Simply explorer: Review: Gangwondo Inje Baekdam Village (여행 후 이야기: 강원도 인제 백담마을)

Last September 24, we, the Korea Rural Tourism Supporters, held our last Rural Tourism tour. Our second stop was at Gangwon-do Inje Baekdam Village (강원도 인제 백담마을).

Photo courtesy of Korea Rural Tourism

How to get there by public transportation:

* From Dong Seoul Bus Terminal (동서울종합버스터미널) take a bus bound for Yongdaeri Bus Station (용대리정류소)

-- travel time: approximately 2 hours depending on traffic situation
-- fare cost: 15,900 Korean Won
* From the Yongdaeri Bus Station, walk for about 1 minute (53 meters) towards the Baekdam Village

Address: 강원도 인제군 북면 만해로 410-17
Website: http://baekdam.invil.org (Only in Korean)
Contact numbers: 033-462-4608

In Baekdam Village also known as " The Clean Village" we learned how to play Samulnori (사물놀이). The word samul (사물) means "four objects" and nori (놀이) means "play". Samulnori is performed with four traditional Korean musical instruments known as pungmul (풍물) namely the: Kkwaenggwari (꽹과리: a small gong), Jing (징: a larger gong), Janggu (장구: an hourglass-shaped drum), and Buk (북: a barrel drum similar to the bass drum). Out of the four instruments we played Jing, Janggu, and Buk. I was assigned to play the janggu.

Learning samulnori beat is relatively easy but it needs passion (and energy if I may add). The beat was supposed to be so fast but since most of us were first-timers the speed that we had were relatively slower than the beat supposed to be. My hands were quite painful after a 5-minute long crazy fast samulnori performance :-)

Photo courtesy of Korea Rural Tourism

Photo courtesy of Korea Rural Tourism

Photo courtesy of Korea Rural Tourism

After our samulnori class, we then proceeded in making our own fried pollock (황태 강정). Fried pollock is a a kind of fish coated with sweet and sour red sauce, it is considered as one of the specialty of Baekdam Village alongside rowans or mountain-ashes berries (마가목), and Shiitake Mushrooms (표고버섯).

Preparing and cooking fried pollock is quite simple. All you need to do is to follow these simple instructions.

Ingredients needed for making fried pollock:
* small pieces [cube size] chopped pollock (황태)
* frying powder (튀김가루)

* starch powder (전분가루)
* starch syrup (물엿)

* refined rice wine (청주)

* cooking oil (식용류)

How to make fried pollock (황태강정)

1. Put cooking oil into a medium size frying fan and wait until oil reach boiling point.

2. Put the chopped pollock coated with frying powder and starch powder into the frying fan, cook until golden brown.

3. Drain the excess oil by getting the fried pollock using a chopsticks.

4. Set aside in a clean plate.

Ingredients needed to make the sweet and sour marinated sauce (양념장):

* red pepper paste (고추장)