Banchan Breakfast, Day 3

There was a feeling reminiscent to that of a holiday in our own culture - Thanksgiving or Christmas. We stayed up into the midnight hour to prepare our recipes for the following morning's breakfast. There's nothing quiet as comfortable and homey as co-creating a common meal. Music, B-boy dancing, taking turns in the small kitchen space, cutting, rinsing, sprinkling, simmering, mixing, washing, cleaning....

 We were determined to re-create some of the amazing banchan dishes we'd tried at our first dinner...bracken root in perilla powder/oil; lotus root in syrup; and a few other dishes: tiny dried fish with peppers in sesame oil, soy sauce, and vinegar; marinated garlic scapes; cabbage in perilla powder; spinach with sesame seeds; the staple rice (we used brown, as its more nutritionally complete); cut up fresh figs; and mussel 'tang' (stew). An incredible breakfast!

We started our mission at the street market. The fleet of us went in search of our planned list of ingredients, along with our invaluable translator, producer and cameraman. We spent quite some time looking for and deciding on the appropriate/right amount of produce. I was aghast, as I never cease to be, at the abundant variety of produce which is still so enticing and wondrous to me even after 8 months of being here, and at the foods I don't know the words to. I stopped to admire the numerous banchan dishes at one stall and a woman offered me a sample of one dish - it was a mixture of back beans, dried banana chips, peanuts, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, raisins, and figs in a thin syrup. She continued to feed me morsel after morsel, seed after seed, until someone else stepped in and relieved me from the tasting ( I was thoroughly grateful, but still full from lunch).

 Another exciting moment was finding a vendor who ground perilla seeds on the spot! into oil and powder! So lucky us, we got some.

I made the lotus root dish. Lotus root has intrigued me from the first time we met. A tuberous root at first sight, but when sliced it reveals a beautiful geometrical design inside. Its flavor is starchy and nutty. Its texture is crisp, but tenderly chewy. This root is versatile in its role, and can be eaten as fruit in numerous desserts; as an accompaniment to savory courses; and on its own as a side portion. Often compared to the Chinese water chestnut and similar in versatility to the potato, its high in fiber, vitamin C, some B vitamins, many electrolytes, and minerals.

 First I peeled the tuberous lotus root, then thinly sliced it, boiled it in water for about twenty minutes, then drained the water, added soy sauce, brown rice syrup, sesame oil, and a few dashes of apple cider vinegar. Constantly stirred for about half an hour, then kept adding more of the same ingredients to taste. After what seemed like eons of stirring and adding, stirring and adding, I let it sit for the flavors to concentrate overnight. In the morning, all was well and the dish was complete. It was a fair comparison in the end, to the lotus dish we had eaten at the restaurant the first night. The texture was tenderly chewy, starchy, and wholesome. Filling and sweet. Could make a good dessert as well. But it also melded perfectly with the other flavors of the morning. I'm becoming a proponent for foods that combine as many different flavors as possible in one bite. I also realize the importance of simplicity, but there is a time and a place for each. There's something inexplicably satiating about experiencing each sensation of flavor in one meal. Every taste-bud is quenched, which makes me wonder if every organ is also happy....

We had the driver evaluate our dishes honestly and he pointed out that only two of the 6 dishes we made were distinguishable as non-native-made dishes. He was impressed. 

It proved to be surprisingly simpler than I thought to re-create such dishes. They are really all quite simple, but it takes taste-testing intuition and some time learning to navigate the markets to bring a desired result to fruition. I would suggest, if you are interested in making Korean recipes, to walk around the markets, ask questions (via translator is best, but a dictionary can also be an invaluable tool), browse recipes online, and don't be afraid to experiment!

Lotus root being cooked

Various banchan dishes

Geometrically-perfect lotus root

Morning's spread minus the brown rice

Kimchi-Making   It started with the harvesting of the enormous, organic, green cabbages at the eco-village farm earlier that day. We pulled up in our tour van to the restaurant we would eat at that night, equipped with cabbages from which to make kimchi. Cutting boards, knives, and cabbages were placed in front of us on the outdoor picnic table in front of the restaurant. The owner of the restaurant came outside and set us up with the necessary supplies and guided us through the process. Gloved and ready, we pulled off the outer leaves and any dried or brown tips. The giant cabbages were cut vertically in half and then a slit of about two inches was made into the interior of each cabbage. Then a large silver bowl filled with water was placed on the table, and we all took turns rinsing and then salting each leaf with coarse sea salt. We placed these leaves in a container and covered them with a ceramic pot to ferment. We were then given cabbage which had already reached its fermentation point, to smother in the flavor medley that was to become the hallmark of the kimchi.  We julienned carrots, onions, radishes, apples (which was surprise to me) and spring onions and tossed them in the bowl with the chili pepper powder, garlic, ginger, anchovy paste, and vinegar. The restaurant owner had previously measured out the appropriate portions for us, so we didn't need to do much figuring. As you can see, there is a beautiful dance of flavors that come together to create this Korean staple.  Next step was to rub the completed sauce into each leaf, roll it up like a blanket over a baby, and set it in its wide ceramic dish with its friends. I tried the kimchi, which was tasty but a bit too spicy for my liking. I gasped for water and let the rest of the group finish up the job.  The colors involved were quite something. And also, as I mentioned, every flavor was represented in its making, which I always think makes for a complete dish. The coolest thing about kimchi is its reportedly remarkable health benefits such as its high lactobacilli content which is great for digestion and fighting infection. It's also high in vitamins A, B, and C. Salting the cabbage Kimchi ingredients Kimchi prep Self-explanatory?

