In the Korean Kitchen: A morning in the Korean Food and Culture Academy

For a long time I have been talking about doing a Korean cooking class before I  pack up my bags and leave Korea. I love cooking in all its forms, and it would be a crime if I arrived back in the UK without being able to share some of my Korean favourites with my friends and family. So a few weekends ago I finally got a group of friends together and we spent the morning at the Korean Food and Culture Academy learning how to cook up some tasty Korean goodness.

On arrival, we were greeted by our lovely cooking teacher Ellie Hyewon Lee: a specialist in Korean and Western food, she has 10 years teaching experience and has worked on many Korean Dramas as a food stylist. Friendly and impressively knowledgeable, she showed us to our individual prep areas where all of our ingredients and equipment were carefully laid out waiting for us.

Our carefully laid out prep area.

First on the menu was seafood and green onion pancake (해물 파전), a tasty snack which is commonly eaten here in Korea, especially by groups of exhausted  hikers, who usually wash it down with a bowl or two of Korean rice wine (known in Korean as mak-geo-li, 막걸리, the stuff hangovers are made of).

Our pancake mix, ready to go!

Some enthusiastic mixing going on here!

The ingredients for our pancake were as follows:

Korean pancake mix, which Hyewon kindly informed us we could make ourselves by mixing regular flour, seasoning and a little corn starch.

Green onion

Chilli-peppers

Mixed seafood (usually from a frozen bag)

1 egg

Water (equal parts to the flour)

Method:

A little chopping, followed by a lot of mixing.

Putting our ready-to-go pancake mixture to one side, it was time to move onto the star of the show: Dak galbi (닭갈비), which is the Korean name for a mouth-watering,spicy stir-fried chicken dish. One of my all-time favourite Korean dishes, I will definitely be missing it when I go back home and was happy to find how easy and quick it was to make.

Our dak-galbi ingredients.

Ingredients:

Diced chicken (traditionally chicken ribs should be used, but Hyewon explained to us that nowadays the whole chicken can be used)
Onion
Sweet potato
cabbage
Green onion
Carrot
Instant ramyeon noodles (optional

After finely chopping all of the vegetables, it was time to make the spicy red sauce. This consisted of:

- 1 tbspn of Korean chilli paste (in Korean: go-chu-jang, 고추장)

- hot  pepper flakes (it is this and not the hot pepper sauce that determined how spicy the dish will be)

-1 tablespoon of sugar syrup (can be substituted for regular sugar)

-2 tablespoons of soy sauce

- minced garlic

-sesame oil

After combining these ingredients and stirring the resulting sauce into our chicken and vegetables, we moved over to the gas range, where the magic would happen.

Dak Galbi sizzling away deliciously.

Left: seafood pajeon, sadly a few of us burnt ours because we were too busy talking to Hyewon, oops! Right: Dak galbi

Posing with our creations!

When both dishes were ready to eat, we made our way through to the dining room to enjoy the delicious Korean feast we had prepared with our own fair hands! In addition to the main dishes we had prepared,we were also were served a variety of Korean side-dishes (known as 'banchan', 반찬, in Korean) and rice as an accompaniment to our meal. 

Ready to tuck in!

Cooking the two dishes cost us 60,000KRW (about 30 quid, if my mum is reading, which I know she is).

However, as an added bonus for the additional fee of 5,000KRW (about 3 quid, mum) they let you get all glammed up in full traditional gear and strut around pretending you are Korean royalty, which I very much enjoyed. as my friends will tell you.

For a full price list and menu CLICK HERE


The picture of Korean sophistication.

This style of hanbok with the long front is the style befitting Korean Royalty. I think I play the role well ;)

Overall, it was a great morning, we  cooked some lovely dishes and learned some very interesting information about Korean Cuisine. Definitely a must-do for anybody living in Korea and interested in cooking. Some of my friends loved it so much they are even planning a second visit!

Gyeongju Part 3: A Modern Take on Traditional Lunar New Year and Yunnori

As you will know if you read my earlier posts (probably just my mum), in early February my friend and I decided to visit the historical city of Gyeong-ju to celebrate Lunar New Year  (설날). One of the highlights of this trip was joining in the celebrations with the guesthouse owners and other guests. 

For more info about Dreamer Guesthouse and their amazing staff CLICK HERE

On arriving back at our room after a exhausting day of being touristy, the Guesthouse lady asked us if we would like to join the NY party with the rest of the guests which would involve making Tteokguk (traditional Korean NY food of rice cake soup) and playing Yunnori (traditional Korean NY game) for the small fee of 5,000won (I think... it was a while ago and I might have made that up.)

