SOCIETY SOCIETY

Left, Min Jin , in blue, and her sisters celebrate the in , 1976; below, Ms. Lee’s parents, Mi Hwa Lee (left) and Boo Choon Lee, do likewise in New Jersey, 2005. MY How a family tradition endures

By Min Jin Lee

y finest hour as a Korean took According to Seollal tradition, a Korean has Upon the completion of a bow, we’d receive an practice of observing Jan. 1 as New Year’s Day, place on a Seollal morning, the to eat a bowl of the bone-white filled with elder’s blessing and money. A neighborhood when it’s called Shinjeong. Some still first day of Korean New Year’s, in coin-shaped slices of chewy cake in order to bowing tour to honor the elders could yield a do. Consequently the country now observes January 1976. age a year—a ritual far more appreciated early handsome purse. two different national holidays as New Year’s— I was 7 years old, and my in life. The garnishes vary by household; my My cousins and my older sister Myung Jin one on Jan. 1 and the other according to the Mfamily still lived in Seoul, where my two sisters family topped our soup with seasoned finished in a jiffy and collected their rewards. moon. When we moved to the U.S., Jan. 1 and I had been born. Seollal, the New Year’s Day shredded , toasted laver (thin sheets of Uncle and Aunt waited for me to bow. Uncle became our Seollal. of the , is one of South ’s processed seaweed), minced scallion and wore a traditional jacket in a dove-gray In our first decade in America, we didn’t most significant holidays. The busy nation ribbons of omelette. Fluffy, homemade jacquard silk with indigo silk pants. He smiled have extras like birthday parties or vacations. rests for three days for family reunions, New floated in our version, making it at me, hoping that I would do well. His face was However, our parents’ thrift allowed us to go Year’s greetings and scrumptious feast dishes. . Aunt’s finely lacquered dining like my father’s but with a wider chin and from that two-room apartment to renting one The holiday is celebrated in similar fashion by table was covered with gorgeous hillocks of deeper grooves on his forehead. with two bedrooms. Five years later, they many Asian communities that follow the lunar food, and from the kitchen came sounds of the I gathered the sides of my blue skirt with made a down payment on a house large enough calendar, from the Vietnamese who observe Tet stirring of pots and the crispy rounds of mung- both hands, stepped forward gingerly on my for three families in the nearby community of to the Chinese who sometimes refer to it as bean coming off the griddle. right foot, bent each knee to the appropriate Maspeth. We lived on the second floor and Spring Festival to the Koreans and their Seollal. But none of us could eat just yet. angles, lowered my noggin to the ground, and rented out the top and bottom floors. We This year the begins on Feb. 14. At last, our parents, the slowpokes, arrived. repeated the New Year’s greeting that I had been always had good school clothes, sneakers and I had been given an especially lovely Uncle lit up when he saw my father. Uncle was practicing privately in my head all morning. warm coats, so when there was no money for traditional to wear that year. The short 27 and Dad was 16 when they left their “Whaaaaaaaaaaahhh,” Uncle gasped with new , my sisters and I didn’t mention jacket was a creamy satin trimmed in blue, northern hometown of Wonsan to flee the admiration. it. In America, we lost visits to Uncle’s house, closing in the front with a tricky sash that my Communists in the winter of 1950. Thinking It was over, and I had not made a mistake. the lunar calendar date and the lovely silk mother had to tie for me. The front panel of the they’d be away for only a few days, they found “That was so beautiful that you get double dresses. Nevertheless, the bowing and the blue floor-skimming skirt was hand-embroi- themselves unable to return. Uncle had left the money,” Uncle said. breakfast remained. Mom still expressed her dered with red plum blossoms. My shoes were behind a pregnant wife and never saw her He handed me an envelope that must have culinary flair in our humble kitchen. She could like rainbow-striped miniature canoes. Of the again or met his child. Aunt was his second been prepared earlier, then withdrew more take a discounted bag of soup bones and make three girls, I was the shy, middle one with wife, with whom he had four children. Between bills from his pocket. a broth that tasted like a miracle. wispy hair and a squint, but in that dress, I felt the two brothers, they had lost contact with a Clockwise from the top: a “Whaaaaaaaaaaahhh,” everyone echoed. In the old