By Korea.net Honorary Reporter Diya Mitra
Photos∙Video = Diya Mitra
Cooking demonstrations and a taste of Korea
With my bag of stuff getting fuller, and feeling hungry, I proceeded to visit the Authentic Taste of Korea exhibit that showcased Korean food and explained further about dasik tea cookies, organic snacks, hangwa traditional snacks, guksu traditional noodles and traditional sauces. There were also leaflets about places around London to enjoy Korean food. I quickly picked one up.
At this exhibition there was a round table where you could drink green tea and experience how to make dasik tea cookies, as well as eat them. These cookies are made of powdered rice, chestnuts or beans, and are combined with honey and pressed into a patterned wooden mould. I had a go at making one, which seemed fairly easy. They were also giving out rice cakes that I took with the intention of eating later, but it soon disappeared into my mouth.
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| I try to make the cookies using a wooden mould. |
The Korean cuisine cooking class, which I have called a food demonstration or workshop on the map, taught people how to make bibim guksu spicy cold noodles, kimchi mandu dumplings, kimchi jeon savory cakes and japchae stir-fried glass noodles. You had to sign up on the spot and by the time I had arrived, all the classes were full.
However, there was nothing to stop me staring and drooling for a bit. I said a quick hello to Da-Hae West of Busan BBQ fame. She was one of the chefs at the workshop providing the classes and demonstrations. I peeked into the H-Mart stall, which was busy, and scanned over the six food stalls that provided delicious sustenance to the hungry customers. There was Little Korea, Lime Orange, The Cups, Goko, Yami and The Massita. Once I was able to battle my way through the queues, I made my way over to the tourism section.
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| People make kimchi jeon savory cakes in the Korean cooking class. |
Tourism and the PyeongChang Winter Games
This was the last section on level two. For people who are unfamiliar with Korea as a tourist destination, it was a lovely eye-opener. I also enjoyed the photo exhibit showing the top 10 must-see attractions in Korea. These were largely prompted by them being UNESCO-registered world heritage sites, or places of historic interest. They are listed below.
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| A photo exhibition depicts the top 10 must-see attractions in Korea. |
1. Jongmyo Shrine According to UNESCO, the shrine is the oldest royal Confucian shrine that has been preserved, and the ritual ceremonies continue a tradition established in the 1300s.2. Seokguram Grotto Is part of a religious retreat and is part of the Bulguksa Temple complex. 3. Bulguksa Temple The temple is considered a masterpiece of the golden age of Buddhist art in the Silla kingdom (57 B.C. to A.D. 935). 4. Seongsan Ilchulbong Park Also called "Sunrise Peak," this former volcano is an archetypal cone formed by hydrovolcanic eruptions upon a shallow seabed about 5,000 years ago. 5. Hahoe Village and Yangdong Village Founded in the 1300s or 1400s, these two villages are seen as the two most representative historic clan villages. 6. Triptikata Koreana The temple of Haeinsa on the slopes of Gayasan Mountain is home to the Tripitaka Koreana, the most complete collection of Buddhist texts that were engraved on 80,000 woodblocks between 1233 and 1248. 7. Joseon Dynasty Royal Tombs These are 40 tombs of members of the Yi dynasty that ruled over Joseon from 1392 to 1910. 8. Namhansanseong Fortress One of the four castles built to protect the capital, Hanyang, which sat on the site of today's Seoul. 9. Suwon Hwaseong Fortress This fortress was built between 1794 to 1796 by King Jeongjo (r. 1776-1800) to house and honor the remains of his father, Prince Sado. 10. Gyeongju Historic Areas These were designated as a world heritage site by UNESCO only in 2000. |
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| This photo of Bulguksa Temple is taken by the author on her first trip to Korea, in 2007. |
There was one section devoted to the upcoming Winter Olympics to take place across Gangwon-do Province in February 2018, and there was a chance to take a picture with the two mascots Soohorang and Bandabi, the white tiger and the Asiatic black bear. As I had the pleasure of already making their acquaintances in Seoul last year, I watched as people took selfies and giggled in delight. An information kiosk was there to help visitors learn more about the Winter Games. There was a chance to win a Korean fan by having a go at an electronic slots machine. By pressing a button, the screens would randomly change and hopefully end up with colors representing the Winter Olympic Games. If it did, you could walk away with a fan. The queue for this was quite long so I decided to give this a miss. You could also play ice hockey and experience the sensation of doing a ski jump using VR.
