Vietnamese food at the McKeesport International Village Festival? Chicken on a stick, egg roll, shrimp fried rice. Chinese food at the McKeesport International Village Festival? Chicken on a stick, egg roll, shrimp fried rice. (2012 menu)

Tribune-Review visits Highland Park's Teppanyaki Kyoto.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review visited Highland Park's Teppanyaki Kyoto, one of the best-kept secrets around. The write-up is rather minimal, though the writer gets it right in the first line:

There’s more to Japanese food than sushi and steak, not that you’d know from the menus of most local Japanese restaurants.

Teppanyaki Kyoto is highly-favored among local Japanese, and by serving foods you're most likely to eat in Japan is one of the most authentic, though steak and sushi places like Ichiban Steakhouse and Nakama are routinely, inexplicably voted the best Japanese in the city. If you go with a small group, I'd recommend each person ordering something different so you can try the all the varieties of okonomiyaki. My personal favorite is the hiroshimayaki.

The Pittsburgh City-Paper had a more extensive review, which I noted in June:

[P]erhaps more surprising than Pittsburghers' taste for tuna tartare is that it has taken us so long to discover the rest of Japanese cuisine. Sure, we all know about sweet teriyaki sauce on beef and salmon steaks, most of us learned to boil ramen noodles in college, and some have probably tried Japan's other staple noodles, soba and udon. Then there are hibachi restaurants, which merge an authentic Japanese cooking style — the griddle — with an inauthentic theater of juggled cleavers and sizzling meat. But these do not give a full picture of Japanese cuisine any more than pasta and pizza sums up Italian. In all the derring-do surrounding eating raw fish, we have all but ignored the deserving hot, hearty fare of an island nation as rocky and rugged as Western Pennsylvania.

Into this void, steps Teppanyaki Kyoto. Kyoto, of course, is the ancient imperial capital, whose name evokes the traditional Japan of tatami mats, temples and cherry blossoms, while a teppan is a flat iron griddle, and yaki means grilled or fried. In a small, serene storefront on Highland Park's revitalizing Bryant Street, Kyoto offers something like a Japanese version of a diner. There is a counter for watching food cook at the open teppan, and a menu comprised of humble yet delicious foods drawn from the menus of the lunch counters, train stations and family kitchens of Japan.

The restaurant is located on 5808 Bryant St. (map), a short drive from the Pittsburgh Zoo. The area looks a lot better today than it does on Google Maps. Their Facebook page is pretty active, with menu updates, pictures, and news.

Japanese film I Wish in Dormont, August 10 - 14.

Japanese movie I Wish (奇跡), which played at the Melwood Screening Room in June, will run at Dormont's Hollywood Theater (map) from August 10th through 14th. The Pittsburgh Filmmakers site summarizes:

The adventure begins with 12-year-old Koichi, whose parents are divorced, and who desperately wants to reunite his family. We see his sullen gaze on the active volcano that touches everything in his new town where he lives with his mother. His younger brother lives with his father. When he learns that a new bullet train line will open, linking the two towns, he starts to believe that a miracle will take place the moment the trains first pass each other at top speed. Features wonderful, natural performances from the kids.

The movie is okay, not exactly "a gem of world cinema", but it's not every day that Pittsburgh gets an Asian movie in its theaters. Tickets are $7, and the showtime is 7:00 pm on Friday the 10th, 9:15 pm Saturday through Monday, and 8:00 pm on Tuesday the 14th.

Remembering Hiroshima's "miracle of terror" in Pittsburgh.

As I wrote on July 30, the group Remembering Hiroshima, Imagining Peace is marking the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, with shadow-making at various spots around the city. These chalk outlines are to represent the casualties of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings and the effect a nuclear blast has on the people it instantly vaporizes. Unfortunately, the Saturday afternoon event at Southside Works was rained out, so I visited "The Unkillable Human" sculpture on the Northshore Heritage Trail.



Beween the permanent installation there, two outlines were made with bungee cords, with yellow roses placed in the center. The sculpture by Frederick Franck is located basically across the street from Warhola Recycling on Chesboro St. (map). A marker there reads:

At Hiroshima Franck was confronted with the shadow of a human being burned into a concrete wall by the atomic bomb.

The indestructible spirit rises from the ashes.

The Shadow Project's website has information about shadow-making events tomorrow, August 6. This year's events aren't well-received by everyone, as one local stooge noted on the Post-Gazette's August 1st write-up:

If they wouldn't have attacked the US they would have not been bombed! Let us NOT lose sight of that fact!