days, before Korea’s rapid as bold as an ornamental red-cheeked Korean father, mother, wife, three brothers, two bowl of tteok mandu guk; Double money had never happened before. industrialization fueled national prosperity in bride doll. sisters and an unborn baby. adding garnishes, the final Five weeks later, my family and I landed at the 1960s, average folks dined on rice-cake My sisters Myung Jin and Sang Jin, ages 9 At last it was time. My four cousins, already step; Min Jin Lee at a Korean New York’s John F. Kennedy International soup only once a year. The dish is now readily and 5, were equally resplendent in their teenagers, and us little girls gathered in the grocery in selecting Airport. We were no longer just Koreans, but available at Korean restaurants at a reasonable hanboks, and together we raced to the house of immaculate living room with the grown-ups. the to use in the became the immigrant variety. price. Historically, though, white rice was for our uncle, Lee Ji Choon, heedless of our The floor, made of clay and stone covered with dumplings—the mandu in her That first year, we moved into a two-room the wealthy, and the soup required a great mother’s instructions that young ladies did not traditional yellow oiled paper, was toasty from tteok mandu guk. rented apartment in Elmhurst in the New York quantity of white rice to make the tubes of run this way. My mom, Mi Hwa, and my dad, the old-style Korean ondol system that drew City borough of . In Seoul, Dad had pounded symbolizing longevity and Boo Choon, walked leisurely behind us wearing its under-floor warmth from the cooking stove worked as a marketing executive for a cosmet- prosperity. their woolen coats over their hanboks. in the kitchen. Its surface had been wiped clean ics company, and Mom had taught piano to the Mom grew up in a well-off household in The three of us girls had wound our by hand, and there wasn’t a speck of dirt or a neighborhood children, but in America, they Busan, a city on Korea’s southeastern coast. As a voluminous skirts against our winter-chapped stray black hair to be seen. The walls were joined the lower end of the merchant class and young girl, the day before New Year’s, she would legs to run the 10 blocks from our house to Uncle’s— lined with black lacquered chests inlaid with ran a newspaper kiosk on 28th Street and take a heaping basket of white rice to the tteok- puffs of frozen white breath trailing behind us. mother of pearl. Jade ornaments hung from Broadway in . A year later, they sold maker whose machine pounded and extruded We opened the front gate, cut through the the chests’ gleaming hardware like earrings on the kiosk to buy a tiny wholesale jewelry the soft white cakes in the shape of a garden stone courtyard and burst into the house—its a beautiful woman. business nearby, just south of Manhattan’s hose, called garetteok. She’d take the long tubes delectable aromas embracing us. The day As the family elders, Aunt and Uncle sat nascent Koreatown. From Mondays to of still-warm cakes home, letting them dry a bit before, Mom had gone food shopping with my down on square silk floor cushions on one side Saturdays, they sold nickel-silver earrings by before the women in the house would slice the aunt, Jung Soon Duk, and all night, the two of the room like monarchs, while the rest of us the dozens to street peddlers. After being on doughy cakes into thin ovals to drop into the sisters-in-law had cooked the Seollal breakfast huddled standing on the other. The New Year’s her feet all day, at home Mom pulled her soup. Traditionally, pheasant broth served as with all the feast classics: (stewed bowing would begin. The male bow is a kowtow second shift—cooking, cleaning and watching the base, but over the years people began to use short ribs), japchae (sweet-potato- with a head knock to the ground, and the over us. With the discipline of a trained less-expensive chicken. Nowadays, most house- with julienne vegetables and beef), female bow is a royal curtsy requiring some musician, she managed the daily practice of holds employ a quick broth made from brisket modeum (assorted meat, fish and fancy footwork. First, Mom and Dad bowed, our new lives. In those years, Mom’s glossy or flank steak or water flavored with dried vegetables pan fried in a light egg batter), saying in unison, “May you receive abundant hair began to gray. anchovies or bonito powder. bindaetteok (mung-bean- pancakes), fortune in the New Year.” Next, each of us kids Our first American Seollal reflected our Not my mom. (seasoned vegetables), mandu (dump- bowed separately, following a strict age immigrant pragmatism. In Korea, Seollal Sa-gol-pyuh (beef