Let's talk Alcohol...

If you know anything about Korea you might be aware they like to drink a lot, so, why don't we talk a little bit about Korea's Alcoholic Beverages!

Soju

The most known being Soju.... yup, we have all seen or drank that green small bottle, that innocent looking bottle is the Favorite alcoholic drink among Koreans. It's clear like Vodka and is made from distilling fermented marsh of rice or sweet potatoes, Soju is CHEAP and available at most Korean restaurant and convenience stores. Soju goes well with everything raw fish, Barbecued meats and spicy food.




Makgeolli 

This is commonly referred to as the "Liquor of the common people", it has the longest history among Korean liquors and was highly popular among farmers. Makgeolli is made with fermented sweet rice, it looks like a very creamy milk and has a sweet/sour taste, the algocol content is very low and it also contains nutrients. Makgeolli goes well in Jeon (Korean Pancakes).

That's exactly the one I tried in Jeonju!

Moju 

Moju is a sweet and AMAZING beverage from Jeonju, I'm not quite sure you can find it anywhere else, but if you get a chance to try it DO IT!!, Moju is made by boiling Makgeolli with 8 medicinal herbs (Ginger, Jujube, Licorice root, Ginseng, Arrowroot and Cinammon Powder, I found the Cinammon being the strongest flavour when I tried it and I loved it, the level of alcohol is really low in Moju so don't worry about getting drunk ;)

Insamju

Insamju is a liquor made with Insam (Premium Korean Ginseng), and Koreans believe that liquor made with Medicinal herbs has health benefits if it's consumed daily in small portions over a long period of time (Why not!!), Insamju bottles usually come with a root inside and is one of the most popular souvenirs among foreigner visitors in Korea, Insamju goes well with Fruit, Samgyetang or Rice snacks.




Maesilju

This liquor is made with small, green plums that are matured for at least 5 years and is one of Korea's most popular fruit wine, the alcohol content is also very low and goes well with Bulgogi, grilled fish or sushi, I had it with Samgyetang and it was very good.





What's your favorite Korean Drink?

-Gisela V.

2012 WKB Tour - Day 3

Hi everyone!

I'm back!, I didn't forgot the blog, turns out I've been sick since last week but I it all got worst over the weekend u_u,on monday morning I went to see my doctor and I got 4 days off of work X_X... and even thou I still don't feel 100% good I missed the blog and was worried for not blogging...

On my last post I talked about our Day #2 and how it was filled with activities.... Watching some of the photos that Korea Net uploaded on Flickr we realized we have lots of pictures wearing the same oufits and is by reviewing all the pics that you realize how much we did on this trip....

Thank You Korea Net for the pretty pictures!

Day 3 had an early start.... We all had our backpacks ready for our trip to Jeonju and so we met the Cam crew at Seoul Station at 8am and boarded our bus for a 3 hour ride from Seoul to Jeonju, honestly I was impressed by the price of the ticket...looks like it's pretty cheap to travel around Korea :O, this was my 1st roadtrip in Korea and even thou I was really tired after just 3 hours of sleep I'm not the kind that can easily fall asleep on a bus so I enjoyed the view for over an hour until we got to a Stop station (is that the name??)... it's basically like a BIG parking lot with Restrooms, Coffee Shops, Mini Marts and we even catched a duet performing in there... In Mexico a Stop station is usually restrooms and that's it O_o ...in Korea you can find snacks, food and drinks in here. We stopped at Cafe Bene for a drink and we were off for the rest of our ride.



Around 11am we reached Jeonju and it was HOT and moist O_o but as soon as we got there we got taxis to get to our next destination.... FOOOD!!! Jeonju is well known for the Bibimbap, in May 2012, Jeonju was indicted as a Creative City for Gastronomy as part of UNESCO's Creative Cities Network, this recognize the city's traditional home cooking, so you can only imagine how good we eat while in Jeonju (nom nom)

At the Taxi I was lucky enough to ride with the Yeon (yay!!), of course he wanted to ask us about how we felt in Jeonju, but I thought it was too early to such questions since we had just arrived, so I took his place as interviewer and started interviewing Dorothea (Germany) while Yeon filmed it :) it was the perfect chance to focus the camera on someone else haha, after a short ride we arrived at Gajokhwoigwan Restaurant were we received a brief explanation on Bibimbap from a teacher of Jeonju University (If you want to read more, I recommend checking this very informative post)

I can honestly say this is the BEST Bibimbap I've ever tried... the Gochuanj past is really spicy and we all had to drink lots of water but I love Spicy food so I had no problems with it being spicy :) , plus this was the 1st time I tried the Bibimbap with the raw eggyolk, this adds certain creaminess to the dish that a fried egg can not provide... not only did we have a huge serving of Bibimbap, we also got over 10 side dishes. My fave were the Gyegranjjim (Steamed Egg), Kimchi, The Pajeon and the Lotus Root that I've never tried before, by the end of our lunch we were ready for a nap (lol) but it was time to go Check in at our acommodation




