-paced energy, you can feel the current, the hum of activity moving through the streets. Nowhere is this more evident than in Itaewon, Samcheong-dong and Hongdae, neighborhoods popular with the city’s creatives.

China dropped mandatory COVID-19 testing for incoming travelers on Wednesday, becoming one of the last countries in the world to do so.

“I'm having déjà vu,” said Chi, my wife. We were in a modest, slightly antiquated room whose contents included a few pieces of lacquered furniture, folded sleeping mats, a rotary phone, a CRT TV, and an old sewing machine. It was a facsimile of the kinds of multipurpose living quarters that many middle-class Seoulites occupied during the decades of postwar economic growth that turned South Korea into one of the world's most developed nations. But for Chi, it was a portal back to when she was six and living in her grandfather's Seoul apartment before her move to the States.

As autumn collections go, it’s looking pretty spectacular. On September 12, the Peninsula opens its doors in London for the first time. The position is superb - overlooking Hyde Park corner, close to Buckingham Palace. Architect Peter Marino has opted for a calm and considered approach in the 190 rooms and suites; they are as large and well-designed as you'd hope from their price tag, from £1,300 a night.