Making Kimchi

So a long, LONG time ago I made some kimchi at a Buddhist temple in Busan.

To sum it up…it was fucking awesome!  I did this back in like December I think.  I have had the post written, but I never actually published it (yes, that is how lazy I am). 

This has been one of my favorite experiences since arriving in the ROK.  Granted, I LOVE kimchi and this event involved kimchi and was FREE so I might be a little biased.  This is a pretty good combo though!

Meetup.com

I found out about the event on Meetup.com (it is a site for expats and locals to attend events) and no it isn’t a dating site.  My friend Jason attended as well because he loves kimchi too!!!  Kim fuckin’ chi!!!

gay looking

We were supposed to meet our group in the bus station at Nopodong (which is in the middle of nowhere).  We all met up and then looked for the free shuttle to the temple.  The shuttle arrived with little kids in green outfit thingys and took us with them.  After a 15 or 20 minute shuttle ride further into the countryside we arrived at the temple.

At the temple, we were greeted by monks and volunteers.  It was already set up to where we would have name tags and what not.  So, we first picked up our name tags and then were offered some coffee or tea.  Then we were shown to our “station” at which we would be “working”.  We were sent to station #1 (the monks could probably sense that we piss excellence) and there were 4 of us in the group.

Station 1

To kill some time and wait for other groups to arrive, one man offered us a tour of the temple.  The tour was interesting and cool…and….it was actually the first temple I had been in since arriving in Korea.  Granted, as I write this 5 months later, I have been in more and a shit ton while in Taiwan.  You see one temple, you have seen them all.

Making some awesomeness aka Kimchi

So, they set us up with all of the ingredients and tools for making this Korean staple.  There was also a “professional” Korean lady/chef?

pro

 who told/showed us how to make the Kimchi (but in Korean with a crappy Korean translator). 

Our little helper...

We cut some veggies, diced some shit, mixed  things together and then one of the ladies running the event came over and yelled at us for doing it wrong.  We then had the “professional” come over and make most of it for us because we were messing it up.  Our team also decided to take another batch of ingredients from a deserted station to make.  We ended up with TONS of kimchi!

We were able to take it all home, but I had to throw half of mine out because I had to go to Taiwan about 2 weeks later and didn’t want it to stink up my ENTIRE apartment.

This temple has an event for only foreigners once a month.   This was the only one I have attended, but some of their things are gay and I don’t want to go.

I haven’t been doing any cool shit, thus not really posting anything.  I have been hiking a ton!  But that would be boring as hell to write about and for anyone (other than my mother) to read.  The weather is getting better, and I have some trips lined up so maybe I will do some things worth posting about….or not!

Tags: awesomeness, buddhist temple, busan temple, changwon, cool things in korea, ESL South Korea, how to make kimchi, i love kimchi, Korea, korea free activity, making kimchi, meetup.com, stuff to do in korea, teaching english in south korea