Living Like a Local - Mt. Apsan and Cooking Bibimbap

One of my goals for this year is to try and immerse myself in the Korean culture as much as I can.  I still don't even know what that means, but I'm slowly learning about the people here and I'm enjoying it a lot.

weird ice cream is definitely part of the culture.

Yes, there is corn inside...

 One of the national past times in Korea is hiking, so last weekend me and a few guys figured we'd try our hand at Mt. Apsan, a popular park/mountain in Daegu.  Here's a little reference map for you to show you how close this is to my apartment.

Click on the picture.  It will get bigger.

Just fyi, in case you wanted to know EXACTLY where I am in the world!

So Apsan is pretty big.  There's a few entrance points with trails that lead to the top.  There are several points and a ridge connecting all of them.  There are several buildings on the top of this ridge used for different things... the only one I know is the restaurant!  Here's the view from near my apartment.

Thats it. 

The park scenery is really nice.  Then begins the long hike...

On my two hiking trips so far in Korea I've noticed that when they make a trail up a mountain, they literally make a trail straight up the mountain.  It gets the heart rate going.

Up a little ways we found an old buddhist temple

It was built sometime in the 900's.

Very ornate.

Me.

...and the hike resumes.

The top!

The view is fantastic.

We made it!

This is the restaurant at the top.  We got some Korean pancakes.

Koreans are some of the friendliest people.  The table next to us bought us some strawberries!  

Since I've arrived, I've witnessed the friendliness of Korean people over and over again.  Whether it's someone helping us out when we look lost, or giving us free food, or simply just not laughing at us... the Korean people have been very hospitable to us.

So, we dominated Absan... no big deal.  Anybody can do that.  

One of the things that I desire most for my time here is that I develop my cooking skills to where I can come back to MN and give my friends and family a taste of my time in Korea.  I've only had my apartment for about a week but I was feeling the itch to get started on my Korean cuisine adventures...

Luckily, Aaron, one of my co-teachers, is somewhat of a culinary guru and has the spices and the know-how to guide my crash course.  I set out to find a recipe and for no good reason at all, I settled on bibimbap (thats bee-bim-bop).

What is that???

It means something like "mixed meal".  Bap means rice in Korean.  So I'm guessing the first part has something to do with the other ingredients or the nature of the meal.  If you're that curious, google it. :) 

So, we acquired the necessary ingredients: sesame oil, bean sprouts, onion, mushroom, zucchini, spinach, carrot, garlic, and of course gochujang (korean red chili sauce).  Basically you can make it with whatever vegetables you have, but this is just what we got.  

I cooked each vegetable differently.  Some of them sautéed, some boiled, some with garlic, some not, ect... they get placed aside until a later time.

some of the veggies finished.

bean sprouts.

gotta have the bap.

Rice cakes!

When the ingredients are cooked, you put cooked rice in a frying pan and make a sort of rice pancake by browning each side.

Then you break it up.

In the meantime, Aaron is making Kimbap, which you know about from a few posts ago.

Our excellent kimbap

Back to the bibimbap!  Once the rice cake is made and separated, I put the rest of the rice on top and placed the vegetables into a pizza-like arrangement and then spread the carrots out on top.  Then you let it sit cooking for about 15 minutes.  That lets all of the vegetables heat up again.  When its ready to serve, mix it all up, add your gochujang and you're set.

Kimbap.  Bibimbap.

family dinner.

Mmmmmm.

I must say it was spectacular.  Its such a bonus that this meal is so healthy too!  No wonder Koreans are so skinny...
For my first Korean cooking experience, I have to say that I am very pleased!  We'll see if I can duplicate these results next time I try!

I'll send you off with some other pictures from this last week.

The view from my co-teacher's apartment.

The main drag right by me.

Reach for the stars, little blue truck.

A street downtown.

My favorite food here so far: Jjimdak (Jim-duck)

Free desert!  Start with a layer of snow-cone-like ice, top it with some corn flakes and beans,
and add some fruit and chocolate to top 'er off.  

Daegu Tower

Hiking along the ridge