shin bone) costs little, lings) and of course, the inviolable New Year’s hierarchy, and repeated the same greeting. remains largely celebrated according to the and Mom spent hours, and I mean 10 or 12, Day dish: tteokguk (rice-cake soup). In a way, Besides the awesome food, we kids looked lunar calendar. But while the Japanese were simmering these knobs in intervals, depending tteokguk is to Seollal what the cake is to the forward to Seollal all year long, because there occupying the country between 1910 and 1945, on how long she could stay awake, because she birthday. was no greater opportunity for cash-raising. Koreans were encouraged to follow the had to continually add more water while skim- Alfie Goodrich for (3); Min Jin Lee (family photos)

W10 Friday - Sunday, January 29 - 31, 2010 | THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ASIA. WEEKEND JOURNAL | Friday - Sunday, January 29 - 31, 2010 W11 SOCIETY TECHNOLOGY WHAT’S NEXT

strives to inspire his Ph.D. students with his inimitable spirit of tinkering. He also doubles as a professor at Keio University in Tokyo. It’s a long-distance juggling act that has him, his Japanese wife and their 3-year- old daughter splitting their time between Singapore and Japan. Weekend Journal Asia recently caught a few minutes with the busy Mr. Cheok to talk about his life and where augmented reality might take us next. ming away the fat and froth till the soup was the soup. Her hair, I noticed, was a glorious Where do you like to vacation? paper-white and rich enough to coat a spoon. white crown. Last year, I traveled nearly 200,000 miles, and In America, Mom bought her sliced ovals At the table, Dad said grace, and the that’s been pretty constant for the last five or six ADRIAN DAVID CHEOK Adrian David Cheok of garetteok, but she made her own mandu— brothers-in-law, my sisters and I—all of us years. So now I really don’t like to travel. I hate pastry moons filled to bursting with ground in our 30s and 40s—joked that if we passed airports and airplanes now. If I have any free time, I beef, pork, tofu, chives, shredded zucchini, up the rice-cake soup, we could avoid spend it with my daughter. ginger and a smidge of garlic, salt and getting old—defying the law of time through By Steve Mollman pepper. However, as a Busan native, she’ll ancient Korean logic. But how do you resist Do you prefer Japan or Singapore? tell you that putting dumplings into the New Mom’s rice-cake soup? The Atkins diet and hese days, millions of people tote a camera- They both have pros and cons. The research Year’s rice-cake soup was a concession she aging be damned; we picked up our spoons. equipped phone that packs serious sensor support is amazing in Singapore. It’s a nice and easy made in her marriage to a man from the My first New Year in Tokyo, I decided to capabilities. city to live in. Japan is more interesting from a life- opposite end of the country. As she’d pleat brave preparing my own New Year’s feast, For instance, the latest iPhone—or handset style perspective. There’s so much traditional and another , she’d say, “People from including the centerpiece, tteok mandu guk. based on Google’s Android platform—can pin- modern culture. the North put mandu in everything. Well, Over the phone, Mom recited her recipes. “So pointT your location, thanks to assisted GPS. It also knows your daddy likes it.” easy,” she said, then adding, “There’s a lot of how the phone is being tilted in your hand and in what How do you view your role in the field? In Seoul, we’d eaten our meals off the low, chopping.” direction you’re pointing it, among other things. I would like my Ph.D. students to be the inventors carved jujube table, seated on Uncle and Her japchae requires each finely slivered With the flood of new apps that leverage such and to make the next stage of invention. And if I can Aunt’s pristine floors. In Queens, we sat on vegetable—red and yellow bell peppers, features, there’s no stopping the layers of information make some benefit to society, especially young people, plywood chairs with loose spindles, our carrots, scallions—to be sautéed separately you can receive on your smartphone. using AR [augmented reality], that’s one of my big bounty spread over a chipped-veneer dining with olive oil, salt and black pepper. Dang- The Sekai Camera app (free on iTunes) lets you share goals now. I really think this next generation is totally table. By 1985, I’d eaten nine bowls of New myun (the sweet-potato )—the princi- “air tags”—virtual sticky-notes tied to a specific location— different. They’re the first generation to grow up Year’s soup in Queens when my parents pal ingredient of japchae—is