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| People experience ski jumping using VR at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics stall. |
In the section after the Olympics stall there were miniature stalls hosted by Asiana Airlines, Korea Health & Development, Peoples Travel, Hana Tour, Korean Air, Lotte, Holiday Planners, the Governors Association of Korea and the Korean Tourism Organization. Here I stocked up on maps and books about Korea and chatted with the lovely people from Korean Air who gave me two fluffy toy planes, in fact. There were further chances to experience VR by putting on a set of goggles and selecting your choice of tour, from Jeju Island and Nampodong in Busan, through to Daegu, Myeondong in Seoul, Gyeongbokgung Palace and Tongyeong.
During my visit to Korea in October and November 2016, I had the opportunity to visit Tongyeong, a coastal city in Gyeongsangnam-do Province. I was there with a lovely group of honorary reporters from Korea.net. Unfortunately, on the first day we went the city was sweeping down with rain, so enjoying the surrounding area was challenging, especially when it came to experiencing the cable car. However, using these VR goggles and somehow listening to the experience in Korean -- I had it on the wrong setting -- I was able to marvel at the splendor of the cable cars in Tongyeong all in glorious sunshine. If you didn't want to do try any VR apparatus, there was a giant screen where you could select particular tourist destinations and experience a 360-degree view by swiping up, down, left or right.
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| People learn about travel in Korea at the tourism stalls. |
Time really flew and I was able to immerse myself in the majority of the activities. While I was going around the stalls and the events, the daytime entertainment was taking place on the central stage. There was even the regional rounds of the KBS K-pop World Festival taking place. Events and stalls started wrapping up at 5:30 p.m. I had managed to converse with a parent or two during the day who had been dragged to the festival by their daughters who were enamored by Korean pop music. However, they really seemed to have enjoyed themselves as they were taking part in the traditional games and they were able to learn so much about Korea.
Having been given a press pass, I was able to attend a sort of press conference by the only band I was excited to see during the transition from the day events to the evening. Not all five members of the band were able to fly over, as one was not well. During the day, the events were hosted and emceed by Josh and Daniel of "Yeonguk Namja" YouTube fame. They were also going to host the evening part, but at this time they were joined on stage by Hani, a member of the pop group Exid and fluent in English and Mandarin.
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| The pop group Exid talks to the press at the London Olympia in 2017. |
I took a break between events and was able to pop outside to see the dedicated queue for the evening in enthusiastic spirits, as the concert was drawing near. Many people had homemade signs for the bands they loved. As for me, I was only ever looking forward to seeing Exid, which appeared third on stage out of the four bands. Inbetween, band member Hyelin sang a wonderful rendition of "You Raise Me Up" as a tribute to what London had been experiencing in regard to recent attacks. It was moving and I live-streamed the song via my Facebook profile.
For their set list, Exid sung the following four songs in this order:
Hot Pink
Night Rather Than Day
Oh Yeah
Up & Down
Of course, they performed the most popular song last and got the audience singing along with them: my favorite song "Up & Down." I was able to film them using a selfie stick, but realized later that I had no sound. I managed to fix it by borrowing the sound from another video by a fellow YouTuber. You can see the video below.
All in all, it was an enjoyable day attended by over 12,000 people throughout the day and evening. There were sold-out tickets during the evening performances, largely due to it being Korean pop, and although it's in its early days, I would say the craze and fervor is only just beginning to take hold in the U.K.
Try watching this video here.
(All photos and videos used here were taken by Diya Mitra and cannot be used without permission.)
wisdom117@korea.kr