Why Hansik Food Tour?

I have always been enamored with food. With flavors, with textures, with physiological effects of food, nutrition, with the complex alchemy of cooking, with different cultures' relations to food. I was also interested in learning recipes and more about Korean ingredients I always see at markets and wonder about. When I found out about this food tour for foreigners, I thought 'perfect. Culture, food, an emphasis on local and organic foods, connecting with like-minded individuals, travel, writing. What could be better?' 

Hansik provided us with an extremely comfortable and luxurious weekend of taste-bud extravaganza brought to us by various high-caliber restaurateurs in the Jeollabukdo region of South Korea. 

The experience proved to be olfactorily delightful. We got our hands dirty in the soil planting garlic, harvesting cabbage, and making kimchi. We sought out local ingredients at the market to make our own banchan dishes, trying to replicate what we'd eaten on our first night; we participated in the process of making tofu, of fermenting magkeoli, of butchering a chicken for our lunch, of staying in a traditional Hanok village, of marveling over the unique qualities of Korean food...

Everything I could have expected and more. 

Some highlights of the tour:

Making Tofu (afterwards we were offered the  milk leftover from the process - i.e. soymilk - very creamy, rich, smooth)

Perilla seed 

Sunchoke (Jerusalem Artichoke) Leaves, highly regarded for liver function, digestion, and cholesterol benefits

Sunchoke (Jerusalem Artichoke) root itself. Crisp, delicious.

These beauties are the banchan dishes we individually made for our breakfast

Flat-fish skin gelatin! (according to the cook, "you'll never need botox if you eat this" !

Last lunch together - sushi, raw oysters, and cooked flounder

Jeollabukdo Hansik Food Tour

Restaurant #1

When we first entered the restaurant through the kitchen to wash the hot pepper off our hands from making kimchi, we were offered a hand-fed bite of freshly-made pure white, firm tofu. It tasted fresher and more earthy than any other tofu I'd had before. And it was especially rare to be hand fed a crumbly chunk from the woman who was behind its making. Next, she presented a dish of bracken fern ('gosari' in Korean), also known to us westerners as fiddlehead, which I later learned was powerfully enhanced in taste by perilla powder and perilla oil (more on this later). This was followed by a sampling of a Korean rice dessert drink called 'sikhye' which I'd tasted before in restaurants, but only as a very sweet, almost indiscernible sourced beverage. This sikye, however had a delicate but definite rice quality and was sweetened to a moderate perfection.
By now, I was overcome with curiosity and primed for what our dinner was to be like.
We climbed the wooden stairway to a loft-like area where we sat on colorful silken soft cushions on the heated floor and were quickly served our first course of snow-white tofu sprinkled with black sesame seeds, fresh kimchi and the tenderest, most flavorful, fatty pork I've ever eaten. All beautifully arranged on one platter.
Next came the banchan dishes (Korean 'side dishes') nestled on a woven platter. They consisted of pickled garlic; pickled cabbage; raw white radish and a dark wild mountain green mixed with chili paste; sweetened pickled cucumbers; a dish on its own of kimchi; bracken fern; and one of my personal favorites - slices of chewy but slightly crunchy lotus root ('yeongeun' in Korean) marinated in a sweet sauce of brown rice syrup, sesame oil and soy sauce. One might compare lotus root to what we know as water chestnut in Chinese cooking, but its a bit heavier, chewier and starchier. And when sliced, it has a complex, geometrical design which you can see in the photo below. It's high in iron, vitamins B and C, and fiber. It's a very versatile food - can be eaten as a fruit, sliced and stir-fried, or made into a tea for digestive problems. This dish was quickly devoured.
The next dish was 'dotorimuk' which is acorn jelly. A brownish, slightly bitter flavored jelly, rich in starch, proteins, and fiber, whose flavors really come out in its sauce - drizzled in toasted sesame oil and topped with sesame seeds, its perimeter consisted of crisp green cabbage mixed with cucumber, onions, and chili paste for a fresh-from-the-ground, invigorating burst of spiciness. At this point I wanted to keep eating it, but I knew that more was to come and was starting to feel overwhelmed by the idea that I would have to put an end to my enjoyment of the previous dishes!
Then came individually-served black ceramic bowls containing crab legs in-shell with slices of spring onion, sesame seeds, and a thin shallow layer of fishy broth. Though delicious, I found these hard to eat because of the shell situation and was already getting very full, so I went on to the following dish which was a patty of tender ground beef mixed with onions and garlic and thinly drizzled with two different sauces, one sweet and dark, the other yellow and more tart.
Fearing we'd be served more and that I might not even have the room left to sample it, I stopped after a few bites, though thoroughly relishing it.
Finally came a dish of the classic chewy, warm, slightly toasted white rice cakes with a side bowl of syrup to dip them in. This was the tipping point for me.
And a perfect end to the meal was a cool, light reddish colored digestive tea of schizandra ('omija') also known as the 'five-flavored fruit' for it encompasses the flavors of sweet, sour, salty, pungent, and bitter.
The restaurant owners and servers were very hospitable and generous, answering all of our questions, bringing us into their kitchen, explaining how they made everything from scratch and used local, organic ingredients, and even made kimchi with us outside on their picnic table!
Upon leaving, we walked out through a different part of the restaurant which housed private booths of hand-cut looking wooden tables, delicately hung string lights, and a piano! Such a beautiful place. The wife of the farmer who we'd picked cabbage with earlier in the day, was the owner of the restaurant and they came outside to have their pictures taken with us and bid us farewell.

