My first attempt at making kimchi
I went to Namwon to visit my friend Sunny who is a teacher I worked with at Edu Best, my first year in Korea. Namwon is a VERY small town in the middle of the mountains, not much goin on there. My friend sunny is now 6 months pregnant and has a new husband whose name is Togi. I rode a bus for 2.5 hours but slept most of the way. I woke up and saw huge mountains covered with snow, and my bus was winding through the small steep roads. Of course I was scared and wondered if I would live to see Sunny because Korean drivers are crazy and I didn’t know how much experience this guy had driving in snowy steep mountain roads!
The scenery was beautiful with small villages and arched roofs sprinkled in snow. It was a sunny day but the temperature was low. I arrived in Namwon and met Togi and Sunny. They took me to a tofu restaurant with homemade tofu and a variety of tofu soups. Of course kimchi chigae with tofu, spicy tofu soup, and a soup I never had before which is the leftovers after cooking tofu they just serve the driblets. I don’t know how, but it was good too, kind of tasted like grits. Then we went to the top of a mountain to look over Namwon and see how big the town is. It was about the size of my dads backyard, which is kinda big compared to most backyards but only 80 acres-right dad? Then Togi wanted to take me to the one thing Namwon is famous for, a hostess girl (prostitute) married a nobleman a loooong time ago and they made the story into a movie. So if anyone has heard of Namwon, its for that reason. This famous place was a beautiful park with ponds (which were frozen at the time) and old style Korean pagodas. I wondered how the fish survive in the frozen ponds (there are always koi fish in Korean famous touristy places, just like japan and my dads house). Just then I saw a fish on top of the ice and when I looked closer it was cut in half! Togi said that it jumped out of the water but couldn’t get back under so it died!
We went to Sunny’s apartment and she asked if I wanted to make kimchi. Of course! I always tease sunny about making kimchi together because her mom makes excellent kimchi and I wanted to make kimchi once while in korea for two years!
Well sunny never made kimchi before so she called her dad which was weird because usually the moms make the kimchi but she said her dad is better. I had met her family a few time when I lived in yeosu and her dad was shelling oysters at the house and I wanted to try. I ate some raw dipped in gochujang (a deep red sauce made from spicy peppers and oil and sesame seed oil). So her dad sent some raw oysters up for me to eat because he knew I was visiting her that weekend. So nice of him.
So I cut up some radish called moo in Korean into little squares. Then we dumped salt all over it and let it sit for half an hour. While we waited togi suggested we play a traditional Korean game called yunori. There are 4 wooden sticks that you throw and each one has a mark on it. There is a board where you keep track of your markers and whoever wins blah blah blah. It’s a board game. After half an hour the radish was ready. Sunny just dumped the salt water out from the bowl. I suggested washing it off, but we didn’t. we added some red pepper flakes, some garlic, black sesame seeds (because sunny says its good for hairloss) and then this big bottle of black swampy looking fluid that she said was 5 year old sardine sauce her dad made. It smelled like rotten fish, which it was. She added a bunch of that then we mixed it and tasted a piece. It was gross! Way too salty and had that nasty rotten fish aftertaste! So she added some sugar. Another mix, another taste, still gross. But I made a yummy face to appease her. Then we added the raw oysters and put it on the table to eat with dinner. She made dwenjung chigae (soybean soup with tofu inside) and grilled fish (the whole thing with eyes and all) and rice and another version of radish kimchi which is put in water and salt and let sit for a long time and it turns out tasting pickled. I enjoyed the fish and the dwenjung soup, but the gak doogie kimchi we made was not so delectable. I forced a few pieces down masking it with a lot of rice and dwenjung.
After dinner we went to a friends house who had a private jimjilbang. A jimjilbang is a room that has really really hot floors. You go in there and sweat. That is the point. I love them. So we went there and I sat down awkwardly because everyone was staring at me like they never saw a foreigner before. When I sat down I burned my butt on the floor because I happened to sit right on top of the stove placed under the floor! It was super duper hot! we played yunori again and again. I was quite lucky and everyone thought that the wayguken (foreigner) was special! The kids were all complaining they were hungry so the adults went out to get food and came back with hodt dock (sweet fried pancakes filled with syrup) and ice cream! I love hodt dock!
After eating we went home and I slept on sunny’s bed with her and her husband slept on the floor with an electric hot pad. I slept with a hot pad on the bed and my bum was burning all night.
We all awoke early the next morning to prepare to go to church. Sunny has always been an avid church goer and that is actually how she met her husband. Traditionally parents arranged the marriage of their children, I think especially if they are getting old and havent found their true love yet. So Sunny was 30 or 31 years old and her parents arranged a contact from their church to meet Sunny. A few months later they were married. A few months later she was pregnant. They move fast out here. It is common for the women to get pregnant immediately after marriage (if they are'nt already-shh!)