boiled until around Tokyo with other users of the same totally digital. I think that we can make really new bought a house in New Jersey. This time there tender, rinsed, cut down to size, then app. Say you pass by a cool bookstore that’s kinds of learning, so playing and learning become one. were no tenants; we had a house to ourselves. separately sautéed in olive oil, salt and been tagged because it has a great collec- I think that’s what I want to do at the next stage. On their hard-won piece of American soil, pepper. A tender omelette is cut into julienne Another in tion of foreign magazines. View the shop Mom and Dad plowed up a patch of golf- strips. Skirt steak cut like matchsticks is mar- a series of through your phone and the tag pops up on What’s next for augmented reality? articles course-worthy lawn and planted perilla (an inated in , oil, brown sugar the screen. With the app Nearest Tube In two years, it’ll be almost standard for the smart- pondering herb belonging to the mint family), zucchini and a hint of chopped garlic. This is then sau- the shape ($1.99), arrows on the handset guide you phone. You point your phone at the bus stop and see and tomatoes. Dad bought a Weber grill. téed separately, and removed from the pan. of things to the nearest underground rail station in when the next bus is coming. Although they still worked in that dismal The slivered mushrooms are cooked to come London. And apps such as Tweet 360 and jewelry shop on 30th Street with huge rats in in the remaining pan beef juices. What about TwittARound (both 99 U.S. cents) can tell What about further into the future? the basement bathroom, something hap- the spinach? I asked, noting the oft-listed you—whichever direction you face—who In 2015, we may see that we can do AR directly pened when they finally crossed the George ingredient in several Korean cookbooks I’d within your Twitter network is up ahead. onto our...spectacles or sunglasses. Then you don’t Washington Bridge from into been skimming. I felt her grimace over the Welcome to the new world of augmented need to look at the phone screen anymore. Let’s say New Jersey: They began to enjoy life. The international phone connection. Clockwise from top: reality, where through inventive apps, virtual you’re at a party and you know you’ve met someone three of us finished college, and eventually “Not beautiful,” she counseled. Galbi jjim—stewed short information tied to real-world locations—when you view before but you can’t quite remember. If you’ve got this were betrothed. After all is done, the sautéed vegetables, ribs—in a bowl; lifting them through your smartphone—appears on your hand- tiny display...you can look at someone to see who they I brought home a young man who was beef, mushroom, omelette strips and galbi jjim from the pot; set screen. are, when was the last time you met them, where you half Japanese and half white American. We noodles are tossed lightly like a salad with a adding black pepper to Of course, it’s nothing new to Adrian David Cheok. met them last. It’s a kind of augmented memory. married in 1993, and Christopher learned splash of fine for fragrance. Apart the galbi jjim sauce With a penchant for tinkering—as a youth in Australia, After 10 years time we’ll be able to have some kind how to bow on Seollal like a champ. from the meat seasoning, soy sauce never en- he loved to disassemble and reassemble everything from of direct brain interface. Now you use a Web browser Three years later, there was a phone call ters the picture, because it would muddy the electronic toys to his Apple II computer—and a comfort to search Google or something, but if you really can from Seoul. During dinner, Uncle had flavor and color. As for the short-cut version level with different realities (he has Chinese-Malaysian project directly onto your eyes [through a contact lens] slumped over the table. He’d died of a of stir-frying all the ingredients en masse? roots on his father’s side and Greek on his mother’s), Mr. or direct information into your brain, you maybe can stroke. I had never forgotten his expectant “No.” Cheok found himself drawn early on to the field of just walk on the street, think of a question, and directly smile on our final Seollal together, the This will take hours, I thought. augmented reality, a once-obscure discipline that is now get the answer from Google without any external silvery sheen of his traditional jacket, his As a competent home cook with a streak of-the-moment. device. Virtual reality can merge with our brains. kind-hearted boost for an awkward niece. of bravado, I’ve cooked dinners for 30, but Today, the 38-year-old is director of the