Today was probably the most enjoyable for nearly everyone in our group today. Partly because the pace was a little more relaxed and partly because the activities had something for all ages. It was a brave call by Sunny, our INKAS Tour Leader to change today’s program and visits proved a resounding success. In the morning we went to Sanchung National Park. Parks in Korea are much different to what we know of as parks in Australia. Many of our parks are natural forest/swamp/grassland mostly untouched by human, hence their value as a living museum. Due to wars and heavy human exploitation, the National Parks of Korea tend to be reclaimed/re-vegetated forest.
Often they have a manicured feel and appearance and as with today waterfalls that keep business hours. That is water is circulated to them during park opening hours. Even the stream we followed today had water pumped to the top holding dam in order to ensure a continual year round flow.
As a fisherman I also found it quite a tease. Fishing exploitation has been coming under more control, particularly within National Parks. Fishing is banned in this stream. This recovered stream had been restocked with native fish and was in the process of becoming self sustaining.
Where the real tease came was the Rainbow Trout to around a kilogram swimming in some pools too. Oh how I wish I'd brought the trusty 3-weight and a box of dry flies. Wouldn't have been worth it though as the police run around with machine guns!
The afternoon saw us visit Sunchang a new village built along traditional designs. This area is most famous for the red pepper chilli paste Gojuchang. This paste is a very important ingredient in many Korean recipes and is also an important condiment at the table too. Gojuchang from Sunchang is said to be particularly good for the flavours offered by local “mineral” waters and the ideal climate to grow and process soy bean and chillies, both important ingredients of the paste.
In Sanchung a fun series of cooking lessons thrilled both young and old. Firstly making a pizza with a Korean twist. Slices of rice cake, a glutinous sausage cut across into thin oval coins, were layed out as s base layer on the electric fry-pan. A loose bread/yeast dough was spread over the rice cake. Toppings of bulgoggi meat, capsicum, onion and cheese were topped of with a ketchup sauce splash.
This is then cooked on medium in a covered electric fry-pan till cooked. The oil/butter melted in the pan beforehand gives the rice cake/dough base a lovely crispy and chewy base. Very different to Italian pizza, but I reckon traditional Italian toppings would match this base perfectly too.
As the pizzas cooked we went outside to pound rice with heavy wooden mallets to make rice cake. A soft dough ball of rice covered in soy powder or anther powder to offer both protein and mild sweetness. These are one of Amelie's favourites whenever they are available.
The loud part of the day was due to making popped rice. Basically these are what we know as rice bubbles. Rice is popped like pop corn by heating to allow the moisture inside to turn suddenly to steam and expand the grain to a fluffy ball twice as large as the original. Unlike corn, rice does not have a skin to hold the kernel under pressure till it bursts.
Instead the rice is heated in a pressure vessel and heated from outside until the desired temperature and pressure is reached. The valve is opened creating a loud booming canon like noise that allow the rice grains to expand in the sudden decompression. Apart from the startling noise, burst eardrums and potential occupational health and safety violations I don't see any problems making my breakfast cereal this way. Perhaps neighbours may object, complaining about gun fire.
T he last recipe was mixing out own gojuchang paste. Ground chilli powder, soy bean paste and other ingredients are simply stirred till mixed in the bowl. However the process is not complete until it has fermented in porcelain jars for six months. It is true that we could notice a distinct flavour and texture of the matured product over the gojujang available to us in Austtralia. Sanghung Gojuchang is made without preservatives or additives. It can affect it's shelf life marginally requiring it to be kept n the fridge once opened to prevent it becoming dried out and unpalatable.
The early return to Damyang Resort allowed us to]o relax and enjoy the spa facilities and to really get to know one another. All the bathing within the complex is sans clothes.... that's right all nudie. Hence the broadened knowledge of our tour partners. Luckily the baths are strictly segregated along gender lines so the evening did not deteriorate further than plain old relaxation.
Strangely the menfolk of the tour are more uptight than the women. At least all the girls went bathing, some clad in lycra, others dressed as in Rome and others braving to suppress modesty at the behest of locals. Most of the men however, did not even brave heading over to join in preference to standing by the bar calling each other “Bruce” in deepened nodded acknowledgements over tall glasses of beer.
Having been to baths in Japan, I knew what to expect and jaunted off to enjoy the facilities of cold, warm, hot baths, saunas both hot and bamboo oil perfumed. Of interest were 3 speciality baths of Bamboo leaf infused water, Bamboo oil infused water and finally green tea infused water.
I now know how a tea bag feels.
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