We again took taxis and this time I rode the passenger front seat, the driver was this nice Ajusshi that couldn't resist and ask me where was I from... in Korean O_O Yeon played the translator role and after I said Mexico he started talking about Football and how Mexico had won the Gold Medal in the Olympics n_n

Inside of the Main Building at the Guest House

When we finally arrived at -what would be- our Hanok for 2 days/1 night... the Hakindang Traditional Hanok Guest House, this was once the home of Baek Nak-Jung (King Gojong granted him a government position out of admiration for his filial piety), this Traditional house was once an Upper class home from the Joseon-era and was built in 1905, you can read more about it from Korea Class Mavise blog here.

There were 3 rooms just for the girls (7 of us) but since Hanoks have this removable walls it was like a gigant room, we didn't have much time to wander around since we had to leave for a Tour through the Jeonju Hanok Village, after getting lost for a little bit (This was the perfect chance to take pictures!!) we finally met our Tour Guide, Jeonju Hanok Village has 700 traditional Korean houses, some are Stores, Restaurants, Tea Houses or just Homes for the residents.

We visited the  Gyeonggi Palace and the Jeondong Catholic Church.


The royal portrait housed in Gyeonggi Palace, Jeongjeon was a portrait of the founder of the Chosun Dynasty, Taejo Lee Seong-gye.  This portrait shows the king in royal attire, when attending to public matters, with a royal robe and crown.

This palace built in 1410 (10th year of the reign of King Taejong), houses the royal portrait of King Taejo, also named Bonjeon. Gyeonggi Palace was destroyed by fire during the Japanese Invasion of Korea in 1597, but was rebuilt in 1614 (6th year of the reign of Gwanghaegun) and has been preserved to this day







Right after the Gyeonggi Palace we were exausted so we were treated with a Pattbingsu, we went to the Dessert Factory ~ Grandma's best and it was indeed a pretty good/refreshing pattbingsu with sweet red beans and bites of Tteok, this was the perfect way to chill and recharge batteries for our next destination...

Pattbingsu

Tea Ceremony and Fabrics Dyeing!, these I've done before, you can read about the Tea ceremony here and the Fabric Dyeing I did it when I was in school a LONG time a go, the difference is... I didn't use natural colorants before, in here we got to Dye the fabric with a Yellow tint made of Onion skins but flowers are

also used for different colors.

After the Tea Ceremony and waiting for our fine pieces of art/handkerchiefs to dry, we were off to have dinner and soon we found an -OMG WHAT AN AMAZING MEAT!- restaurant were we had Bulgogi, Bibimbap, Rice, Side Dishes, Makgeolli and Moju (A local drink made with Makgeolli and Soju, with a very sweet taste like cinammon and now one of my fave Korean Drinks) ... we ate and we ate a lot...I remember being completely full but the meat was soo good but we didn't get to finish it (yet again!)... we then took a walk (great idea after that dinner) and we were off to the Pansori presentation.

Pansori is a genre of Korean Traditional Music, the vocals are performed by a Sorikkun (singer) and a Gosu (drummer playing a drum called BUK), I couldn't understand a single word of it but just by the way it's performed you can get the feeling of the piece being interpreted... it was a lovely Moonlight concert and the perfect way to wrap up our day, at the end we got to meet the Pansori Performer and we all got a Book with her CD :)





That night I realized I'm very well Oriented as some of the other members of the Tour didn't know how to go back to the Hanok O_O

When we arrived at the Hanok some of us didn't want to go to bed at 9pm (Can you believe we did so much before 9pm?) so we decided to go out for a bit, plus we had just met Asif (WKB living in ....), we were looking for a place that someone recomended to HanJeon (Photographer / KoreaNet) but I don't think thats were we ended, we went to a place were you can drink Makgeolli and they serve it with side dishes.. That has a name but I can't remember right now and google is not helping me... :( so yea, after dinner we went to the Hanok just to go out and eat again O_O and that was it for our 1st day in Jeonju....

I feel tired just reading this but I would definitely do it all over again!

-Gisela V.

Day 8 Saturday and let’s get this Party started….

Just like the past day, this one had an early start… Getting up at 7am to shower and get ready to have breakfast around 8 was something I was getting used to and this day was something I was very excited about because 1^st of all…it was Saturday!!!, 2^nd we had a river cruise planned and the Traditional Folk Village to visit and later that night we would meet Eugene to have some drinks and Korean Karaoke.

