Over the years, I’ve gained a reputation for eating and drinking my way around the world. Whether this is good or bad, I don’t know. What I do know is that taking a cooking class allows you to fully understand, experience, appreciate and enjoy a country’s food culture and flavours.

In Korea, food is considered one of the top pastimes. Every meal is a celebration. If the table isn’t overflowing with a multitude of colourful and fragrant dishes, then life isn’t complete.

Seoul has many cooking classes to choose from, but I waited until I got to Busan to undertake my cultural cooking lessons. I love seafood, and as South Korea’s largest port city, Busan not only has a fantastic array of unique local foods, it is also the seafood capital of Korea.

Unlike many other cooking classes I’ve undertaken, where the meals you prepare and eat are a surprise on the day, all Korean cooking classes I read about provided a list of set dishes depending on the day you attend. Because I also think a real food journey begins with purchasing the ingredients, I chose Junotrip — not just a cooking class but a food trip, it said — and what a trip it turned out to be.

Class sizes are capped at 12, and we had five other participants plus me. Beginning at Jagalchi Market, Busan’s biggest seafood market, our local chef and teacher, JunHo Lee, walked us down the aisles of assorted fresh sea animals, stopping here and there to explain the more unusual creatures.

“Did we want to try live octopus?” We all nodded although we had no idea what we were in for.

After he pointed to several other strange-looking sea creatures, the shop lady placed each in separate plastic bags. Watching the live octopus in the tightly tied plastic bag half-filled with water, I felt like I was taking home a goldfish to populate my fish tank. Purchasing a few more seafood and accompanying items, we walked a few blocks to Bupyeong Market for meats, fruit and vegetables to complete our menu items.

Also known as Kkangtong (meaning tin can, as it was the only place to stock imported canned food for US troops stationed here during the Korean War), Bupyeong Market has just about everything from food, fashions, electronic goods, clothes, an array of Korean food stalls and vendors, and even live performers vying for your attention at night.

With our shopping complete, we piled into JunHo’s van for a scenic drive back to his studio on the edge of Gamcheondong Culture Village. Built by Korean War refugees in the 1950s, Gamcheondong Village is known for its street art, hidden alleyways, unique cafes, shops and bright multi-coloured houses covering the steep hillsides. Sometimes referred to as Lego City or Busan’s Machu Picchu, I was as excited to be seeing more of the village at the end of our cooking class, as I was to devour our masterful Korean delights.

At the entrance to JunHo’s cooking studio, we removed our shoes, hung our coats and washed our hands before being handed crisp, smart, individually monogrammed cooking aprons.

Dominating the room was a large table, laid with an assortment of bowls, wooden cutting boards, utensils and several hot plates. After introductions to JunHo’s mother, who was surrounded by boiling pots on the stove in the open-plan kitchen, we took our seats at the table.

Divided into two groups of three, JunHo handed us our ingredients while explaining how we were to cut each, when to add to the pots on the hotplates and how to stir or let simmer.

As each dish was completed, they were taken into the central kitchen for ‘Mum’ to keep warm.

Our menu consisted of gimbap (seaweed rice roll), tteokbokki (stir-fried rice cake), japchae (stir-fried glass noodles and vegetables), and Andong (Bongchu)-jjimdak (Andong style braised spicy chicken).

With Lunar New Year beginning the next day, JunHo had included tteok-guk to our menu. For Koreans, this special rice cake soup is a traditional must-eat New Year’s dish to ensure a prosperous year ahead and a fertile one for those wanting a child. We were all hoping for a prosperous year.

Cleaning up our preparation equipment and setting the table for our feast, the aromas emanating around the room were making our mouths water. As JunHo and his mum spread our dishes along the table, we couldn’t wait to sample it. There had been no licking of bowls or utensils, nor sneaking a quick sample during the preparations.

But we had to wait a moment more, as JunHo produced a plate of exotic raw sea creatures and tipped the live octopus into a soup bowl. While he explained each item on the plate (meongge sea squirts and gaebul spoon worms), the octopus (nakji) spread its tentacles over the bowl edge, trying to escape across the table.

