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 food de-coding.
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 food de-coding.
I am grateful to Hansik for providing such an enriching opportunity!
-Anina
http://happybeareats.blogspot.com/2011/11/meet-anina.html
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| Tofu-making - takes a lot of work! |
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| Perilla seed being shaken from its pods |
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| These lovely little perilla seeds have a nutty, rich oily flavor |
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| Graphic, I know. But that's how it goes. |
-Anina
http://happybeareats.blogspot.com/2011/11/meet-anina.html
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