Getting Schooled

Originally this post was going to all about how Ronnie and I braved a white water rafting trip. There were a few people in the squadron organizing a trip through Outdoor Recreation. Unfortunately, there weren't enough people signed up to go on the trip and it was cancelled.

So what to do? We had a babysitter lined up to watch the girls all day and weren't about to waste an opportunity to spend time together sans kids. In came a blog and FB page I follow to rescue us - a cooking class! The menu was right up our alley too: mandu and bibim guksu. We called late on Friday and scored - there was still room in the class.

We headed to Seoul to meet up with the class at one of the traditional markets. The group was a pretty decent size, nine in total, and from all different backgrounds: a couple who was teaching and their family who was visiting, a Belgian-Korean and her friend, and a Canadian military spouse who's husband is doing language school (similar to our Olmsted scholarship program). Dan, our tour guide extraordinaire, brought us through the market, stopping to explain what each one did and specialized in. There were banchan stalls, kimchi vegetable stalls, butchers, fish mongers, and tofu makers. The market is very similar to ours in Songtan, but it was really great to finally hear what each one did. Now we know where to get fresh pressed sesame oil and better than fresh tofu! After a quick tteokbokki snack, we made our way to the cooking studio.

O'ngo has a really nice place and it's set up in the same neighborhood that most of the Korean dramas are filmed in. But they are moving to Insa-dong so that they can be where a lot of the "food" happens and is in town. Our chef was really great and explained every step when demonstrating what we were going to make. I even picked up a new trick on how to julienne cucumbers. Then it was our turn to make the dishes. Of course we had a really good incentive to do a good job... it was our lunch! We had a lot of fun filling the mandu and cutting up all the vegetables. Finally we were done with the mandu and finished assembling our bibim gukso and it was time to sample our handiwork.

Everything was so delicious - the bibim guksu is everything I love about cold noodle dishes; Ronnie wanted a little protein in his. Luckily, Chef Park explained we could take the dish and mix it up however we like, by adding bulgogi, egg, or tofu; it's the mixture of crunchy, sweet, sour, and spicy that you're after. The mandu had finished steaming and being fried up - the filling was a perfect compliment to the chewy or crunchy wrapper. Yeah, it's dangerous that I know how to make these... potstickers have always been my favorite!

All in all, we had a wonderful time - great food, wonderful hosts/tour guides, and a fabulous group to be with. Now, to just figure out when we can go back and learn how to make some of my favorite banchan.