Onni and the driver picked us up at 9:30am because we had a long drive to the Traditional Korean Folk Village, the Village itself is amazing to say the least… the 1^st thing I notice when we enter the Village was a bunch of Jars where Kimchi Is usually stored, I know.. Who would notice that instead of all the other cool things, right?, for someone who loves FOOD and Korean culture, you will know this things are sort of important and well known, I’ve seen this in books and read about them before going to Korea or even before imaging I would get to go (ever!!), the picture was amazing, the sun was shining and there was still a little bit of snow on the ground and on top of the pots. After a photo shoot with the pots (lol) we walked towards the Restaurants Area not that we were hungry or anything… but we had to decide on a place to have lunch to make a reservation J , after choosing our next restaurant we walked some more and saw the entrance to the “Amusement Park”, we didn’t go in because we didn’t have enough time L, especially since we found one of those stands where a guy makes this Korean Candy with Honey…they take this big “pill” looking piece of honey, make a hole in the middle (like a donut) and then make it into really thin strings of candy, cut it and put 7 different kinds of nuts, wrap it and you are good to go… after the Candy show we had to run to see the Farmers Music and Dance show, again you have to cross another gate and before the gate there are some trees and a table with paper and pens, you are supposed to write a wish and put the paper on either the Trees or a Tree looking thing there and your wish will come true (I filled lot of those in Korea) then it was time to run (for real…) to catch the Farmers Music and Dance show  after the show we took pics with the dancers and then  went to see some more of the Village … unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to see all of it…. But we found a group of kids there, they were with a few young guys that seemed to be taking care of them, Onni explained to us the kids were from an orphan and that once a while they were taken on a field trip J , the kids were really nice and funny, one girl past us running and yelling “Hello!!!!” the she would come back just to say Hello again and again we just sat there with some of them and watched the others play for a little while until it was time to run again to watch the show of Acrobatics on a tightrope (See pics below) 

 
We wondered some more around the Village and met a woman knitting  silk… or more like, she had the silk worms and was pulling the strings out of them K (I Suck at explaining....).. See the pic to understand what am I talking about haha.

Then we went to what it seemed to be a part of the Kitchen?, this part reminded me of my mom because they had this “real size” posters of Jang-geum of the famous Daejanggeum or Jewel in the Palace Drama (my mom really liked this one for some weird reason…) so I took pics with the posters just to please her (haha).

It was time to eat (again….) so we went to the restaurant and this time our driver came with us, he is a really nice Ajosshi  each one of us ordered something different (as always) and that way we’ll get to try more dishes… I had  Yukgaejang a spicy soup made with beef, leek, green bean sprouts and bracker, this time we only had water since no one else seems to be into makgeolli but me L , on the table next to us there was a middle-age couple and as usual they were staring at us, I just made a lil bow (as a Hey, what’s up kind of bow lol) and he bowed back, then he handed me a cup of makgeolli and asked me to try it (if it was Mexico I would’ve said NO, but this wasn’t Mexico… I was on the other side of the World and I wanted to try as many things as possible, plus he didn’t look creepy or anything, and I got to eat my spicy soup with rice wine… yay!!

After lunch we had to go because it was time to go  to the Hwaseong Fortress, so we got to rest a bit on the Van. We got there, and had to take a lil train that will take us there, since we had about 30mins until the next train we took pictures at the entrance and just look around, then we took the train and got off on “top” of the fortress, we walked down the stairs and went inside, it was a bit late and looked very lonely, in there we only had like 30-45 mins to look around and take pictures because it was time to run again L , the driver  picked us up and it was time to go to the Han River (one of the longest rivers in Korea)… it was a long drive and we got to take a nap and just have a quiet time in the middle of the 6pm traffic, I was super excited about the Cruise because when I visited the 63 building I saw the lil ships and wanted to try it, we arrived there around 7:45 and had a dinner reservation at 8 (yup, it was time to eat AGAIN!), we went to a nice restaurant to have a “Korean Style”  stake… it was like grounded meat in a square shape… (yup, like a squared burger only with a better taste) , we also had garlic bread, salad and some tea... overall it was a nice dinner and I´m glad it wasn’t as BIG as our meal (while being in Korea I felt I was wasting a lot of food :s ) then it was time for the actual Cruise!!, we had 2 choices, the top Floor had a Magician to entertain and bottom floor had a band playing, since we figured it wasn’t something like a rock band… we went for the Magician show while Onni went for the Music show, the Magician looked like he was 15 years old but he was good and they played Disney music (awww!!), the trip was around 50 minutes, we didn’t go outside because it was really cold, so I don’t have any night shots (not that I’m good at taking night shots lol) and again it was time to go and hit the traffic one more time… this time we left Melly in a Mall (???) because she was meeting her PenPal, the driver took K Jin and me to the Hotel around 9 and we had to meet Eugene at 10pm at City Hall…. 

 Ok... enough!! lol ..Beers and Karaoke with Eugene  will be left for another day/post :) 


-Gisela V.