Anyway, before I talk about that, first off I will try to explain the baffling concept of 'Korean age', and how it's different to how we as Westerners think about age:

1) Firstly, for some reason Korean's believe that when a child is born they are already 1 years old. So you are born and straight away you are 1. I don't know exactly why, because even if you counted the 9 months in the womb you still wouldn't be 1, but that's how it is.

2) Secondly, Korean people add 1 year to their age on New Year, not on their birthday. So everybody adds one year to their age on New Year.

3) Thirdly, whether they add 1 more year on Solar New Year (the NY that Westerners celebrate) or Lunar New Year (known as Chinese New Year to most), is up to them. 

If you're interested in working out your Korean age, but the idea of it is just too much to get your head around, CLICK HERE for a link to a handy 'Korean Age Calculator'.

The point of this story being that the reason that making and eating Tteokguk together is a tradition is that when Korean people eat the soup they believe they age one more year. So instead of asking 'How old are you?', it is a traditional custom to ask 'How many bowls of Tteokguk have you eaten?'.

Now you are probably wondering what Tteokguk is exactly. It consists of thinly sliced rice cakes in a delicious  broth made from beef, pork or seafood, seasoned with garlic, onions, seaweed and peppers and served with an egg.

I would like to tell you how to make it, however there was a very protective Korean lady hogging the kitchen (for the Expats reading this, you know what kind of character I mean!)  so I still have absolutely no idea, ha. On the upside, despite the fact that I'm not usually a fan of rice cakes, it was really tasty, not too heavy and not as spicy as other Korean foods. Thankfully, I didn't look or feel any older after it eating it though...

If you fancy giving Tteokguk a try CLICK HERE for a recipe

After washing down our Tteokguk with the obligatory soju and mekju (beer), the Korean guests all set to work making a home-made Yunnori board, that looked something like this:

Each team/player (depending on how many people are playing) has markers and places them on the starting position. 

Next they throw the 'yut' sticks, that look like this:

If 3 sticks land flat side down, but 1 stick is flat side up it is called Do, and the player/team can move 1 space.

2 sticks flat side up is called Geh, and the player/team can move two spaces.

3 sticks with the flat side up is called Geol, and the player/team can move three spaces.

4 sticks with the flat side up is called Yut, and the player/team can move four spaces.

And finally, if 4 sticks are land with the flat side down, this is called Mo and they can move five spaces.

Additionally, if the player/team land on the corner spaces they can then take a shortcut across the board, the objective of the game being to be the first player/team with all of their markers crossing the finish line.

Now here comes the twist:

the Guesthouse owners had a much more exciting take on the game planned for us, and so they did what Koreans do best... turned it into a drinking game!

So in addition to the regular Yunnori board there was also spaces colored in red. If a player/team landed on these spaces they would have to pick a piece of paper out of a 'mystery bag' and do the forfeit on the paper.

Some of the forfeits included:

1) Singing a song

2) Down a drink in one

3) Drink a dirty pint made by the other team (think about some kind of beer, soju, soy sauce, kimchi, oyster sauce, coffee cocktail, yum!)

4) Let the other teams draw all over your face.

5) Take a group photo trying to look cute/ugly/sexy.

6) Write your name in the air with your bum... (weird... but hilarious)

But if you wanted to play you could make the forfeits anything you wanted, but the sillier the better in my opinion. The organisers made a point of separating the foreigners, so that we had to team up with the Korean guests. You would think would be a little awkward, but when you've shared a kimchi/soysauce/beer and soju cocktail together you can't help but be feel a bit closer!

Gyeongju Part 2: Hiking Namsan

Hiking Namsan Mountain: What not to do!

On our second day in Gyeongju we set off courageously for our first solo hike. In theory we should have been able to catch the number 11 bus outside of the Express Bus Terminal... however, obviously it was nowhere to be seen (the first of many failures of the day). So to avoid getting lost we jumped into a taxi only to be confronted by a puzzled taxi driver wanting to know where exactly in Namsan we wanted to go (apparently Namsan is quite big. Who knew!). A very good question, which as the clueless waygooks that we are, we could not answer. After frantically trying to work out the map (all in Korean, which was helpful) we decided to head to Seoculji Pond which seemed to be the closest thing to the mountain. However, after stepping out of the taxi which promptly drove off into the distance, we realised that we were pretty much in the middle of nowhere with no means of getting back to the City but our own two feet. And so, lacking any other choice, we set off up the deserted hiking trail. 