National This was the first time I saw my father cry. the notion of making Mom’s Seollal menu University of Singapore’s Mixed Reality Lab, where he Steve Mollman is a writer based in Asia. In 1998, our son Sam was born. On his first made me wobbly and sad. Wasn’t this too Seollal, I dressed him in a scratchy hanbok soon to try to do this without her? when he was too young to protest the rain- Still I managed to pull it off. But when Mom bow colored sleeves and pink puffy pants. and Dad decided to visit the next October, I Soon, Sam had three cousins. Then another was determined to get her to make the dishes call came from Seoul. Aunt had passed away. so I could take notes. We went to a Korean With the onset of four grandchildren, market to buy the ingredients. Once back at another bit of tradition fell away. The three the apartment, Mom and I began prepping for daughters lived in New York City and Seollal the Seollal meal. In no time, the fragrance of happened in New Jersey, so the breakfast brown sugar and ginger of her galbi jjim, the became that most American of meals: stewed short ribs, filled my kitchen. A few brunch. Expected at 10:30 a.m. but appear- turns of the wrist and her dumpling filling ing about 11, I’d ring the doorbell and stand was ready. She placed a teaspoon of it onto the behind Sam, my human shield against the floury translucent pastry on her left hand and why-are-you-late-on-Seollal-inquiry. sealed it expertly using a finger dab of egg At my last Seollal in the U.S. in 2007, I white. Rows of dumplings soon lined the tray knew I would be moving to Tokyo a few like ivory beads on an abacus. months later, so I paid closer attention to In places and moments, my Seollal had what my mother was preparing. Her head been lost, but still, we had this. bent studiously, she was cutting up the toasted laver into slender uniform strips for Min Jin Lee is a writer based in Tokyo. Alfie Goodrich for The Wall Street Journal

W12 Friday - Sunday, January 29 - 31, 2010 | THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ASIA. WEEKEND JOURNAL | Friday - Sunday, January 29 - 31, 2010 W9 SPORTS SOCIETY Skipping lunch The new model for high-end golf clubs: Focus on the game, forget the extras THE RECIPES TTEOK MANDU GUK—Rice-Cake Soup with Dumplings From Mi Hwa Lee as interpreted by her daughter Min Jin Lee

I. Guk: Mom’s Beef Broth 3. Over high heat, bring the pot to a boil, II. Mandu (Dumplings) This broth can be made in advance and then lower to a simmer, cover the pot, and You will likely use two to four dumplings a frozen for up to a month. cook for two hours. person for the tteok mandu guk. Extras can Preparation time: 15 to 30 minutes be frozen, and cooked later straight from Cooking time: 10 to 12 hours 4. Remove the shank meat and steak. the freezer, either pan-fried in olive oil on Serves: six to eight people low heat (cover the pan), steamed or boiled 5. Continue simmering the broth and bones in broth. Ingredients in the covered pot for eight to 10 hours n 1.5 kilograms beef shin bones more, skimming the surface occasionally. Ingredients (sa-gohl-pyuh—available in Korean markets) Add water continually to restore the n 50 to 75 skins or gyoza skins n 500 grams beef shank meat original level. (the number needed depends on the n 500 grams skirt or flank steak size—85mm, 95mm or 110mm in diameter) 6. As the broth simmers, let the skirt steak 1. Wash shin bones in cold water. Place cool and then shred it. Dress it with Filling bones, shank meat and steak in a large seasoning (in a bowl, mix 3 tablespoons soy n 310 to 340 grams hard tofu (225 grams stockpot and cover with cold water. Bring sauce, 2 tablespoons sesame oil, 1 tablespoon after water is squeezed out) Mandu ready to cook to a boil on high heat and let boil for five sugar or 2 tablespoons , 1 tablespoon n 1 zucchini, grated (114 grams after water minutes. chopped garlic and 1 tablespoon toasted is squeezed out) sesame seeds; adjust proportions to taste) n 225 grams ground beef (or ground 3. Combine the tofu, zucchini, ground pork, 2. Remove and rinse the bones, shank meat and refrigerate. This will be served as a chicken) onion, chives, ginger, garlic, egg yolk, and steak. Dump the water, clean the pot garnish for the final dish. n 225 grams ground pork sesame oil, salt and pepper in a large and add back the bones, shank meat and n 1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped mixing bowl. steak. Pour in 3.5 liters of cold water, 7. When the broth looks milky white, n 30 grams chopped Chinese chives or making a note of the water level. This is remove the bones and any marrow. scallions 4. Place egg whites in a small shallow