Another holiday, much needed after a
month of overtime with eager students spending their school break learning
English. (I must give props, there!) The split shift left us beat, so Zak and I
decided to spend our time exploring what’s around us in Seoul. The Lunar New
Year, Seollal, is based on the Chinese calendar, and this year is the Year of the Horse.
In Korea, celebrations primarily take place inside the home. People go to their
family’s houses for a three-day celebration where, traditionally, they pray to
their ancestors, dress in colorful hanbok
formal wear, and make wishes for the new year. Another time-honored custom
is the eating of tteokguk, soup with
rice cake, to celebrate the passing of another year in age (essentially, everyone’s
birthday).
Our holiday highlight centered around
our new favorite spot, Gwangjang Market, where healthy winter foods are served
in abundance. We also hiked along the Seoul Fortress Wall. We couldn’t take
very many pictures (prohibited, presumably having something to do with being
part of a military zone) but did snap a few. The forecast was sun; we got rain,
but the weather made it mystical and memorable.
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| Korean Red Pine |
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| Trailhead to the Fortress Wall, only about a 35 minute walk from our place. |
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| Up the stairs we went...and down, and up, and down. Ultimate stair workout! |
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| Changuimun Gate, one of many along the wall. |
According to our students, THE thing to
do on a rainy day is to eat bin dae duk, a
mung bean pancake fried and served with onions in a soy dipping sauce. I know –
Ashley eating fried food! But check out the process, it is amazingly flavorful
and made from scratch right in front of you. First, they soak the beans then
grind them wet with an old-style mill. Onions, mung bean sprouts, and green
onions are added to the batter, which is then poured onto a piping hot grill.
It comes off sizzling, and people line up literally for hours to get this
stuff. There are probably 20 different stalls serving exclusively this, and
seats are a hot commodity.
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| Bin dae duk, start to finish. |
Somehow we snagged front row seats and
were somewhat of a celebrity to this happy couple across from us that now have
a minute by minute photo diary of us eating bin
dae duk. They were also impressed with Zak’s chopsticks skills.
The market was so good (and cheap!),
that we went back a few times. Here is piping hot seaweed soup with fresh
noodles and kimchi mandu (dumplings).
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| Two other popular soups, pumpkin and red bean soup. |
For the meat lovers, this is the palace
of entrails. Not a fan of the blood sausage, pig face, pig trotters, or sundae (intestine – which, I kid you
not, comes up every time I have a “favorite Korean food” discussion with
students).
We did, however, very much enjoy the japchae, glass noodles in a delicious soybean paste sauce served with carrots, greens, and sesame oil.
All in all, a fantastic holiday and we’re
refreshed and ready to start a new month!
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| Our favorite sign of the day (Inwangsan is, by the way, a mountain). |