Here's how the Pittsburgh Press editorialized the bombing of Hiroshima on August 7, 1945:

We read the fantastic figures--power equal to 20,000 tons of TNT, 2000 times the destructive force of the British blockbuster--and our lay minds simply can't comprehend the atomic bomb.

Yet this miracle of terror has been wrought by the human mind. The brains of many scientists, working together, have loosened atomic energy, and the brains of industrial engineers have put it to work. Surely this marks a new epoch, comparable to the first use of metal, the discovery of the wheel principle, the invention of gunpowder, the use of electricity.

How lucky we are that our scientists and the British jointly won this race against the Germans. If the Nazis' long research had produced this bomb first, where would civilization be and where would we be today?

Now it can speed victory over Japan. By so doing, it will save countless numbers of American lives. If the mad militarists of Tokyo had any doubts of the outcome before, the great blast that descended from the skies upon their country last Sunday must have seemed to them the proof of doom.

Now they know what President Truman meant when he said the only alternative to unconditional surrender was prompt and complete destruction of Japan--annihilation literally.

And here's the cartoon that sat atop page 10, using the monkey-like depiction that characterized the Japanese during the war:



Right below that cartoon is a letter to the editor from A.W. Pfalzgraf of the American Legion, which in turn quotes from a letter from Pittsburgh's Cpl. William Wingerson, deploring the discrimination against Japanese-Americans and Japanese-American veterans occuring domestically. It reads, in part:

It is very disillusioning to read of such incidents as the enclosed articles portray (cases of civilian action against Japanese-Americans in this country)---disillusioning and disappointing.

Is this the 'democracy' for which we have been fighting?
. . .
The 100th Battalion did a damn good job, and its members deserve the same honor and respect that is every soldier's due. It must be very demoralizing to think of going home to face desecrated graves, evictions, abuse, threats, etc.

My suggested solution is that the [American] Legion back up and fight for our Japanese-Americans nationally.

More on contemporary local Japanese-American residents a little later this month, hopefully. For now, as I noted last week, in past years (2008, 2011) there have been other pacifist events to commemorate the bombings, although no details have been released just yet for 2012, maybe because local universities are still on summer break.

Linda Fang at 2012 Three Rivers Storytelling Festival, August 11.

Northland Public Library in McCandless township (map) will host the 2012 Three Rivers Storytelling Festival on August 10 and 11, which will include China's Linda Fang on Saturday. The McKnight Journal has a profile:

Kimbap, tteokbokki cooking class at Dasonii, August 26.

Dasonii Korean Bistro in Robinson township (map) will hold its monthly Korean cooking class on Sunday, August 26, at 12 pm.

It is only $15.00 per person. We are going to have Ddukbogi and Gimbap for lunch and you will take home Gimbap for your family or your dinnner. Please call us or write e-mail to me. We had 17 people were attanded on last Kimchi class. Class will be limited to 20 people.

Previous cooking classes include kimchi, naengmyeon, mandu, and bibimbap. As I said last month, the "cooking" is a bit of a misnomer, as it's more of an introduction to and preparation of certain Korean dishes because many of the ingredients are already cooked, mixed, and ready. Nonetheless it's a great start-up social club in a city that doesn't have too many, and the owners of Dasonii have been generous enough to open their restaurant on Sundays to accommodate it.

Also rare in Pittsburgh is a kimbap + tteokbokki combo for $15 or less, a set that would cost about $2.50 in Korea. Dasonii and Green Pepper each charge $10 for their tteokbokki, and kimbap goes for as much as $8 or $9 around town.

Documentary Nuclear Savage: The Islands of Secret Project 4.1, August 5, and 2012 Shadow Project remembering Hiroshima.

The Melwood Screening Room in Oakland (map) will show the 2011 documentary Nuclear Savage: The Islands of Secret Project 4.1M on Sunday, August 5, at 6:00 pm. A Huffington Post review summarizes:

Nuclear Savage is the story of what we did to the Marshall Islanders throughout the Cold War with our nuclear testing program. Not only did we expose many thousands of them to ghastly -- often lethal -- levels of radiation with 67 nuclear blasts, with glaring evidence that at least some of the exposure was intentional, done for the purpose of studying the effects of radiation on human guinea pigs; not only did we wreck the Marshall Islanders' way of life and pristine paradise, creating a nation of internal refugees confined to a Western-style slum on the island of Ebeye; not only did we cower, as a nation, from any real responsibility for what our fallout did to these people, settling our genocidal debt to them with $150 million "for all claims, past, present and future"; but also, throughout our dealing with them as nuclear conquistadors, we displayed a racism so profound, so cold-blooded, its exposure must forever shatter the myth of American exceptionalism.

