Now where did I leave off.... Oh yes, we left Busan on August 22 after having breakfast at our usual hang-out, a 7-11 store where mummy could get her much needed morning coffee.. She is not too keen on the regular coffee served here in most restaurants and bakeries so she carries around these small packs of premixed Tasters Choice (which only need hot water added). All (public) places, restaurants, hotels, and of course our 7-11 stores have watercoolers that dispense both steaming hot and icy cold filtered water. Water is not a problem here in Korea: it is safe to drink, but my folks still prefer to buy bottled water or refill with filtered. I have already been warned against the use of tab water for anything other than washing up. After breakfast of peanut butter and jam on baguette along with milk and a yogurt, we leave for the ferry terminal to catch a catamaran ferry to the island Genjedo and then on to Tongyeong by bus. The ferry is fun & fast and we get there within an hour...
The island is beautiful but we just tour it via bus as we decide it's not worth a stop since there are 'so many nice places to see and so little time' - we have a flight out of Korea in 2 weeks. My parents decided to go to Tongyeong mainly because it's considered by our guidebook to be "the Naples of the Orient": it does have a nice harbor and small busy streets. We stayed at a small hotel near the bus station a bit away from the harbor and the famous gimbap restaurants. We went by taxi the short distance and found a small restaurant serving the local favorite meal: gimbab - like sushi or more correctly maki (rice rolled up with kimchi and various stuff, then rolled in a sheet of seaweed). I have not yet developed a taste for the hot kimchi. Some of my favorite foods here are fried fish, fried or steamed dumplings, bulkogi, yams with salt and tempura style anything and of course rice and noodles. I have tried the sashimi, but can't say I've acquired a taste for the rawness of the fish.
The next morning the folks decided to head further west on to a fishing town called Wando, to spend a few days before visiting the island of Jeju. I was doing my schoolwork on the bus with papa but found that I was more interested in the scenery passing by: hills and farmland of rice and chili peppers. The lush green leaves were starting to brown revealing the ready to be harvested chili peppers underneath. The flaming red peppers are than picked and left out in the sun to dry. This is done on any available flat place like roads, rooftops and I've even seen peppers drying on the roof of a car! Once dry they are taken to small family-run shops that own grinding machines. I have not witnessed the process after this to make kimchi, but it involves mixing the ground peppers with various vegetables using some type of liquid - probably vinegar. The mixture is then placed into large earthenware containers and left in the sun to ferment. These containers can be seen around in most homes. Within a few weeks the contents are ready to be served.
What I have however noticed, is the absence of animals in the fields. e.g. cows, horses, and goats (although I have spotted a few strays along the hill sides). I suppose it's because Korea is more an industrialized country and animals used for work has long been replaced by more modern machinery.
Two buses and 5 hours later and just before I was about to show the Korean people just what a temper tantrum really is, we pulled into the station. My parents found a place and got some much-welcomed food in me. Then we called it a night. The day turned out to be more a traveling day and not much (thanks to the diverted tantrum) to write home about.
Wando is a small fishing town on the South Sea with a long wharf. I waited with papa while mummy left to find a hotel. She's become quite particular about the places we stay at, so papa has given her the job of finding us a room. I didn't see any Hyatt Regency or Hiltons around... (my papa's no fool.) 1/2-hour later mother returned with a big smile on her face - papa was worried and wondered what kind of a place she found. As it turned out it was a nice small 2-story hotel overlooking the sea - spotlessly clean with a harbor view. After settling in and getting the laundry done it was off to visit the town. Rickety boats lined the wharf leading to the harbor. The tide was out so the boats were much lower than the wharf, their tall masts just barely seen swaying in the wind. Very picturesque. On the other side of the road there were small restaurants, their fish tanks overflowing with all kinds of fish and seafood. Some of these small restaurants also serve as fish depots: many had industrial stone tanks with a constant water supply, mostly for wholesale distribution. Wando is also famous for the quality of its seaweed, which you can see drying out in the sun in the Fall, so since it��s Summer we only got a glimpse of really small quantities drying in the sun. What we did see along the wharf was a type of fish gutted and flattened (propped with two chopsticks to keep it flat) drying on single screen racks. This fish is partly dried and then frozen, to be used for a deep-fried meal. The live fish in the tanks are eaten mainly as sashimi.
We headed towards the ferry terminal to get more info on departure to Jeju-do. On our way there we came across a large indoor market, and as markets are my parents favorite pastime we checked it out. Before even seeing it my nose told me it was a fish market. WOW! It was BIG. Held in a large warehouse it had colorful murals of fish and a lot of women lined the sides - all with their individual buckets of funny looking, smelly, flipping fish! And I do mean flipping! All the fish were squirming around in small and large water buckets - trying desperately to get out. Some actually made it out and then come the ladies�� turn to squirm around trying to catch them. A funny sight. The women were very friendly and we got quite a lot of attention while we peered into the many buckets holding various fish, eels, shellfish, squids, and some sort of squishy animal which, when squeezed, released a spout of water (much like a water gun). I had fun with that one! There were even baby sharks (although I kept asking if they were really for eating - they looked too cute).
We were quite hungry by then and had noticed that people were eating at tables on the deck, so my parents thought that all you had to do was choose your favorite fish and ask them to cook it ....... big mistake. Yes, you do choose your fish but the thing is you eat it RAW! They do, however, clean, scale and put it on a plate for you. My folks, unaware of this little bit of information, went about picking out some eels. Yes, you heard me �V live slithering eels! The women were very friendly chattering and laughing while they skinned and chopped up lunch. They kept showing us how to eat the eels raw, while my folks were desperately trying to convince them (using all kinds of sign language and words which no doubt was Greek to them) that we wanted it cooked. Finally, after about 15 min. of this banter, they offered my mother the cooking utensils and showed her the way to the stove. What a sight followed next.... A crowd had started gathering - each lady bringing some ingredient to help with the meal: soya sauce, green onions, pepper, kimchi garlic, oil, etc....and hung around to watch what the foreigners did next. Those of you who know her, can imagine just how much she loves pretending to demonstrate a cooking show - I would like to go on the record to say that Martha Stewart has nothing to worry about!! The meal was NOT a success.... someone forgot to mention that eels have little tiny bones that have to be removed before eating! (another lady felt sorry for us and the tedious way we were picking out the bones; so she filleted some more eels and fried it for us. How was it you ask? �K Well, uh the rice was good..... My parents thought this was a nice contact with the local women, and needless to say the locals now have a great anecdote about the finicky foreign family!
Click here for the rest on Wando...