Cooking Culture

Our cooking class was early in the morning so we skipped breakfast and went directly there. We were the only students so we enjoyed a private lesson. The teaching chef told us of her experience as a chef. She spent some time in the US and spoke very good English. Leia was not feeling so great, so we kept our face masks on the whole time (except for eating.)

We cooked birthday soup of seaweed and a large clam, a squid and onion dish, and chive pancake with seafood. Then we had a tea ceremony with lotus leaf tea and chatted with the chef, and finished the class with a tour of the local food market - 400 years old and now covered to protect from the elements. We tried some snacks, fish cake, and some natural protein powder, which was very good. We bought more teabags at a supermarket and ended up suckered into buying way more rice cake snacks than we needed.

We took a bus up the hill to Gamcheon Culture Village, which has colorful buildings and roofs, a lot of tourist crap, many tourists, and murals on the walls as well as sculptures mostly of The Little Prince and his fox. We walked down the street to see the sights and on our way back saw a little black kitty with white socks, and we sat and pet her for a while. We took the bus going the wrong way and almost made it to a beach before we figured it out and switched buses.

Since Leia wasn’t feeling well we returned to the hotel in the afternoon to rest, and went out for dinner at a restaurant behind our hotel, serving small portions of mid-grade bibimbap to youths. It wasn’t enough for me so I escorted her back to the room and went out again to a pork and rice soup restaurant recommended to me by the teaching chef, and came back with citron tea for Leia. We didn’t have any coffee today and Leia was so well hydrated she pissed clear all day.