bowl. the level you will want to keep restoring as n 2 tablespoons chopped ginger you add water during the second simmer 8. Let the broth cool, then strain it through n 2 tablespoons chopped garlic 5. Take a wonton skin and dab egg white (step 5). a fine sieve. This should yield 3 to 4 liters. n 1 egg yolk around the edge. It can be refrigerated overnight and n 2 tablespoons sesame oil reheated for the tteok mandu guk. You will n 1 teaspoon salt 6. Place about a teaspoon of filling into the use about 350 milliliters of broth for each n 1/2 teaspoon pepper center of the skin, fold over and pleat the bowl. n 2 egg whites (to seal the dumplings) edges. Take care not to overstuff, or the he earliest golf clubhouses $130,000, and, as an all-male club, Above, Whisper Rock in dumpling will burst when cooking. in the U.S., like most of their politically incorrect. (Women and Arizona is a high-end club 1. Place tofu inside a square of cheesecloth T predecessors in Great children are allowed to play golf with a pared-down and squeeze out as much water as 7. Place the completed dumpling, spaced Britain, were golf-only affairs. The there several days a week.) But its clubhouse—grill room, possible. one centimeter apart, on a cookie sheet or elegant Shinnecock Hills clubhouse casual atmosphere (club motto: “It’s locker room, pro shop; plate that has been covered with aluminum on New York’s Long Island, all about the hang”) and two highly left, the traditional, opulent 2. Place grated zucchini inside the foil and dusted with flour. Cook immediately designed by Stanford White in the ranked courses have attracted an en- ballroom at Medinah cheesecloth and squeeze out as much (instructions in Part III), cover and early 1890s, was the first U.S. viable membership that includes Country Club in Illinois water as possible. refrigerate, or freeze in an airtight container. structure purpose-built for golf, something like 40 current or former and it still keeps watch, relatively PGA Tour players, all of whom pay modest in size, over the great links- the full initiation fee and regular style course there. dues. During a recent lunch visit It didn’t take long, however, for there, I spotted Paul Casey, Gary most golf clubs to morph into McCord and Peter Kostis. III. Tteok Mandu Guk country clubs with stupendous club- The low-handicap membership (The Final Combination) houses that offered fine dining and and high expense makes Whisper access to other recreational pursuits. Rock something of an outlier, but (Country clubs built around hunting, Ingredients the clubhouse, confidently done in n boating and carriage-driving actually Arizona-desert style, is to the point. 1.5 kilograms rice-cake ovals (tteok, predated golf in the U.S. by several available in Korean markets) To the left of the entrance is an n intimate, open locker room. To the Rolled egg omelet, sliced into right is the grill room with large half-centimeter-wide ribbons Golf Journal circular tables. Except for the pro Whisper Rock; Nick Novelli (Medinah) (optional) n 240 milliliters shredded JOHN PAUL NEWPORT shop, that’s about it. Architectur- hand for the cost of supporting a Mr. Diedrich’s recently-published cof- lessly into the surrounding desert ally, everything feeds out to the kitchen, other services such as the fee-table book, “The 19th Hole: Archi- rock formations. In the mountain Korean-style toasted laver (seaweed) (optional) putting green, the driving range and locker rooms, and clubhouse staff— tecture of the Golf Clubhouse.” It in- West, timber beams and stacked raw n years.) There have always been a few the courses beyond. essentially, all the non-golf cludes photographs and site-plan stone became the standard. Seasoned shredded skirt steak like Shinnecock, however, that kept None of these pared-down golf amenities that a club offers. sketches of 62 of the most famous and It’s striking, given the large avail- strictly to golf, and such pure golf clubs has anything approaching fine Dues at Dye Preserve, which has a sumptuous U.S. clubhouses, some of able budgets and the presumed 1. Soak the rice-cake ovals in cold clubs are making something of a dining. “The big formal dining room, 15,000-square-foot clubhouse (and them quite recent. desire of developers to make a name water for 20 to 30 minutes to comeback these days. For people where men wear jackets and ties and is not open for dinner), are $9,000 a Many of the great early club- for themselves, how few U.S. clubs separate and slightly soften. (If whose primary interest is golf, they they are fresh, they do not need to women get somewhat dressed up, year. “So that’s $4,000 for lunch,” he houses were modeled after the