Different cities and regions in South Korea are famous for different foods. Seong's (and my!) uncle and aunt live in a city about 1 hour east of Seoul called 춘천 (Chuncheon), which is famous for 닭갈비 (Dakgalbi), a spicy chicken "stir fry". Last week, Seong and I traveled to Chuncheon and were lucky enough to sample this delicious specialty!
Dakgalbi is one of the Korean foods that cooks on the table, so I got some videos of the stages of cooking.
The ingredients are spicy chicken, rice cakes (떡 = ddeok), and veggies, like cabbage, sweet potatoes, green onions, and perilla leaves. The server adds the raw goodness to the hot pan and then cuts the chicken into pieces with scissors.
After it cooks for a few minutes, the server usually comes back to stir it, but Seong took matters into his own hands!
The only 반찬 (banchan = side dishes) that are needed are greens for wrapping, spicy sauce, pickles, and raw onion and garlic.
After eating the dakgalbi, the server brought rice and goodies to make fried rice in the same pan. There was also some udon noodles cooking!
But it wasn't done! Next, he sprinkled cheese on the rice and rolled it up into cheesy rice rolls!
Hooray! Another video Mukbang Monday! Today I just had to talk to someone about our recent banchan purchases. 반찬 (banchan) are Korean side dishes, which are an essential part of the Korean meal. The Chos don't usually have a lot of banchan in the house, but after discovering how deliciously and easily they make a meal, I'm sure we will buy more in the future. I can't wait!
This is Rebekah and I out of our minds excited because we are about to experience something amazing! It's something that we had been looking forward to since the first Korean drama we ever watched! That experience was the 찜질방, or public bath house!
We went to a large and popular sauna that is very close to our apartment and that was recommended by a friend. The entrance was very fancy, reminding us that this was a special treat for date night, not a trip to the YMCA.
The whole concept of the public bath house is that it is a place for families and couples to hang out, relax, have fun, and improve their health. It is also a cheap place to stay the night, since it is open 24hrs. Once inside, we changed into matching shorts and shirts, which was half the fun!
The building consists of common areas, all with heated floors perfect for lounging around on, plus various rooms and activities.
There are places to eat and buy snacks, an arcade, a nail salon, different massage parlors, spa treatments, and a large variety of saunas.
There were saunas made of wood, salt, jade, and brick, all with specific temperatures so you can customize your sweat level! Some of the saunas are warm like a summer day, perfect for napping, and there was even a cold room!
Here we are inside the medium temperature "oven", which had wooden floors, brick walls, and smelled like barbeque.
We ate at the sit-down restaurant wearing our matching outfits, which felt super relaxed. We ordered 비빔밥 (Bibimbap = veggie and rice bowl) and 동가스 (Tongaseu = Japanese fried pork).
After enjoying dinner, we sat on the warm floor in the common area to play a storytelling card game that the Osters gave us for Christmas!
Next, we explored the rest of the building, had ice cream, paid a few bucks to use massage chairs, spent more time in the saunas, and took a few naps!
Finally, we split up by gender to experience the public baths. Rebekah and I swallowed our self-consciousness to strut around in our birthday suits with the Korean ladies! Inside the no-clothes-allowed section were various hot tubs of different temperatures. Let's get real for a second. Skinny dipping in a hot tub is fabulous! There was also a very cold tub, which we dipped our toes in but didn't take the plunge.
Beside the hot tubs, there were a lot of showerheads set up for washing up. We didn't get the "bring you own soap" memo, so we showered at home. Although it sounds strange, the public bath experience was so fun, and I am so proud of us for our bravery!
After the whole night, we felt so relaxed and invigorated! For the same price as dinner and movie, it was the perfect vacation date night.
Something happened in late November that I haven't told too many people about, but it has been long enough! I got a job! I'm teaching English to kindergarteners, which is both rewarding and a fun change of pace for me.
What has really been interesting is that I opted to eat lunch at school with the Korean teachers instead of having to pack my lunch every day I work. It is exciting and scary, because I don't know what will be served! So far I am loving it because I'm expanding my taste for Korean food and most of the time it is very healthy.
For this Mukbang, I want to show you a typical lunch tray.
Starting on the bottom left is rice, which you probably guessed would be on the tray! This rice is a purple color, which means it has some black rice mixed into the white rice. A quick internet search just helped me learn that black rice is higher in fiber and antioxidants and lower in carbs than brown or white rice. So it's not just pretty!
Above the rice is some kind of salad, although I'm not quite sure what it was, maybe garlic shoots? Who ever thought I would eat things without being able to identify them? Lunch at work is definitely a game of chance, but there is usually a vegetable that I feel safe eating.
In the middle is kimchi, which is usually either cabbage kimchi or cubed radish kimchi, both favorites of mine!
On the top right is the wildcard item that widly varies from day to day. This picture shows dumplings with some kind of barbeque sauce on them. There can be spicy chicken and veggies, fried pork, seafood, noodles, etc. This is the part that is kind of hit or miss for me. At least I can always count on kimchi and rice!
The bowl of soup is always delicious. On this day it was beef and radish soup, which I love and actually made on a previous Mukbang post about making mandu. The soup has been egg drop, tofu, dumpling, tiny shrimp, beef, miso, spring onion, and seaweed, just to name a few. I really enjoy the variety of soups I get to try!
And that's it! Simple, healthy, and I don't have to haul lunch on the bus to work!