The screening, says the website,

will be preceded by shadow-making and followed by live exchange via skype with peace activists from Kobe, Japan.

One of the co-sponsors of the evening is the local Remembering Hiroshima Pittsburgh group, which will organize shadow-making around the city leading up to the August 6th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Not shadow puppets, as I first read it, but chalk outlines to represent the casualties of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings and the effect a nuclear blast has on the people it instantly vaporizes.


Hamilton, ON, 2011, via The Hamilton Spectator.

In previous autumns (2009, 2011) Pittsburgh has held a lot of other pacifist events to mark the bombings, although no details are out yet about 2012 (summers are very slow at local universities). These programs are small but very encouraging, as the US does not currently have a significant peace movement, or an appetite for honest reflection about its fascination with war. More troubling is how unpopular and even dangerous it is to speak out against war, current militaristic attitudes, or banal militarism in "for the troops" marketing and public rhetoric that honor those who continue to shape the world with weapons.

McKeesport International Village Festival, August 14 - 16th.

The 53rd annual McKeesport International Village Festival will take place from August 14th through 16th, in the city slightly southeast of Pittsburgh. The festival's Facebook page has some information about what to expect:

Did you know that this year's festival is poised to be better than ever? It's true! Festival organizers are in the process of enhancing the annual three day ethnic celebration so that it will reflect more of its cultural roots. Games, slides and other carnival-type attractions are being downplayed this year. In addition, those in attendance will now have access to a brand new series of educational demonstrations that focus on heritage and traditions of the different nationalities. This is definitely one summer event that you and your family won't want to miss.

And the festival's website says:

Each year, you’ll find more than a dozen booths selling freshly-made ethnic foods from around the world, continuous live entertainment, live music for dancing, crafts, community information and games. New this year are short educational sessions about world cultures, presented by the same organizations whose food booths—each representing a different nationality or culture—have been a Pittsburgh-area tradition for more than a half-century.

International Village is entirely run by volunteers, including many of the ethnic churches, temples and social organizations in the McKeesport region. It annually draws more than 20,000 people to McKeesport’s historic Renziehausen Park, home to many other attractions, including an extensive walking/fitness trail, a heritage museum and Pennsylvania’s second-largest rose garden.

Admission is $2, not including food, and the festival will be held at Renzie Park (map). Several Pittsburgh buses go to McKeesport (60, 61C, P76, for example), but it's still a hike from the bus stops to the park.

Strangely, the festival's poster shows a North Korean flag.



Though Korean isn't listed among the participating cultures on the festival's website, presumably all of the Koreans visiting will be from South Korea. It would be interesting to show a little about the culture of North Korea, but the poster would be more representative of the region's Koreans if it depicted the southern flag. While Korean visitors next month probably won't pitch a fit like that seen a few days ago at the Olympics over the wrong Korean flag, it's a careless mistake that will, at least, make people scratch their heads. I'm no graphic designer, but here's a quick fix that's on the right track:

3D-origami class at Carnegie Library Oakland, August 7.

The Carnegie Library of Oakland will host a 3D origami class on August 7th, as a Hands-on Workshop.

Join us for HOW, a series of hands-on workshops for adults and teens. Learn from skilled craftspeople. Dig in and try things out in a creative, supportive environment. Join us for one or all of these free programs. Materials provided.

Sasha’s unique 3D origami arts are far more ornate than traditional origami pieces and make great looking decorations.

Registration is required, and you can do so on the event's listing at the library website. That library has origami classes periodically, and will have more on Saturday, August 18th: a beginners' class at noon, an advanced class at 1:30, and a kids' class at 4:30. Browse the CLP events page for details on these and other upcoming activities.

Kimchi class at Dasonii Korean Bistro, July 29th.

The meetup.com Korean Language Study Group will meet on Sunday at Dasonii Korean Bistro in Robinson Township (map) for another Korean cooking class, this time making kimchi.

Kimchi is one of most famous Korean traditional food and we'll learn how to prepare and make kimchi during the class this day.
. . .
The cost of this class is $20 and it includes the class, 1/2 gallon Kimchi and Kimchi Chigae lunch.

There is limited space available---earlier there was a waiting list, and now there is one spot open---and you'll need to RSVP on the meetup.com page. Past events included mandu (dumplings) and bibimbap, although the "cooking" is a bit of a misnomer, as it's more of an introduction to and preparation of certain Korean dishes. Nonetheless it's a great start-up social club in Pittsburgh, and the owners of Dasonii have been generous enough to open their restaurant on Sundays to accommodate it.