I was offered a sandwich but I said I wasnt that hungry. They made their own sandwiches with cheese, egg and jam! I just ate toast and jam.
Outside it was freezing and flurrying a bit. We drove in a car with no heat and I prayed church would be warm. It wasnt.
First was Bible school for the kids that Sunny helps out every Sunday for an hour. Then church, where I sat in the kids room on the floor next to the heater and the sleeping grandmas. I listened to the preacher speak for 4 hours in a language I couldnt understand so unfortunately his long, important message wasnt getting through to me. Instead I bussied myself with reading an English/Korean Bible Sunny brought for me! I got through the first 18 pages of Genesis by the time the sermon was over. Someone came around with some small cups of red liquid and a loaf of bread. People pulled off a piece and ate it. I was ready to grab a large chunk off, but he knew which people to walk to, and which ones to pass; he didnt offer me any of the sacrament! I asked my friend why and she said he knows who was born again. I thought if you were baptised you could eat the blood and body of Christ! Sunny told me it was time to eat a free lunch so my spirits were immediately higher.
Downstairs everyone was lined up to get their food buffet style. I smelled kimchi and bulgogi and my stomach growled. I piled up rice and spinach, marinated pork (bulgogi style) and kimchi of course with some thick seaweed that I watched everyone putting a red pepper sauce on so I followed, then got some bean sprout soup. Namwon is famous for a small looking eel fish that lives in muddy water, but I never like those little fishies that I can see their beady eyes staring at me. I was happy to sit and eat, but of course everyone was staring at me and wanted to sit next to me to talk and practice their English. Young kids walked up to me and just stared with their mouths open.
After our meal was finished it was time to clean up the whole church. Togi was on cleaning duty, but Sunny got out of it because her belly is too big. We sat down and kids played and talked with Sunny and continued to ask her questions about me. For another hour we sat there with various people coming up to have their chance to talk with the foreigner in their church. One man said that he hoped I came back again because he didnt like the other foreigner who came because she was fat!
I was so ready to get out of there and go back home, even if I was only looking forward to a 3 hour bus ride, I was happy to get out of there. I felt like they were going to ask me to drink something red...
My trip to Namwon was good. A scenic bus ride, yummy tofu food, learning how to make kimchi, and another long, boring experience in a Korean church. There's nothing in Namwon to see as a tourist, but close by is Jiri mountain which is a nice mountain to hike.
The scenery was beautiful with small villages and arched roofs sprinkled in snow. It was a sunny day but the temperature was low. I arrived in Namwon and met Togi and Sunny. They took me to a tofu restaurant with homemade tofu and a variety of tofu soups. Of course kimchi chigae with tofu, spicy tofu soup, and a soup I never had before which is the leftovers after cooking tofu they just serve the driblets. I don’t know how, but it was good too, kind of tasted like grits. Then we went to the top of a mountain to look over Namwon and see how big the town is. It was about the size of my dads backyard, which is kinda big compared to most backyards but only 80 acres-right dad? Then Togi wanted to take me to the one thing Namwon is famous for, a hostess girl (prostitute) married a nobleman a loooong time ago and they made the story into a movie. So if anyone has heard of Namwon, its for that reason. This famous place was a beautiful park with ponds (which were frozen at the time) and old style Korean pagodas. I wondered how the fish survive in the frozen ponds (there are always koi fish in Korean famous touristy places, just like japan and my dads house). Just then I saw a fish on top of the ice and when I looked closer it was cut in half! Togi said that it jumped out of the water but couldn’t get back under so it died!
We went to Sunny’s apartment and she asked if I wanted to make kimchi. Of course! I always tease sunny about making kimchi together because her mom makes excellent kimchi and I wanted to make kimchi once while in korea for two years!
Well sunny never made kimchi before so she called her dad which was weird because usually the moms make the kimchi but she said her dad is better. I had met her family a few time when I lived in yeosu and her dad was shelling oysters at the house and I wanted to try. I ate some raw dipped in gochujang (a deep red sauce made from spicy peppers and oil and sesame seed oil). So her dad sent some raw oysters up for me to eat because he knew I was visiting her that weekend. So nice of him.