Swiftly seizing it and firmly holding its tentacles JunHo placed it on the chopping board. In one swipe of his cleaver, the head and tentacles were two, four, six, eight. Each piece still squirming as they were placed back in the bowl.

Using the metal chopsticks provided proved fruitless against the slimy pieces, so I resorted to picking up a piece with my fingers to dip in the sauce before quickly swallowing it. 

That was the plan until the suckers of the tentacle piece vacuumed itself to my fingers. Violently flicking my wrist and screeching like a banshee it finally dropped on to my plate. Eventually securing it with a fork, I dipped it in sauce and quickly swallowed. The last thing I wanted was it sticking to my tongue!

Thankfully all our other dishes were uncomplicated, delicious and filling. But with a small dish of lifeless octopus eyeing me off nearby I was tempted to try it again, only to discover it jumped to life upon prodding. I think I’ll stick to cooked calamari from here on. At least I can say I’ve eaten live octopus and I don’t need to try it again!

Five hours after meeting at the markets, our Korean food journey had ended. While we’ve been busily cooking in the warm kitchen, the wind and rain have gathered outside. JunHo drops us at the entrance to the busy Gamcheondong Culture Village, but the goodbyes are hasty as we rush to shelter in a nearby shop waiting for the weather to improve. 

Even though it’s now bitterly cold, sheltered under their umbrellas people are eating ice creams. My insides are toasty and far too full even to consider a drink or any tempting delight. After 45 minutes of running from shop to shop to see as much of the village as I can, I get the bus back to my hotel. This fascinating village needs my full attention in better weather. 

Surprisingly, the one thing I gained most from this class was learning how to roll gimbap. I’ve always tried to put too much ingredient in my sushi or seaweed rolls. Later at the markets, I purchased a traditional rolling mat, and now I make perfect sushi every time.

JunHo Lee trained as a ceramic engineer and worked in technical sales to the Chinese before studying cooking. After following his mother’s guidance, and the expert technics of academia and restaurant master chefs, he began Junotrip, food journey classes in June 2018. Just before Covid-19 disrupted the tourist industry, JunHo was creating YouTube TV cooking segments. Since March 2020 he’s been able to focus more on these as well as posting cooking videos on his Facebook page. Both are free to view and excellent learning aids.

Facebook

- https://www.facebook.com/dwg2020

YouTube

- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_4fUDevz99A7kKZY8knNbw/videos

When tourism begins again, his cooking classes can be booked through Trazy, Klook, KKDay and TripAdvisor.

For those who enjoy cooking and would like to try their hand at some Korean, with JunHo’s permission here are the recipes from my cooking class.

Gimbap

Basic ingredients

- Gimbap dried seaweed (1 sheet)

- Rice (1 handful, cooked)

- 1 Egg (omelette)      

- Carrot (¼ chopped)

- Spinach (small quantity)                  

- Gimbap ham

- Gimbap radish (pickled)      

- Gimbap crab

- Salt and sesame oil.

Optional ingredients

 - Tuna (canned) with mayo (2 tbsp)

 - Cheese

 - Beef (small quantity, stir-fry, mince)

How to make

1. Put a little salt and sesame oil in the rice and hand rub it with care

2. Make an egg omelette with salt

3. Stir-fry carrot with salt

4. Blanch the spinach and then add a little sesame oil and salt

5. Stir-fry the ham, crab, and beef

6. Spread rice thinly over the gimbap seaweed (need to cover about 80 percent of the seaweed sheet and leave at least 1 cm uncovered along the bottom edge)

7. Put basic ingredients and the optional ingredients that you like on the gimbap seaweed

8. Roll it tightly from the top until it meets the empty 1 cm edge

9. Rub it with sesame oil lightly - that will make it easier to cut the gimbap

10. Cut it into bite-size portions

Tteokbokki (stir-fried rice cake)

Main ingredients

- Rice cake (2 handfuls)

- Fish cake (2 pieces, thin are best)

- ½ Onion (slice)

- ¼ Carrot (slice)             

- ¼ Leek (cut 2-3 cm sideways)

- Water (500 ml)

- Pork (100 g) or 10 dried anchovies (remove heads and intestines)

Sauce ingredients

- Red pepper paste (3-4 tbsp)

