Soul food, or is that Seoul Food!
We all travel with certain expectations, preconceived notions of what awaits us. Arriving in a new country offers the possibility of holding these up to the mirror of reality – I always find this fascinating. I really didn’t know WHAT to expect from South Korea though, and it was a revelation from start to finish.
If I had to select just ONE ‘strand’, one theme, that really caught my attention during my time in South Korea, I think it would have to be the FOOD – of course!🤭
Food is obviously always part of the joy of travel, but normally it is in the background so to speak, slightly ‘off stage’. There have always been little episodes while travelling out in the world, when food experiences stole the lime light for a moment :-
- Katz’s deli on the lower East side (New York) where Meg Ryan faked her you know what … you know …”I’ll have what she’s having” 🤣 ‘When Harry met Sally.’
- Da Michele’s pizza place in a backstreet Naples alley where Julia Roberts decides to risk buying new (bigger) jeans rather than miss out on eating the glory that is Napoli pizza. ‘Eat,Pray,Love ‘… I mean, bigger jeans are definitely the way to go, right?!
BUT, Korea didn’t need famous films to get me enticed in the food scene here, the food itself took centre stage. It was just awesome and gave me some of my favourite, most unforgettable experiences, as well as providing nourishment of course!
Saying that, there was one street market stand in Seoul that had featured in a Netflix documentary. However, it was her FOOD that made her famous, not the other way around.
It was one of those places where the food is prepared and cooked in the middle section of the stand. Clients sit on stools all around the outside of the central cooking area.
They are soaking up the atmosphere just as much as eating the wonderful food. We made our way to food stand number 70 in the sprawling, buzzing GWANGJANG market in Seoul – now there’s a must place to visit!
Cho Yonsoon (or the ‘knife-cut noodle lady’) is busier than ever with her Netflix ‘fame’. She is there every day, all day, and it was fascinating to observe her in action. Her speedy chopping technique, without EVER looking down 😬 was just incredible. As her nickname suggests, one of her specialities is home-made ‘KNIFE-CUT’ NOODLES, served in a rich broth with sprinkles of yumminess and a twist of magic – happy days! And the DUMPLINGS were divine!
(If you want to check out her story go to Netflix series Street Food:Asia, Episode 6, Seoul)
But EVERY meal seemed equally magical in this fascinating country. I had a ‘LIST’ of foods to try in my note book. As I’d literally NEVER tried ‘real’ Korean food before, I just had to do a little research so that I didn’t miss out. I did my very best to try EVERYTHING on it! 🤣
I had also recently met Lovely Chaeyean in Mongolia, bonding over a rather bemusing camel ride owned by a local family (I seemed to bond very well indeed with my camel!). Chaeyean diligently and lovingly filled an entire page of my book, passing on advice for my pending trip to South Korea. I wonder if she was even conscious that virtually everything she wrote down was about FOOD! I think this might tell us something about just how important it is to people in Korea and quite rightly so! Thank you Chaeyean.☺️
After some reading, it seems that the availability of food has been problematic at times in Korean history, like for example during and after the Korean war. Several recipes seem to stem from that period. It’s always fascinating when a dish comes with its very own back story, its own narrative.
A clear example of this is ‘BUDAE JJIGAE’ – literally translating as ‘army base stew’. The inventive koreans basically created a funky meal out of surplus processed meats and canned goods from the U.S army bases. It is still popular today, a comfort food as I understand it – a central dish to be shared and eaten together by friends and/or family. I wasn’t at all convinced at first, spam doesn’t exactly shout out as a super quality ingredient but when in Rome – errrrr Busan – do as the Romans do – well, errrrr, you know what I mean! 🤣🤣
After finding a fabulous local restaurant in Busan in the South of the country, dedicated to serving this very dish, I went all in! The addition of noodles, kimchi and a delicious broth (topped up from a tea pot !), all bubbling away in the middle of the table, transformed it into something fascinating, unique and quite frankly, delicious!