ever risked avant-garde designs. Different kinds of tteok for sale at a Korean suddenly make a lot more economic be soaked.) After soaking, the ovals just doesn’t work anymore,” said said. Another Florida club, with a English country estates, complete There have been a few recently, grocery in Tokyo sense than do the grand old Richard Diedrich, a clubhouse 50,000-square-foot clubhouse plus a with liveried staff, that the rising notably The Bridge, again on Long will still be hard until cooked. behemoths (about which more later). architect from Atlanta. Yet most of pool and tennis, charges $21,000 in upper-middle classes in America Island, and Liberty National on New You could see the trend the big, old-style golf clubs and dues. “So those members are paying aspired to but couldn’t afford. Soon, York Harbor, but most of the interi- 2. Heat the guk—beef broth—to beginning in the early 2000s, just as country clubs are saddled with huge $16,000 to eat and for the other clubhouse architects struck out in ors look like extensions of the living boiling. 5. When the mandu float to the top, they’re the golf-course building boom was dining facilities. Joe Webster, who stuff,” he said. Yet another club in new directions. Medinah Country room. Comfy chairs surrounding a done. It takes five to seven minutes (six to ending, with the opening of such developed and manages The Dye the area, built in the go-go 1990s as a Club west of Chicago, with its color- big communal fireplace seem almost 3. Drain the rice-cake ovals and add to eight minutes if frozen). The ovals take clubs as Dallas National in Texas, Preserve, put it in dollars-and-cents real-estate play, has an even bigger ful Moorish domes and Byzantine to be a requirement for clubhouses, the broth. seven to nine minutes; they should be soft The Dye Preserve in Florida, Friar’s terms: “Most clubs that are open for clubhouse and is operating under structure, is downright imperial. The even in the heat of the Deep South. and chewy. Head on Long Island, and the dinner at night are losing seven bankruptcy protection. iconic stone Winged Foot clubhouse The most effective overall 4. If the mandu (dumplings) are frozen, add Chechessee Creek Club in South figures on their food and beverage Certainly there will always be in suburban New York, completed in designs, Mr. Diedrich said, are those right after the rice-cake ovals (two to four 6. Serve in individual bowls. Garnish each Carolina. All of these have relatively operations.” There’s no way to know some people able and willing to pay the 1920s, was expressly designed to that best integrate the clubhouse and dumplings a person). If they’re not frozen, serving with a few tablespoons of the small, understated clubhouses, this for sure, but it jibes with for the super-high-end experience, “inspire spiritual feelings.” the golf course—terraces, for wait two to three minutes. steak, omelet ribbons and laver. superb golf courses (those at the anecdotal lore. as well as demand for reasonably As golf spread, regional vernacu- example, that offer sweeping views of last two designed by Ben Crenshaw Those losses are folded into priced, family-oriented country lars developed. The Mediterranean the finishing holes. From the golfers’ and Bill Coore), and no swimming dues. Mr. Webster said that a typical clubs. But smaller economic models, vision of developer Addison Mizner, point of view out on the course, the pools or tennis courts. It’s all about club with 300 members might whether for full-bore country clubs with terra-cotta roofs and wrought- clubhouse, especially when it’s all the golf. spend $1.5 million a year on course or stand-alone golf clubs, are likely iron elements, swept through aglow at twilight, is home port. “That WSJ.com Whisper Rock in Arizona, which maintenance, or $5,000 a member. to dominate if and when new private Florida. Desert Highlands in relationship between the structure A bowl of tteok mandu ( To see mandu in the making, opened in 2004, is another good “Everything you pay in dues above development picks up again. Arizona, from the 1980s, incorpo- and the course is the essence, that’s guk, ready to eat click on Asia.WSJ.com. example. It’s expensive, with that is basically so you can have The grand old heaps remain, rated ancient pueblo structures into the constant, and I hope it never initiation fees running now at lunch,” he said. Lunch is his short- though, and many can be explored in a design that melded almost seam- changes,” Mr. Diedrich said.

W8 Friday - Sunday, January 29 - 31, 2010 | THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ASIA. WEEKEND JOURNAL | Friday - Sunday, January 29 - 31, 2010 W13