I once pondered about never having done Korean cooking before on the blog; it resulted in me buying a Korean food recipes book and ending up in an apartment in Seoul getting a crash course at a Korean cooking class with eight other strangers.
I took the bus from the stop across the road from our hotel and made my way to Mangwon. Since I reached early and couldn’t see any tourist-looking person standing in front of our meeting point at Mangwon train station exit 2, I waited inside the Dunkin’ Donuts right beside it. Right on the dot, I joined and introduced myself to the tourist-looking crowd, confirming they were indeed my soon-to-be classmates in the Korean cooking class.
A couple of minutes later, Junghee, our Korean cooking class teacher for the day, introduced herself ━ twice; the second was with her “American name” ━ Sarah. “Easier to pronounce“, she said lightheartedly.
Junghee took us through the Mangwon Market. We stopped at some stalls where we got a crash course on the Korean language when she asked someone from the group to purchase the ingredients that would be used for the cooking class day directly from the vendors (all those valuable lessons in the Korean language, I only remember “Ju se yo” – as in “give me”. Sorry Junghee!)
On that day, the Korean cooking class students were a couple from Germany who had been travelling for months (and it wasn’t the first time doing long period travel); a Japanese mother and daughter who came to Korea because her young daughter loved all things Korea; another Japanese, Ryoko, who almost missed the class; siblings from Sydney; a baker from Singapore; a lady with an rue-catching colourful skirt from Melbourne and me, in a fully zipped ski jacket and aunty-style hat.
We all followed Junghee out of the other side of the market, passing multiple traffic lights, crossing a 7-11 and into a building. That’s when she cheerily informed us that the buildings in Korea that are five floors or less don’t have lifts ━ also that she lived on the fifth floor.
“Work on your appetite; we are almost there“, she joked.
As you know, I am curious about people’s homes. Her kindness in sharing her living space to teach us about Korean cooking class, a piece of her culture, humbled me so very much. Her home was so lovely. The first thing I noticed was the fridge. It was fully decorated with travel magnets, showcasing her passion for travel.
Junghee invited us to have some warm Korean tea at the dining table, a perfect remedy for the biting winter cold outside. We continued chit-chatting while she did the final prep in the kitchen. Eventually, she invited us into the other room, where the Korean cooking class was held.
Korean Cooking Class in A Korean Kitchen
I have done one cooking class all my life. It was a Balinese cooking class in Ubud in an open field with just me as the student. It couldn’t be more different than the one I attended that day, in a beautifully decorated room that turned into a Korean cooking class.
The class was pretty fool-proofed, almost therapeutic.
Junghee gave easy-to-follow instructions, step by step guide with ample time in between while explaining things as needed.
Recipes of the Day
First, we started smashing garlic cloves on a plastic mortar, which was fun and easy (I made a mental note to buy a similar mortar from a Korean supermarket in Melbourne). Next, she asked us to mix the ingredients, including her homemade grain syrup, to marinate the Dakgalbi (spicy stir-fry chicken), which will be fried separately.
Then we cut the vegetables for our Bibimbap (mixed rice bowl) and stir-fried them individually, each with different sauces, spices and other ingredients. The rice cooker made a beeping sound when we were working on our last vegetable.
We each got a bowl of rice topped with a sunny-side-up egg and suggested decorating our bowl with each of the vegetables we had cooked just now.
The last on the menu was Pajeon (seafood and green onion pancake). We made the batter and added the spices, spring onions and other vegetables before mixing it with the fresh squid and cockles and frying it in the tiny pan on our little stove.
Then came the best part of the Korean cooking class. We were instructed to flip the half-fried pancake in the air and back onto the tiny pan while Junghee took the video. Would you believe it? We all did it successfully!
To tell the truth, I generally avoid cooking classes because I worry I wouldn’t fit in and that I would miss out on some very basic cooking methods. And on that day, despite my successful pancake flip, all my vegetables were cut unevenly ━ and that was done with me being extra careful using the knife to not cut my finger on foreign land in front of strangers.
I also managed to fry the mix with the wrong spices on the wrong vegetables and made Ryoko, who sat beside me and might have followed my steps, subconsciously made the same mistake. But it didn’t matter one bit because I had so much fun.
The Most Fun Korean (Cooking Teacher)
The Korean cooking class was one of the highlights of my Korean trip. It inspired me to do cooking classes during future travels, immersing myself in the local cultures through it. Though the fun was due to a combination of many things, including my classmates of the day, the main reason was Junghee.
She could easily be my favourite Korean. With her joyful demeanour and positive attitude, Junghee made the whole class fun and engaging from the start until the end. She kept asking us interesting questions and shared many interesting anecdotes; she also answered and explained things in detail whenever we asked her something, both related and unrelated to the Korean cooking class.
The class ended with us back at the dining table, with our DIY Korean food accompanied by a tray of nine different types of Banchan (Korean side dish) that Junghee served us. There was a tiny sense of pride in eating my own cooking from a recipe and ingredients unfamiliar to me an hour before. We finished everything we cooked, with some of us taking a second serving of rice.
Back in the hotel and sharing my day with Fafa, he asked whether I planned to cook once we were back in Melbourne. Yeah, for sure, and I promise to serve it with Korean purple rice as well.
You can make a booking to the cooking class directly through the Hello K Cooking.
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I was also there at that ubud class , just fyi, participating heavily as well