Recently I checked back on a Korean
tourism site that I hadn't looked at in a while. The company is
called Adventure Korea and they run trips on weekends and holidays to
various parts of Korea, depending on the season. I had previously
attended, and thoroughly enjoyed, a trip with this company in the
spring (Gyeongju). To my surprise, there was a day trip being offered for just
19,000 won (roughly 17 USD). Upon further inspection, the trip
seemed like something right up my alley. A bus ride out to a village
where we would make makgeolli (Korean rice wine) and tofu.
Memories of making tuica (plum brandy)
in a small Romanian village named Nucsoara (nutmeg) ran through my
head. The countryside is where you really see what a country and its
people are like. My favorite parts of Romania were the times spent
in the countryside and now I would finally get a chance to see a bit
of it in Korea.
The name of the village was Icheon and
the drive to get there was a little over an hour after we finally got
out of Seoul. According to our guide, the area is well known for its
production of rice and other popular rice products, namely makgeolli
and ttok (rice cake). We did not actually see any of the rice
patties on the bus ride out there, possibly due to the snow cover.
We did, however, see some fields containing wood structures with back
tarp stretched over them. In these areas, ginseng was being grown.
The bus came to a stop at a small
restaurant with a metal, storage shed-like structure attached to the
back-side of it. We entered this building to find granite grinders
on one table and several other tables with seating. After taking a
seat, the local man running the program began speaking to us in
Korean, our guide as his translator. The program is an effort by the
Korean tourism board to promote rural tourism, hence the good price
for the trip.
Our first project was the makgeolli.
After an explanation of the process, rice that had been steamed and
cooled was spread out on a cloth lying on our table. Shortly
thereafter, dry chunks of yeast were
After making our makgeolli mixture we
moved on to making tofu. This is were those granite grinders that I
mentioned earlier come in. Soy beans that had already been soaking
for several hours were brought in and placed next to the mills. At
that point, our leader demonstrated the grinding part of the process.
A ladle of soaked soy bean and water was carefully poured into the
small whole in the top of the thick granite stone. The man took hold
of the wooden handle and began to spin. In seconds a thick white
mush seeped out from underneath the stone. The granite trough that
the stone was sitting on caught the white mush and, as its quantity
built up, eventually it began to pure into buckets placed just under
the trough. We all got a chance to grab hold of that wooden handle
and give it an easy spin to grind up some pre-softened soy beans. I
was surprised how easy it was to spin a stone that appeared to be so
heavy.
Next came the actual tofu making
demonstration. Soy beans that had been ground and boiling well
before we arrived that day were getting ready. The guy running the
show slowly poured in a kind of brine (salt water) as an old lady
stirred the over-sized pot with a wooden spoon not much smaller than
she was. Clumps of the boiling soy bean started to form and after
only a few minutes of stirring the sundubu (soft tofu) that resulted
was ready to be pressed.
The pressing took place in a
medium-sized, mesh-lined wooden box, with holes in one side (see
picture below). The soft tofu was poured in as a thick cloud of
steam rose up obstructing my view. The workers shifted the mesh
around in different directions trying to get as much water to seep
through as fast as possible. When they saw fit, they let their tofu
filled netting drop down in to the box. It was a perfect amount,
filling in the corners and rising right up to the edge. They folded
the extra netting over the top of the tofu and placed a carefully
constructed press onto the tofu. Next they brought over one of the
grinding stones to add force to the press and water continued to run
out the holes in the bottom of the box. As the streams turned to
trickles which then became just drips of water the tofu was taking
shape under the wooden press. Finally, the box was tilted upside
down and a large, rectangular block jiggled out onto the table.
After the old lady cut up the tofu into
large, then smaller squares, the finished product was in front of us
with a nice bit of sauce poured over top of it to give it some taste.
Tofu is not something that I like a whole lot but it is something
that can taste good if you smother it with the right stuff. It was
nice being able to enjoy the Korean cuisine after seeing and somewhat
understanding what goes into the production of it.
Our rural experience wasn't over yet.
We continued on to a local restaurant for some delicious ribs for
lunch. We enjoyed the food while chatting with some other English
teachers working in and around southern Seoul.
The next, and final destination before
returning to Seoul was the Silleuksa temple. It is the only
riverside temple in Korea and it is located on the South Han river.
The founding of the temple dates back to the 4th century
and one of its central features is a juniper tree that's over 500
years old. The snow coating over the grass on the banks of the river
provided for a nice view while the stroll though the temple grounds
was a perfect way to close out the trip before heading back to Seoul.
This trip into rural Korea was a nice
day out of the city, an inexpensive way to explore, and a learning
experience. Given the chance, I would gladly partake in other
similar experiences in the Korean countryside.
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