- Sugar (1-2 tbsp)

- Red pepper powder (½ tbsp)

- Onion and radish juice (½ cup)

How to make

1. Add rice cake and sauce ingredients, and simmer them

2. Once the rice cake is cooked enough, add fish cake and vegetables, and simmer them more (add carrot first, then onion, followed by fish cake and leeks)

Japchae (stir-fried glass noodles and vegetables)

Main ingredients

- 100 g beef or pork (lean parts - sliced like matchsticks)

- 100 g spinach (blanch)

- ½ onion (slice)                                 

- ¼ carrot (slice)

- ¼ red paprika pepper (slice)

- 1 egg (separate the egg yolk and white)

- 2 tree-ear mushrooms (slice)          

- 2 shiitake mushrooms (slice)                  

- crushed garlic, ground black pepper, sesame oil (cooking oil), soy sauce

Glass noodle seasoning

- Glass noodles (1 handful)                

- Soy sauce (2 tbsp)

- Sugar (½ tbsp)                                  

- Sesame oil (1 tbsp)

- Sesame seed (1 tbsp)

How to cook

1. Boil the glass noodles, and then transfer to one side after saucing

2. Coat the pan with sesame oil and stir-fry onion with ground black pepper, carrot with salt, paprika pepper with salt, and then keep to one side

3. Place cooking oil in pan and stir-fry beef or pork with crushed garlic and ground black pepper

4. When the beef is cooked to some extent, add the shiitake and tree-ear mushrooms

5. Stir-fry and add one spoon of soy sauce. Put the soy sauce on one side of the pan to produce burnt taste (directly applying the soy sauce results in some parts being salty and the others not sauced)

6. Blanch the spinach and squeeze the liquid after rinsing in cold water. Then add sesame oil and salt

7. Gently combine all ingredients with ground sesame and sesame oil in a large bowl

8. More salt can be added to enhance taste if required (using soy sauce may change the colour of vegetables and produce water)

9. Fry egg white and yolk separately, and use to decorate the top of the dish

Andong (Bongchu)-jjimdak (Andong-style braised spicy chicken)

Main ingredients

- 1 Chicken (cut into small pieces)

- 1 Potato (cut into large pieces)

- ½ Sweet potato (cut into large pieces)

- ¼ Carrot (cut into large pieces)

- 2 Shiitake mushroom (cut into large pieces)

- ½ Onion (cut into large pieces)

- 1 Red pepper (sliced)

- ½ Leek (cut into large pieces)

- Cooking wine, water

Seasoning ingredients

- Soy sauce (100 ml)

- Water (700 ml)

- Cooking wine (a small quantity)

- Crushed garlic (½ tbsp)

- Sugar (1 tbsp).

- Starch syrup (1-2 tbsp)

- Chunjang (black bean paste to make a sauce similar to Jajangmyeon sauce) (½ tbsp)

- Ground black pepper (a pinch)

How to make

1. Boil the chicken with sugar and cooking wine over high heat

2. After it has simmered, throw away the water and rinse the chicken with cold water

3. Mix all the seasoning Ingredients

4. Boil the chicken with seasoning, potato, sweet potato, and carrot over high heat for 20 mins. Add more water if required

5.  After 20 mins, add 1-2 cups water while tasting the soup. Add shiitake mushroom, onion, red pepper and leek over middle heat and simmer for 15-20mins

6. If the soup is too salty or sweet or there is not enough water, add water

7. Add sesame oil at the end and finish cooking

Tteok-guk (rice cake lunar soup)

Main ingredients

- Rice cake (2 handfuls, sliced)

- 100 g Beef

- ½ Leek (cut 3-4cm into bite size)

- 2 Eggs (separate one egg yolk from the white, and mix one egg yolk and white together)

- Anchovy stock

How to cook

1. Coat the pan with sesame oil and stir-fry the beef

2. When it is cooked enough, add anchovy stock

3. When broiling, add rice cake and salt (seasoning can be supplemented by salt)

4. Add mixed egg

5. Add leek

6. Fry the other egg (with separated yolk and white) and slice into strips to decorate the dish

Happy eating!

Header image: © Nannette Holliday