Lots of meals are fun, shared communal experiences which I just love! BBQ’s placed in the middle of the table, which when you are me, results in endless entertainment🤦♀️. You are supposed to prepare and cook the dish yourself but a lovely lady in Gyeongju took me under her wing and demonstrated all that I had to do. Scissors are the go to method of cutting meat – who knew! – and I was surrounded by a variety of mouth watering BANCHAN (this is the case for any meal in restaurants or eateries). It was another great night of food experiences.
So many of the restaurants I visited were family run – I always experienced a wonderful and warm welcome and the owners showed a real pride in the food they prepared and created. Their love for their cuisine was just extraordinary – and I’m a huge fan too!
So … Banchan explained:
I really loved the EXTRA food dishes that always arrived on the table as well as the main meals ordered. These are called BANCHAN – tiny bowls arranged like satellite moons AROUND the main planetary dishes. CELESTIAL food indeed. But even these tiny simple dishes were always wonderful – too many to mention but:-
- Thinly sliced, gently pickled RADDISH – Daikon (believe me, just heavenly – bright yellow too!),
- BEAN SPROUTS dishes like nothing I’ve ever tasted before – just so, so fresh and crisp in a delicate sauce … and
- … oh my days, KIMCHI! – there aren’t enough descriptive food superlatives to justify this newfound delight. It may possibly be the most well-known export from South Korean cusine (?), but you haven’t tasted kimchi until you’ve been to South Korea! 🙏😋 I had noticed that lots of houses had big earthenware doks (onggi) outside their doors for preserving large amounts of this fremented joy (among other things). Kimchi really is a VERY important part of the diet here and part of every households culinary world.
Sometimes I recognised a flavour from ‘my’ palette; “Is that sesame seed on top? But sometimes not at all!. The herby leaves I was encouraged to wrap my meat up in at a night market in Gyeongju turned out to be PERILLA leaves. I later saw it growing in pots outside people’s houses. It tasted slightly bitter with notes of mint and even aniseed to me (?) It made the perfect wrap.
Sometimes, I had no real idea what I was eating at all – which is part of the travel adventure. The fabulous and fun guys running the stands at the night market were lovely and the food LOOKED delicious – so what ya gonna do? 🤷♀️ I can be brave! 🤣.
Well, it was of course, delicious! I only found out the following day that the deliciousness was in fact stir-fried noodles and INTESTINES, alongside a serving of BBQ CHICKEN HEARTS! Yum! 😬
What a culinary journey! I could write for hours but you will most likely give up on me or cramp will set in 🤣 There are so many foods to name:-
- BULGOGI ‘fire meat’ – beef usually grilled on a barbecue or stir-fried
- PAJEON pancakes.
- TTEOKBOKKI (‘rice cakes’ – strange but fabulous with a firm but chewy texture, served in a spicy sauce that will get the nose running!
- MANDU dumplings.
- GIMBAP … and …
- oh my 😋… BIBIMBAP!!! 😋
I’ll leave you with that thought … BIBIMBAP! – one of my favourites. To go all ‘cool’ and ‘trendy’, and pretend that I’m in with the cool kids 🤣, it conjures up images of a glorious ‘Buddha bowl’, with contrasting flavours and textures. A delicious, nutritious, healthy Korean bowl of goodness with THAT sauce – oh my days, THAT sauce, THAT gochujang paste! 😋
To me, Korea itself seems to me to be like one big giant BIBIMBAP. Roll with me on this one and I’ll try to explain.🤣 It was a veritable kaleidoscope of different places, sights, and experiences, just like a wonderful bowl of contrasting flavours, textures and taste explosions. And THAT special sauce that lifts it up to a new higher level, in this analogy at least, is the PEOPLE I met along the way. Not just those who created and served me the most delightful food, but all of the warm, generous kindness I encountered every step of the way. So, in this slighty wacky anology, THEY are THAT special sauce. Fact! 🙌 🤩 ☺️
At the end of this trip I needed to widen my belt, just like Julia Roberts! Hey, what’s good for Julia is good for me – anyone know a good jeans shop?!🤣
I love food I do, especially the Korean kind!
Take care everyone and bon appetite.☺️
Tan
Tan’s Cooking Club