Seoculli Pond. It's pretty but it's not worth the distance we traveled to come out and see it. Especially in contrast to the splendor of Anapji pond which we had visited the day before.

From the pond to Geumbong peak (the second highest) the distance was about 5km, so pretty short in comparison to other hikes. With this in mind I decided to fore-go the usual hiking essentials (backpack, proper hiking pants, etc) and went dressed in jeans and carrying a handbag -_-. This, of course, was not one of my brightest ideas as we soon discovered that although the trail wasn't very long, it was still very steep and physically demanding. That said trundling  along with my bag whacking me in the side and my jeans chaffing my thighs was worth it in terms of scenery and the fact that the trail was almost completely deserted (apart from two bemused men staring at my ridiculous attire). A refreshing change to the popular and over-crowded hiking trails which are usually to be found in Korea. Some of the things we saw along the hike were the 3 tier pagoda:





and this gorgeous viewing point which was a great place to take pictures.

After reaching the top we consulted the map which gave us the option of intermediate, advanced or professional trails to come down by. And so obviously with my handbag still battering against my leg with every step we opted for the intermediate trail... or so we thought. Twenty minutes into the decline, again completely deserted, we realised there was no possible way that an intermediate trail would be so steep and grueling (it was pretty much verticle).... we had accidentally taken the professional trail which was off-limits to your average hiker, especially those prancing around in jeans with a handbag dangling off their shoulder. Our worries were confirmed when we came across numerous signs proclaiming that the trail was too dangerous and prohibiting access. At this point we would have had to scale a rock face to get back up to where we started, so we had no choice but to wolf down a twix (our only source of sustenance) and press on like the warriors we are.  We completed the hike in about 5 hours, emerging onto the road as newly 'professional' hikers in dire need of a shower and a bottle of soju to ease the pain.

In conclusion, the morals of the story are:

1) If you're gunna go hiking you probably shouldn't take your handbag.

2) You should probably decide where you wanna go before you get in a taxi so you don't end up telling them to drive you into the middle of nowhere.

3) If in doubt about which trail to take follow the Koreans. They seem to know best (at least when it comes to hiking).

Click here for info on how to get to Namsan, including how to not accidentally kill yourself by getting lost on a professional trail 

Alternatively, if you want to throw caution to the wind and fancy yourself as a bit of a daredevil you could do what we did and go there completely unprepared and uninformed. It worked out alright for us!

Gyeongju Part 1: Anapji and Dreamer Guesthouse

Another long weekend, another item ticked off of my 'Korean Bucket List'. This time I decided to visit Gyeongju (경주) , the historical capital of Korea, for the weekend of Lunar New Year, or as the Korean's call it Seollal (설날). Gyeongju is one of Korea's most famous tourist spots due to it's historical significance as the first capital of the Korean Peninsula (kind of like the Korean version of York, for the English people reading this.)

Couldn't agree more Mario!

Transport and Budget Accommodation

As can be expected on busy national holidays, the buses for the first day of Seollal sold out quickly and I was forced to travel down to Gyeongju on the Wednesday evening. After a horrendous 7 hour journey (almost double what it usually takes) I finally arrived at the bus terminal at 2am, weary and aching for my bed. I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to get a taxi due to the lateness of the hour, however the bus terminal was bustling with taxi drivers waiting for customers. For people who have not pre-booked accommodation, the bus terminal is surrounded by dozens of Motels, all with the lights on (this means they have rooms available), so cheap rooms are easy to find (You can expect to pay from 40,000won for this kind of room). However, as I was travelling solo and on a budget, I opted for the jimjilbang (Korean Spa) option. The name of the jimjilbang I stayed in was 스카이스포렉스 (I just showed the name to the taxi driver). Having been to numerous jimjilbangs before, I can say that this one is nothing special, having only a few small bath tubs and a rather dated interior. However, the complimentary pj's and towels were clean (extra charge of 500won for a blanket), the room was clean and warm, and it is the closest jimjilbang to the bus terminal (only 5,000won in a taxi). So if you can stand to sleep on the floor for one night, with the sound of Korean ajummas snoring (and sometimes farting) to lull you to sleep, this is by far the cheapest and most economical option at only 8,000won per night.

