Korean Cooking Class with Jasmin

Today Jasmin came over to help me talk to my landlord about new wallpaper (my walls are growing mould and I think it’s making me sick). She facilitated things very nicely and I now have mould free walls… for the time being.

After making lunch, we went to a well known hairdresser and I received my first Korean haircut… it’s a big deal!

We decided to test out our culinary skills and Jasmin taught me how to make my new favourite Korean dish: Ddak Bokie

*** Ddak are Korean style rice cakes. They are not what we think of rice cakes, it’s more of a dumpling or noodle. In the pictures displayed, the Ddak are the round white things on the plate.

Here’s the recipe for all you Korean wannabe’s at home

Jasmin’s Ddak Bokie:

2 ½ c. water

4 Tbsp. Hot pepper paste

1 tsp. Salt

1 Tbsp. Sugar

5 cloves garlic

Combine these ingredients in a pot and bring to a simmer.

½ large carrot, sliced thinly

1- 400g package of Ddak (rinsed)

4-6 sheets of fishcake (cut into small triangles and rinsed)

2 c. chopped green onions

A few hard boiled eggs

Add carrot and Ddak to the sauce and simmer until the sauce becomes more like a paste (about 10 mins). Then add the fishcakes and onions. Finally, add the hard boiled eggs and serve hot.

Alongside our delicious main course, we had pan-fried tofu, a salad made of various sprouts, potato salad and refreshing lemonade… it was quite a feast! And of course, shared with good company.

Busan Tower

This past weekend I went to Nampodong with Jasmin. It’s an area of town about 30mins away from where I live. It’s a big shopping/entertainment district and there are always lots of fun things to do there.

Our main reason for going was to see the busan tower and to look for baking supplies but we stumbled across many fun things.

I took some pictures of the typical food stands one would find here. The lady in the polka dotted apron is standing in front of one of my new favourite things: ddakboki. It’s a spicy red sauce over rice cakes with eggs and fish cakes… sounds a little weird, but tastes delicious!

We went to a well known restaurant and had cold noodle soup for lunch. I thought this would be a little odd, but Jasmin spoke highly of it, so I decided to give it a try… also very good. The noodles were made of buckwheat and the broth was light and slightly sweet… it had shaved pork and pears in it as well. It was really nice and refreshing for the hot day.

After lunch we went up to the Busan Tower. It was a very eye opening experience for me because I could finally see how populated Korea was. I was shocked when I saw numerous buildings stacked on top of one another. There’s almost no grass and trees, just tons and tons of concrete.

I can definitely tell that there’s a large population here walking on the streets but seeing what the cityscape looks like from above was really interesting.

I also discovered that this is where the cruise ship port is, so when Jessie and I come back on our cruise, we’ll be able to tour around here!

Unfortunately the baking supplies store was closed so I’ll have to wait to buy my vanilla and muffin tins but we were able to browse through little shops and markets.

One thing that’s so nice about having such a large population is that there are endless things to do in the city. Every corner you turn, there is something new to discover. I feel like I could live here for a decade and still not see half of the neat things this country has to offer…. Don’t worry, I won’t!

Baseball Game: The Lotte Giants

May 10^th was a national holiday: Buddha’s Birthday which meant no school!! What better to do than to go to a Korean Baseball game.

One of my co-workers organized the day and purchased tickets online. I had been told previously to expect tons of cheering and chanting—it was very true. The Korean baseball experience was very different from what I have experienced back home. The stadium wasn’t even full but there was so much energy and excitement. There was a different song that the crowd would sing for every player and people get so wrapped up in it.

On this particular day, the weather wasn’t exactly nice. I didn’t think much of it because I assumed this baseball stadium would be similar to our Skydome (or Rogers centre) back home. THIS WAS NOT THE CASE. There was no roof on this stadium so when it started raining, I regretted the fact that I hadn’t thought to bring a jacket or umbrella.

