What's Been Cooking in Korea- Part 3

 One of the great things about living overseas and traveling is finding new and delicious food to eat.  On our trip to India we discovered Samosas...and have been in love with them ever since! 

Curry Mixture and Samosa Dough

SAMOSA PASTRY
Yields 12 pastries

3/4 cup + 1 Tbs. of flour
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. vegetable oil
40ml of water

Mix flour and salt in a bowl.  Add oil and enough water until dough is firm.  Cover in plastic wrap and set aside for 20-30 minutes. 

After dough has set, divide pastry into 6 balls.  Use a rolling pin to flatten each ball into a circle.  Cut the circle in half and fill the semi-circles with Samosa filling.  Fold the semi-circles in half, pinching the sides with water.   Fill bottom of frying pan with oil and heat.  Fry the samosas (be careful not to let curry spill into oil-it will splatter like crazy!).  Use the remaining samosa filling to pour over rice and enjoy the meal!





SAMOSA FILLING (CURRY)
2-3 potatoes diced
1 carrot diced
1 chopped onion
2 Tbs. vegetable oil
Half a package of curry seasoning
350ml water
Bag of chicken

Heat oil in pan, add veggies, and stir until cooked.  Add water and curry seasoning.  Mix until it thickens.  After you use the filling for the samosas, add a bag of chicken.

Highway to the Danger Zone

Dangerous... is what most people think a trip to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) would be.  The DMZ is the border between North and South Korea and is the most heavily fortified border in the world.  It is a 7 mile wide border guarded by soldiers, fences, and land mines.  

Kate looking into N. Korea

Mysterious... North Korea is a country shrouded in mystery.  From the Dora Observatory, which looks towards N. Korea, all you can see is the silhouettes of distant buildings and a giant flag rising above the fog.  The North Korean flag flies on top of the world's tallest flag pole and faces South Korea's flag from across a huge valley.  

Zero Tolerance... Access to the DMZ is strictly controlled, all civilians entering in must have permission from the government, valid ID's, and pass through a series of checkpoints- with no exceptions.  There are still a few people who are allowed to live and farm in this area, but only those whose family's owned land before the border was fortified. 

The most heavily-fortified
border in the world

If you couldn't tell by this post, we went to DMZ this last weekend.  We really enjoyed the experience.  It is a lot different than you would think and it helped us to better understand the history and culture of the place where we have been living this past year. 

Happy Birthday Buddha



Tuesday was the celebration for Buddha's Birthday.  For us, the highlight of the celebration were the paper lanterns lining the river and streets of Bonghwa.  There was also a parade and a giant lantern tower near the river, setting us up for some great pictures! 

Inside the Buddha Tower!

Spring Festivals!

Festivals are very common in Korea.  It seems like the Koreans will come up with any excuse to have a celebration.  This does not bother us one bit, over the last few weeks we got to celebrate Children's Day, Buddha's Birthday, and  cookies! 

Children's Day Celebration

The Children's day celebration was the first festival we wandered through.  There was face painting, cotton candy, icecream, crafts, and heavy machinery for the children to operate :)  What's even better than all this?  The celebration got us out of school for the day! 

Our good friend Kate came down for the cookie festival.  We started the morning out making some gimbap for a picnic lunch along the river trail to Daksil (a traditional Korean village just outside of Bonghwa).  After lunch, we took Kate to see the village and headed to the cookie festival! 

To our amazement and surprise, hidden in a small mountain valley, we didn't necessarily find cookies at the festival...but a strange Dr. Seuss-like cartoon village filled with a man-made river, waterfalls, and strange submarine houses. 

Jesse's student helped us
create a family motto

whoops...the motto was
upside down!  Thanks
new friend :) 

A good lesson we have learned here in Korea, is to expect anything...whether it makes sense or not, and just go with the flow of things. So despite our shock, we wandered into the celebration to join thousands of Koreans while witnessing Korean children dressed up in Czech outfits playing accordians and broomsticks on stage (not joking...they actually could play the accordian pretty well!), old men poking at dead trout in the stream, and men selling hamsters along with cotton candy. 



Buddha's Birthday is today, so we will see what the Koreans have in store!