Gangwon-do Flavor Tour

Food fills the belly, but to Koreans it seems, food is much more. It’s also a means to show affection.

I came to this conclusion when I participated in the Gangwon-do Flavor Tour last December. At the Institute of Traditional Korea Cuisine, we were listening intently to instructions on how to cut rice cakes (Ddeokguk). This job looked simple, but actually it needed a lot of skill and patience. Without skill and patience, you couldn’t get the rice cakes to be of a consistent round shape and size. They would either be too thick or too thin. They would not be round. We were told to avoid this because the way the rice cakes looked would determine how beautiful our children would turn out! Some of us had obviously not held kitchen knives for a while, and the result was just as you would expect – pieces of rice cakes that looked broken. Others did well. But, what mattered was we had put all our heart behind the job.

Dumpling making needed effort and time too. The stuffing for the dumplings (mandu) was prepared and mixed and then stuffed in the rice dough. Making dumplings was fun although I knew that stuffing the ingredients wouldn’t be a piece of cake. It only looked easy.
We made dumplings of different shapes and sizes. Some were made too large and split open. Some dumplings even looked beautiful. Everyone was very pleased and we felt we had earned our lunch. So, when the rice cake soup and steamed dumplings were served, we helped themselves to double servings. We even had space for bibimbap, a traditional rice dish. We had plenty of side dishes too, including pickled radish, seaweed and, of course, kimchi.
The food experience at the culinary institute was the start of our Korean tour. It was our first time in South Korea. A few days earlier, Oh Youna of KTO had emailed me to say that we were joining the second ‘Look in Every Nook and Corner’ Campaign. I was excited. We would get to see more of Korea.

Indeed, we cannot forget the weekend when KTO played host to Tracy and I, and 11 other foreigners. The places we got to see, the sweet rice cakes and semi-fermented drink we consumed on our chartered bus which brought us to Gangwon-do, the raw fish (Donghae’s local specialty) we had that evening, the record amount of watery tofu (sundubu) we ate in one meal, the professionalism and thoughtfulness of our hosts led by Song Sun-Yong, and the comradeship of our fellow travelers, were experiences we could never have enjoyed on our own. How could we forget our guide, Sharon and the tour company staff, who answered our questions? And, how could we forget the traditional tea making ceremony (Dado) experience in Gangneung-si? For some, sitting on the floor in a Korean traditional dress (hanbok) and listening to the instructions on how to make and serve tea must be agony for the legs, if not enriching for the spirit.

Late that night when we shared our travel experiences at the beach cafeteria and rested at Mangsang Beach, I reflected especially on the fun we had with snow sleds and throwing snowballs at Pyeongchang. I was looking forward to watch sunrise on the East Sea beach. I wondered about what these quaint towns, Gangneung and Jeongdongjin, would offer. Being a train lover, I was impatient to ride on the ocean train, which was reputed to run closest to the seashore and pass through some of the best beaches in the country. I was not disappointed.

Korea is no longer just kimchi to me. I now associate this beautiful country with foods that touch the heart and the new friends that we made.
It’s as if food caused us to know each other really well.