One thing that normally happens at baseball games is that people will inflate plastic bags and tie them on their heads… I’ve seen pictures and it’s quite the sight. I guess that because of the rain, they didn’t hand the bags out for this game, but I’m hoping to witness it in the future.

Personally, I thought that the game was slightly boring…. It took about 3 hours however the actual playing time was probably 30 minutes… there’s just so many breaks! Now, if it had been nicer weather it probably would have been a different story but I was ready to go home by the end.

Oh, our team, the Lotte Giants won the game which was fairly exciting.

I plan on giving baseball another shot—maybe I’ll get Jasmin to teach me the Korean cheers so I can participate next time.

Changwon Charity Hike

Sunday May 8^th, I headed out to the city of Changwon, which is about an hour away for a Charity hike. The event was organized by a girl named Hayley. Her grandfather passed away last year from MND (Motor Neurone Disease) and so the hike was to raise money for MND.

My friend Diana and I boarded the subway to get to the train station on Sunday morning. As we were climbing the stairs, I was hugely caught off guard when an old man gave me a loud smack on my bottom! I turned around in disbelief and managed to get the words ‘WHAT?!’ out of my mouth. He looked at me with a face that said ‘what are you so surprised for?’. There was a Korean woman who had also seen what had happened and she started yelling at him in Korean. Although I didn’t catch a single word of what she was saying, I’m pretty sure she was scolding him. Nevertheless he carried on his way… crazy old man.

When we finally arrived to Masan, we took a taxi to our meeting place. We then had to re-route and take another taxi because it turns out we were at the wrong meeting place. Once we finally arrived a group of about 30 people were waiting and we set out to hike the mountain.

The hike wasn’t too difficult but it is much more humid here and so I found myself struggling more with the humidity than anything else. There were some beautiful views once we got to the top, but I was happy when we started to descend.

Once we finished the hike, there was a fabulous BBQ waiting for us! Hayley’s boyfriend cooked up a feast of chicken breasts, sausages, grilled veggies, potato salad, devilled eggs etc. It was delicious and tasted so much like home.

The day ended with a very snoozy bus ride back to Busan.

My First Korean Hash Experience

No, no, it’s not what you think. Marijuana is actually extremely illegal here in Korea, so this is not the kind of hash I am referring to. The Hash I went on was an event on Thursday where I and a small group set out in an area of town following clues and markings to get to an end destination. The reason I was able to do this on a weekday was because May 5^th was a National holiday in Korea—Children’s Day. It’s a day for parents to spoil the kids and reward them for all of their hard work. Best of all—schools are closed!!

How it works?

The organizer of a Hash takes care of setting everything up. He will go out earlier in the day and set up the route. He will put Xs on the road with chalk and when you get three Xs in a row, it means you’re going in the right direction. When you only have two, you know you’re going the wrong way and must re-route. In areas where chalk won’t work (ie: the Mountains etc) flour is used as an identifier. The organizer often ‘misleads’ the group by setting up many options in different directions but only one direction with 3 Xs. It’s a great way to see the little nooks and crannies of an area that you wouldn’t normally see.

How it went?

When a friend of mine told me about this event, she told me of the one she did and how they went from bar to bar (getting drinks) and following directions to the end location. I thought of it as being similar to a pub crawl and so on Thursday, I came dressed in a cute outfit and flip flops. Well, this was no pub crawl! The organizer of this Hash took us up and into a mountain where I consistently stumbled over rocks and realized that I was not prepared for this type of activity. The look out at the top was rewarding however and made up for the few stubbed toes that I endured.

The way down the mountain was much easier than the way up and eventually we were walking over the city again… much easier to do in flip flops! The entire hike took us about three hours and we ended up at a local foreigners pub where we had dinner and drinks.

Final Impressions:

Overall, it was a great way to meet new people, see different parts of where I live and get some exercise. I’m hoping to do it again sometime soon.