It's not too late to order gifts online for all the Korean foodies on your list. From spam to pears to drama, this holiday gift guide has something for Korean food lovers of every age. For friends and family that are far away, you can order food, gift baskets, and Korean gifts from any of these online grocers. For your peeps in Korea, order fruit, flowers, and other edibles from one of these Korean gift sites (many offer free next-day delivery in Seoul).

I love throwing cocktail parties because the menu is always easier and timing is simple when you're just doing finger foods, snacks, and cocktails.

Korean Cocktail Party Plan for the Holidays

• Yogurt Soju

• Apple Soju
• A few different types of Anju, from easy things like nuts to more savory dishes like Pa Jun (Korean scallion pancake)
  

Whether you write it teokbogi, teok pokki, or tteokbokki, it is still an unstoppable plate of bright red deliciousness. I never really liked dukboki much until I had it shivering at midnight in Korea. I was there by myself for one summer as a young teen, and my aunt had ordered one of her older teen nieces to entertain me for a few days. The dutiful distant cousin-in-law took me to a waterpark with her boyfriend and friends, but the evening turned unseasonably cool and I began to shiver in my wet clothes on the long bus ride home. Like all good Koreans, they became concerned about the wind blowing on my cold wet hair and the possibility that I might catch a stiff breeze and a harsh cold. They immediately took a detour and brought me to a pojangmacha with what they promised would be the best dukboki I ever tasted.

I was a little skeptical as I watched the lady break up huge chunk of ramen noodles and drop them into the bubbling cauldron. But it was, and still is, the best bowl of dukboki I've ever had. It had hot dogs and ramen in it, a combination that I don't normally recreate at home, but you'd understand if you tried it.

If you're celebrating the American holiday tomorrow, then I hope you have a wonderful feast day with loved ones. Whether you sit down to a traditional American meal with turkey and all the trimmings, an eclectic table that has stuffing next to the kimchi, or a restaurant meal, I hope you have a lot to be thankful for this year.

Let's quickly talk leftovers. You can use turkey in noodle dishes like chapchae and also in almost any of the soups and stews. There's also a list of good ideas for using leftover turkey here.

Rice ("bab") is the cornerstone of Korean meals. It's so important to the Korean table that you can even refer to food in general as "bab". A Restaurant Tip: When you're looking at a Korean menu in English, if something has "bap" or "bop" in the name, then it will be a rice dish.

• Bibimbap (Korean Mixed Vegetables with Rice)
• Hwe Dup Bap (Korean Mixed Rice with Sashimi)
• Kimbap (Korean "Sushi" Rolls)
  

Seoul Eats has a few mouthwatering Photoblogs from the Amazing Korean Table Event that took place in Seoul. Ginseng Kimbap and Foie Gras with Kimchi? It all looks incredible.
The Street Festival Photoblog

Master Class Photoblog

Jaengban Gooksu, a cold soba salad, is healthy, filling, and colorful. It can be a hearty meal with the addition of meat or hard-boiled egg, and it's effortlessly super-healthy with buckwheat noodles and a dressing made from broth, not oil.

Soba salad photo © Naomi Imatome 2009, licensed to About.com.

I'm still in love with Korean-style frozen yogurt and I spread my love around- I go to the closest Red Mango, Pinkberry, or Yogurtland for my fix. I also make it at home with tart Greek yogurt or plain organic yogurt mixed with vanilla. The best thing about this type of frozen yogurt is that it's actually real yogurt (in the past, frozen yogurt in America was made of very little REAL yogurt). So you get a delicious treat (or lunch if you're one of those people that can make a meal of a yogurt or a salad) plus all the health benefits of the good bacteria.

There was some anecdotal evidence that kimchi helped people recover from SARS (avian bird flu), and South Koreans were mostly unaffected by the bird flu that swept through Asia. So these days, with rising concerns about H1N1 during the winter season, South Koreans are eating more kimchi than ever to ward off this new flu.

I'm not a doctor and I don't even play one on TV, but I do know fermented foods/probiotics are always recommended as preventative medicine to strengthen the immune system. I also swear by a cold remedy tea which includes ginger and hot chili pepper, two ingredients found in many types of kimchi. But it's nice to have an excuse to eat more kimchi, so this is the first news about H1N1 that is good news to me.

The "Amazing Korean Table: World Feast of Gastronomy 2009", Seoul's first gourmet food festival, will take place from October 28th - November 1st. It's an over-the-top fantastic title for what sounds like it will be pretty incredible event: Korean nouvelle cuisine, celebrity chefs from around the world, young chef competitions, master cooking classes, and Korean street fare and slow food tasting events.