Happy Thursday afternoon! For anyone new here: this is The Skinny, where we serve up curated, need-to-know lifestyle news designed to entertain and save you time, which is everyone’s most valuable resource.

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What we’re covering: 

• A culinary journey to Korea for Chuseok, the harvest moon celebration (and, a deal on a bibimbap kit)

• With ski season approaching, the workout you need for optimal performance and injury prevention 

• A wild week in grocery store news, including: Amazon’s new value line, shoppy shops, ‘grocery tourism’ and a new way to score a date in Spain

• You heard us: skinny jeans are back 

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Pantry raid

A culinary journey to Korea for Chuseok

The Skinny: Next week brings Chuseok (pronounced: choo-sock), a celebration of the harvest moon and the season’s turn from summer to autumn. It’s often referred to as “Korean Thanksgiving” because of the mass exodus from the cities to congregate at grandma’s house for a long weekend of good eats. With hot Korean foods such as kimchi and gochujang already popular in the U.S., we checked in with our friends at Kim’C Market—a purveyor of specialty, hard-to-find Korean foods—about what our readers should know about Chuseok. 

In this overview of the festival, we learned about this 3-day holiday’s strong connection to food.  Memories associated with the aromas of labor intensive dishes prepared for a holiday are long lasting. And the Korean ancestral celebration of Chuseok is no exception. This year, Chuseok falls on Sept 16th-18th.

For snacks, since Chuseok is a harvest celebration, bugak vegan crisps are appropriate since they are made from a variety of produce (such as lotus root, sea tangle and hot pepper). And these particular bugak crisps are made by the daughter-in-law of fourth generation Korean nobility, developed using traditional and historical processes.

A staple Chuseok dish is Japchae (sounds like chop-chay), the sweet potato noodle often called “glass noodles”.  After boiling, they are added to a pan of fried veggies seasoned with soy and sesame. In addition to the recipe from My Korean Kitchen, we’ve rounded up James Beard Award-nominated chef Ji Hye Kim’s Chuseok japchae memories, and a quick tutorial from @chefchrischo on instagram.

Add to cart: This deal on KimC Market’s Bibimbap kits, now at 15% off with code CHUSEOK15. Kim’C Market also sells glass noodles and japchae kits — simply rehydrate the vegetables before frying. And, Jill loves her ceramic bowl/ pot with a lid for stovetop cooking and baking in the oven for rice and noodles.

Ski you soon

Hit the bumps with style

The Skinny: Yep, it is still technically summer and we’re barely into apple picking weather but now is when we start to get excited about aprės hitting the slopes. Optimizing your power and style while skiing, without getting injured or fatigued, is critical to a great season so we’re attempting to do something that is against our nature: planning ahead. But the thing is…skiing uses different muscles not always used during Sangria and Spritz Season, so the ski-prep workout is pretty specific and focuses on: hip flexibility, strength training to prevent ACL injury, and balance. 

Two to try:Six core moves (without equipment), or a longer and more detailed workout for you to pick and choose exercises from if customizing your own. WInter cocktails and fashion will follow.

Grocery shop talk

Singles’ aisles, Amazon’s new saver brand & grocery store tourism  

The Skinny: From the perimeter to the wine section, grocery news is all over the aisle this week with plenty of news for your reading cart. Starting with the buzziest, Amazon has announced a saver brand to take on the other colorful, low-price/high-quality brands out there that – as Fast Company mentions – are all starting to look the same. And for that matter, they’re even starting to sound the same (Good & Gather, Bettergoods, Bowl & Basket) We’ll be following closely to see how Amazon Saver stacks up.

For the record: If you love having a late night frozen pizza like we do, the Good & Gather rising crust is one of the best we’ve tried. 

On the more highbrow side, we have these “shoppy shops” in our neighborhoods, which are definitely proliferating in Brooklyn. You know, the kind of place where you might splurge on artisan butter and then realize “wtf, I just spent $12 on butter” (but damn, it does taste good). That said, we appreciated Grub Street’s take on how they too are all starting to look the same. 

And finally, things have gotten out of control at EU grocery stores with the rise of “grocery store tourism” — apparently many prefer visiting foreign grocery stores to overcrowded tourist traps. Also, a Spanish chain is gaining notoriety with singles descending on the wine aisles from 7-8p – using upside-down pineapples as a signal – as a way to hook up/score a date instead of going online. 

Last look/laugh: Reactions as a 6’6” bodybuilder walks through the grocery store (mind you, this is his whole TikTok feed). 

Crème de la Skinny  

Dust off those skinny jeans

The Skinny: As perhaps a nod to one of our favorite trend aesthetics of the last decade, indie sleaze, it does appear that skinny jeans are inching their way back into the fashion zeitgeist. For evidence, look no further than to Miu Miu or the usual fashion pundits like Vogue – who has the answer on how to wear them “without looking tragic” (which is simply, Kate Moss).

If you want to try the look for under $40, these Levi’s are a good place to start; we also enjoy this Good American pair and of course to avoid looking cheugy, here are the shoes to wear with them. The general rule of thumb is to consider the proportions: skinnys look best with boots or chunky loafers/sneakers and balanced with a slouchy jacket or sweater.

OHM, THERE'S MORE

This week’s newsfeed

• Copycat corner: easy Starbucks egg cups. 

• Here’s an annoying travel influencer trend you won’t want to (literally) get behind: As one commenter notes, “you would get tased in JFK for this.”

• We’re not skipping over apple season entirely, but instead of pie, we’re going to make this incredible looking apple grilled cheese (note the garlic clove hack). 

• NY Fashion Week has come and gone but if we’re looking back at the street style, our top three: the return of leopard, sport elements and leather tops (but, be wary of faux leather, as our last two faux leather items straight-up disintegrated)

• If you’re thinking about an Apple Watch 10, time to check out its new health and wellness features.

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