So I cut up some radish called moo in Korean into little squares. Then we dumped salt all over it and let it sit for half an hour. While we waited togi suggested we play a traditional Korean game called yunori. There are 4 wooden sticks that you throw and each one has a mark on it. There is a board where you keep track of your markers and whoever wins blah blah blah. It’s a board game. After half an hour the radish was ready. Sunny just dumped the salt water out from the bowl. I suggested washing it off, but we didn’t. we added some red pepper flakes, some garlic, black sesame seeds (because sunny says its good for hairloss) and then this big bottle of black swampy looking fluid that she said was 5 year old sardine sauce her dad made. It smelled like rotten fish, which it was. She added a bunch of that then we mixed it and tasted a piece. It was gross! Way too salty and had that nasty rotten fish aftertaste! So she added some sugar. Another mix, another taste, still gross. But I made a yummy face to appease her. Then we added the raw oysters and put it on the table to eat with dinner. She made dwenjung chigae (soybean soup with tofu inside) and grilled fish (the whole thing with eyes and all) and rice and another version of radish kimchi which is put in water and salt and let sit for a long time and it turns out tasting pickled. I enjoyed the fish and the dwenjung soup, but the gak doogie kimchi we made was not so delectable. I forced a few pieces down masking it with a lot of rice and dwenjung.
After dinner we went to a friends house who had a private jimjilbang. A jimjilbang is a room that has really really hot floors. You go in there and sweat. That is the point. I love them. So we went there and I sat down awkwardly because everyone was staring at me like they never saw a foreigner before. When I sat down I burned my butt on the floor because I happened to sit right on top of the stove placed under the floor! It was super duper hot! we played yunori again and again. I was quite lucky and everyone thought that the wayguken (foreigner) was special! The kids were all complaining they were hungry so the adults went out to get food and came back with hodt dock (sweet fried pancakes filled with syrup) and ice cream! I love hodt dock!
After eating we went home and I slept on sunny’s bed with her and her husband slept on the floor with an electric hot pad. I slept with a hot pad on the bed and my bum was burning all night.
We all awoke early the next morning to prepare to go to church. Sunny has always been an avid church goer and that is actually how she met her husband. Traditionally parents arranged the marriage of their children, I think especially if they are getting old and havent found their true love yet. So Sunny was 30 or 31 years old and her parents arranged a contact from their church to meet Sunny. A few months later they were married. A few months later she was pregnant. They move fast out here. It is common for the women to get pregnant immediately after marriage (if they are'nt already-shh!)
I was offered a sandwich but I said I wasnt that hungry. They made their own sandwiches with cheese, egg and jam! I just ate toast and jam.
Outside it was freezing and flurrying a bit. We drove in a car with no heat and I prayed church would be warm. It wasnt.
First was Bible school for the kids that Sunny helps out every Sunday for an hour. Then church, where I sat in the kids room on the floor next to the heater and the sleeping grandmas. I listened to the preacher speak for 4 hours in a language I couldnt understand so unfortunately his long, important message wasnt getting through to me. Instead I bussied myself with reading an English/Korean Bible Sunny brought for me! I got through the first 18 pages of Genesis by the time the sermon was over. Someone came around with some small cups of red liquid and a loaf of bread. People pulled off a piece and ate it. I was ready to grab a large chunk off, but he knew which people to walk to, and which ones to pass; he didnt offer me any of the sacrament! I asked my friend why and she said he knows who was born again. I thought if you were baptised you could eat the blood and body of Christ! Sunny told me it was time to eat a free lunch so my spirits were immediately higher.
Downstairs everyone was lined up to get their food buffet style. I smelled kimchi and bulgogi and my stomach growled. I piled up rice and spinach, marinated pork (bulgogi style) and kimchi of course with some thick seaweed that I watched everyone putting a red pepper sauce on so I followed, then got some bean sprout soup. Namwon is famous for a small looking eel fish that lives in muddy water, but I never like those little fishies that I can see their beady eyes staring at me. I was happy to sit and eat, but of course everyone was staring at me and wanted to sit next to me to talk and practice their English. Young kids walked up to me and just stared with their mouths open.
After our meal was finished it was time to clean up the whole church. Togi was on cleaning duty, but Sunny got out of it because her belly is too big. We sat down and kids played and talked with Sunny and continued to ask her questions about me. For another hour we sat there with various people coming up to have their chance to talk with the foreigner in their church. One man said that he hoped I came back again because he didnt like the other foreigner who came because she was fat!
I was so ready to get out of there and go back home, even if I was only looking forward to a 3 hour bus ride, I was happy to get out of there. I felt like they were going to ask me to drink something red...
My trip to Namwon was good. A scenic bus ride, yummy tofu food, learning how to make kimchi, and another long, boring experience in a Korean church. There's nothing in Namwon to see as a tourist, but close by is Jiri mountain which is a nice mountain to hike.
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