Dreamer Guesthouse, Gyeongju

Thankfully the next day, my friend Lucy and I had pre-booked a bed in a lovely little guesthouse called 'Dreamer Guesthouse', which we found through Agoda.
On arriving at the Guesthouse we received a warm and friendly welcome from the receptionist, who showed us around the rooms, which were brightly and modernly decorated with many additional girly little touches. We opted to stay in the 8 bed female dorm. Each bed had the following features: curtains, personal reading lamp, bookshelf, slippers and the hugest, fluffiest blanket we have ever seen (We had serious blanket envy!). We particularly liked these features as they provided a level of privacy that we wouldn't usually expect in a shared dorm room. Definitely a step up from the wooden block that passes for a pillow at the jimjilbang. However, the winning feature for us was the foot spa and nail bar which the guests have free reign over. Not really a necessary feature, and I'm sure the boys won't be impressed by this at all, but we loved it and it added a little unexpected  touch of luxury to our stay.

Foot spa at Dreamer Guesthouse

Nail bar at Dreamer Guesthouse

 Follow the link for pictures of the gorgeous interior, and additional info on the types of rooms available:

Dreamer Guesthoust, Gyeongju. Agoda.

Breakfast at the Guesthouse was basic self service but the owners have tried to accommodate both Korean and Western guests, which I thought was very thoughtful of them. Korean style breakfast consisted of noodle soup, and Western style consisted of eggs, toast, jam, butter and filter or mix coffee. It was great value for money, and superior to most hostel breakfasts, however my only complaint (and a very small one at that) would be there was no milk for the filter coffee and no juice :(
An additional bonus is that the Guesthouse is conveniently situated close to both bus terminals which makes getting to all the sights extremely easy.

A bit of History: Korea's first ever Queen!

Gyeongju is packed full of historical sights and museums having once been the capital city of the Shilla Dynasty which rules two thirds of the Korean Peninsula from 57 BC to 935 AD. So if you enjoy geeking out as much as I do then there are plenty of historical bits and pieces for you to drool over.
 My all-time favourite fact of the trip being that during this period women were of surprisingly high status (something that would change drastically in Korea's later history) and Gyeongju is the proud home of Korea's first Queen: the almighty Queen Seondeok. Queen Seondeok not only survived  many male attempts to discredit her claim to the throne (due to her being a women, the shame.)  but also built many great temples, pagodas and buildings including Cheomseongdae,  the oldest surviving Star-gazing observatory in East Asia, and Korea's 31st national treasure.  In fact, her reign was SO successful that she improved the already high status of women in  Silla society, and  led the way for two more female regents after her death. And to think the Spice Girls thought they invented 'Girl Power'...

Cheomseongdae is the oldest surviving star-gazing observatory in East Asia.

Me posing awkwardly (as always) next to the observatory.

Queen Seondeok also has an extremely successful Korean drama based on her life. I'm not sure how historically correct it is, but if you love a good period-drama as much as I do, this might be up your street.


To read about it CLICK HERE

To watch it online CLICK HERE


Anapji Pond at Sunset
By far the most impressive of the sights in my opinion was the Anapji Pond. After our initial confusion due to the fact that it is referred to everywhere as 'Anapji', but the sign for some reason says something entirely different, we managed to time our arrival at the pond perfectly, just as the sun was going down. I'm sure that the pond is still beautiful by daylight, but by night it is absolutely stunning.

No caption necessary.

Proudly sporting my audio tour headset there! 8-)

Anapji pond was originally built as part of the Wolseung Fortress (which no longer stands) during the reign of King Munmu in 674BC. In true kingly style, Munmu ordered the pond to be built in the shape of the Korean peninsula so that he could feel like he was lording it over his whole kingdom at once (He was probably feeling a bit demasculinised after all those female monarchs, bless). In it's heyday the grounds were filled with exotic plants and rare animals and it could hold as many as 1000 people, including envoys and diplomats from all around the world, within it's walls. 
For the geeks among us, an audio tour head set is available in multiple languages for the small free of 1000 won. Although we felt very conspicuous wearing our nerdy headsets (we were the only ones, haha), it was worth it to hear in detail about the history and the various artifacts that were excavated from pond in the 1970's. Among the artifacts, my absolute favourite were the multi-sided drinking dice. The party guests would roll the dice to receive some kind of forfeit or dare. An Ancient Korean version of 'Ring of Fire' shall we say.
 It seems Korea has a long and on-going tradition of drinking games (my kind of country!), which is in keeping with my next blog post which will include a modern (and much more fun) twist on the Korean traditional board game of Yunnori. 
And that concludes this post.

For directions and more info about Anapji CLICK HERE

For a great blog about Anapji and other sights in Gyeongju CLICK HERE