Not only did we get to do amazing sight-seeing, but I also got to learn about myself and my culture. I got to see how important family is to us, how my mom's brothers and sister dropped everything in their lives to do as much as they could for my mom while she was there. Growing up with a small family of just my mom, dad, and sister, it was heartwarming to see other family members so happy to see us. I miss everybody and I wish I could be back but I made a promise that I'd visit more often instead of waiting 19 years the next time.
Another part of this vacation that I miss so much, of course, was the food. The amazing food. Some dishes were classics, some I'd never heard of. If you are a foodie, you need to go to Korea. Visit the country side, visit the big cities, visit the island near the south of the country. Everything I ate was great there - even the airport and airplane food! Tickets may be expensive, but everything is worth it. Okay, fine; if not, try New York City or another big city in America where Koreans gather, but nothing will compare to the actual country. Believe me.
Let me start with the food from the Jeju Island. My aunt came with me and my mom and we were there for 3 nights and 4 days. We ate a lot in that time and they were all different! The island is very small and rich in seafood and the land is rich in minerals so all crops grow well. It's a 1-hour flight from Seoul and I was hungry when I got to the airport so here's what I ate as a snack:
Rice cakes are a big and important part of the Korean food culture so it's everywhere. This wasn't enough to satisfy my stomach though so once we landed and got our rental car, we drove to our first destination but on the way we found a restaurant specializing in Mackerel Stew. I never had this stew kind of stew before. The mackerel is wrapped in kimchi and cooked. Then you make a lettuce wrap with some rice (or none - up to you), some mackerel meat, and a piece of kimchi, and you eat it! It was pretty good. Mackerel is one of my favorite fish to eat.
It's seems pretty normal for restaurants to give a complimentary stew in addition to whatever you ordered so we got a spicy seafood stew as well (to the left). There were some weird-looking shrimp in that stew so I had to show you. It's like the lovechild of a lobster and a shrimp!
Then for dinner (I think the same day), we found a well-known black pig grill restaurant. I don't know what's so special about black pig, but I wasn't gonna complain - it was still good! They also gave us seafood to grill - shrimp and abalone. My mom and my aunt ate them raw but I couldn't handle it with the way it was moving and such. They also gave us a piece of pig skin, which is very popular to eat in Korea because of the collagen. As always, delicious side dishes were complimentary.
My aunt has already been to this island a couple times so she knows a few good restaurants and probably hears about a lot of others as well. Jeju Island has always been the vacation spot for many couples and families. She took us to a restaurant run by grandmas she had only heard was very good - and no doubt it was. All seafood dishes and all guaranteed fresh. There are some weird looking seafood in the island and I can't remember a lot of the names but the one I do remember is abalone and this place was known for its abalone porridge. It was hearty and filling and good!
For dinner that night, we found a restaurant specializing in spicy octopus, especially the kind you cut up and mix with rice like in the picture. You know, I can handle some spiciness but Koreans can definitely handle way more. Knowing this, my aunt asked for the waitress to make it less spicy; yet I was still tearing up, sweating, and had a runny nose. It was the spiciest thing I have ever eaten in my life! But it was still so delicious. I love spicy octopus stir fry so this was great.
Jeju Island is famous for a lot of things and one of them is the fish Largehead Fishtail. We've eaten a lot of this growing up in America as well but it just doesn't compare to how tender the one in Jeju was. I had no idea the fish was that tender - how sad to think I've eaten bad fish all my life. Importing it probably doesn't do anything to make the fish taste better anyway.
Dinner that night was extravagant. My cousin on my dad's side currently lives on the island and wanted to treat us to dinner. This restaurant was very busy and we got there at the right time because after us, people had to wait. This restaurant's specialty is "Cutting Board Pork" called that because it's pork served on a cutting board. They give you three different things to wrap the pork in: lettuce and sesame seed leaves, rinsed kimchi, and dashi. All the side dishes were complimentary and they gave way more and more interesting ones than any other restaurant. That mackerel is a side dish!
The last day we had to return the rental car so we made an arrangement with a private taxi driver who took us to the last places we needed to see on the island. He has lived there all his life and has been driving tourists around for a living for many years so he knows everything. He also took us to a restaurant that serves a somewhat hard-to-find dish. Kalguksu is one of my favorite noodle soups but the broth is usually made of chicken or beef (i actually don't remember right now what my mom uses) so it was strange to hear that they made this soup with sea urchin broth. Of course we had to try it and it was delicious! Again, a hearty and deep warm-in-my-belly dish. Very interesting and very good.
Don't you just wanna eat all this off the screen? I sure do. I can't even recreate a lot of these at home because the freshness of the seafood and the ingredients just doesn't compare! I probably couldn't even find half the ingredients anyway. So, enjoy these pictures and please come back to see pictures of food that I ate back on the mainland and in the city. Yes, I took way too many pictures probably.
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