Kimchi we made

'Sikhye'

Kimchi prep

Kimchi in the making

Bracken fern with the versatile perilla powder & perilla oil

Tofu, kimchi, tender fatty delicious pork

Hansik Food Weekend in Jeollabukdo

A salivatory weekend. Tastebuds well sated.
The Hansik food tour in Jeollabukdo province was everything and more than I expected. I felt a bit gluttonous, but am again and again amazed and grateful for the Koreans' spirit and tradition of generosity. They will never leave you hungry or unsatisfied.
The dishes we ate ranged in both simple and complex flavors, subtle and pronounced, from salty to sweet to pungent to bitter to tart to savory; the textures from tender, smooth and velvety to grainy to chewy to crisp; the scents aromatic, musky, fresh, earthy. A delightful evocation and dance of all the senses!
We had the fortunate opportunity to be involved in the smoky and arduous process of tofu-making, of butchering and plucking feathers from a chicken for our lunch, of making kimchi from the giant cabbages we harvested earlier in the day, of learning about the fermentation process of makkoli, and of making various banchan dishes. We had a wonderful translator who was always at our side helping translate questions to the farmers and restaurant owners. One of our team members also spoke very good Korean.
One of my favorite discoveries of the weekend was perilla. I had tasted it before in certain dishes but never knew exactly what it was that I was eating. It's a seed that comes from a plant in the mint family. When crushed into powder and also strained to make oil, it has a nutty, creamy flavor that can be used with much versatility in various banchan (Korean side dishes). While staying at the Hanok village in Jeongeup we got to see and extract the perilla seeds from their pods and taste them in seed form. The fragrance was somewhat familiar, but comparable to what, I don't know. Strong, peppery and pungent but sweet.
The other new taste experience that stands out to me is that of a jelly/gelatin square made of fish skin. It is grey colored and the consistency of jello but quite bland. You hardly need to chew it for it to quickly melt and glide easily down the back of your throat. A very strange sensation! They say it is excellent for your skin, as is often the case with medicine in many cultures, traditionally: that part which is weak is supplemented by another animal's same part to strengthen one's own.
It was so helpful to go shopping for groceries at the street market with people who speak Korean! I could finally find out what certain herbs and roots and vegetables were that I'd wondered about for months.
It always seems in theory like it should be quite simple to just ask and find an answer to what something is. But then there's the translation issue of first hearing correctly what is being said and then which sometimes has no equivalent in English on top of that. Oftentimes a dictionary or even google translate cannot remedy this dilemma. There's nothing comparable to a bi-lingual person when it comes to de-coding food.

Grilling up pork at the sea

Teacher's Dinner

Harvested Rice 

Recent eats and food observations

Tea blend from market 

Street vendor salivation

Bibimbap

Up-close Bibimbap

Ginseng Chicken Soup, traditionally eaten on the hottest days of summer

Vietnamese Restaurant in Gyeongju

Pajeon (Korean omelette/pancake with spring onions, peppers, squid, garlic)

Hot street pastries generally filled with bean paste or chestnut 

Fishcakes on sticks

Typical school field-trip lunch (packed by parents for teachers)

Side dishes

Korean convenience store