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!

What's been cooking in Korea part 2... Easter Dinner

HAPPY EASTER!!!

One of our favorite recipes here is chicken fried rice.  It's quick, easy, and delicous!  Since it is Easter, we had to add our own special touch to it.  Normal eggs wouldn't do, we had to use Easter eggs :)

We hope each of  you had a great Easter!  Of course ours was different than the way we typically celebrate.  Even though everything  around us was different, the meaning behind Easter is always the same and that is comforting no matter where you might be.

We didn't hide Easter eggs, but instead hid candy for each other around our apartment which was lots of fun.  It was also nice enough outside to have an Easter picnic.  Korea has helped us start some new traditions we look forward to continuing when we get back home! 

Indgredients                

Bagged Chicken (Thank you Penny!)

1 cup diced veggies

2-3 tsp. garlic powder

3 TBS of sugar

2 eggs

3 TBS of soy sauce

2-3 TBS oil





 Cook the rice the night before and refridgerate so it is completely cooled.  Put 1 TBS. of oil into frying pan and scramble 2 eggs.  Add 1 cup of diced veggies (I use carrots and brocolli stems...when I get back to the States I'll add peas).  Add another TBS of oil and mix in chicken and rice.  Continue stirring and add sugar, garlic powder, and soy sauce.  Fry until hot and mixed completely (5-8 minutes). 

              
I don't really like following recipes to the exact and don't have measuring spoons, so just add soy sauce, sugar, and garlic powder to your liking...each time we have had it, it turns out great! 

 



 

Spring has Sprung in Korea!

Cherry Blossoms in Bonghwa

Flowers are absolutely beautiful in Korea...One of the most beautiful and most famous flowers in Asia is the cherry blossom.  The cherry blossoms are only around for a short time, so we made the most of it and headed down to Gyeongju (one of the best places in all Korea to see them).  



"walking on water"



Ancient Tomb (huge earthen mounds)



the consequence of
"walking on water"



Gyeongju was the ancient capital of Korea, so along with seeing the blossoms, we also did some sight-seeing.  Gyeongju also happens to be the home of one of our American friends, and fellow Epic teacher, Andrew.  With Andrew as our tour guide, and Kate as our traveling companion, we took Gyeongju City by storm.   We first walked along the river to see the cherry blossoms and found ourselves with no way to cross except by "walking on water"  (not really, but we saw some Koreans do it and it looked like fun).  Next stop, Daelungwon.  These are huge tombs of ancient Korean rulers. 



Meat on a stick



After the tombs, we took a stroll through a huge park with more cherry blossoms, passed the oldest star observation tower in Asia and took a break for a meat on a stick.  Jesse went for the double  fried corn dog dipped in sugar, while Andrew and I went with some unidentifiable meat on a stick.  Kate, wanting to be different, ate a piece of fried immitation crab with ketchup on top :)  



cherry blossom

Feeling refreshed, we made our way to Andrew's favorite spot, Anapji pond.  This is the site of an ancient Korean pond and garden area which has been restored and stocked with giant goldfish.  Next, we went to the Gyeongju historical museum.  Our final destination was Bulguksa Temple.  Andrew couldn't go with us, but before leaving he told us it was too far to walk and recommended we take the bus.  Well, we tried to take the bus, but it was full so we started walking.  We walked 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) and saw a sign that said we still had 8 kilometers to go! 

Realizing our friend was right, it was too far to walk, Kate flagged down a taxi.  The taxi, trying to pull over, caused a multi-car pile up and then sped away, leaving us feeling awkwardly guilty and still without a ride to Bulguksa.  We briskly walked away from the scene of the accident (we can't be eye witnesses anyway not being able to speak Korean) and got in another taxi and made it to the temple. 



Anapji Pond



It was worth it!  In front of the temple was a huge park full of blossoming cherry trees and more meat on a stick vendors.  The park looked like a scene from a movie.  We walked through the park, took some pictures, and Jesse traveled from vendor to vendor sampling more double fried corn dogs.  

What a day!  Spring has arrived!!  



Walking to Weolyeonggyo

The weather has been getting nicer and with the good weather will come more blog entries...  The long winter had almost used up all of our meat supply and so like a mighty bear arising from hibernation (can you tell Jesse is helping me write this?), we set out on the longest walking journey we have yet encountered here in Korea. 



Hot Tea



We jumped on a bus to Andong (about an hour from Bonghwa) to get some groceries and do a little exploring.  Our plan was to visit Weolyeonggyo Bridge (the longest walking bridge in Korea), get some groceries, and get out of town.  We had a plan, sketched out a map, and were ready to go...until the bus dropped us off on the OPPOSITE side of town!!

We were so confused for awhile, we didn't even know which way the town was, let alone the grocery store...or if we were even in Andong.  We got our bearings, found out Andong had built a new bus station since our last visit, and started walking "towards town."  After seeing more rice paddies than buildings, we changed directions, and were now officially walking towards town!

 

And walk we did!  We have nothing against taxis, but where is the fun in that?  Along with the extra fun, you save money and get some good exercise! 

After walking for about 2 hrs. (looking at our map upside down at one point) we saw our first sign for Weolyeonggyo Bridge- only 5 kilometers away!  For those of you who are American reading this blog, that's just over 3 miles!  Thankfully on the way to the bridge, Jesse spotted the grocery store so we could hit it on our way back.  God always looks after us on our adventures :)  



Traditional Korean Village



We did eventually walk the whole distance to Weolyeonggyo and it was beautiful.  On the other side of the bridge is a traditional Korean village with wooden houses and straw roofs.  As we were walking through the village, a lady invited us to come and drink hot tea with her in the courtyard (things we love about Korea). 

We drank our tea and started the VERY long walk back to the bus station...