Mind Food Cooperative x Inside Korea Travel—Walking tour of Seongbuk Village

 Hi everyone, this is Inside Korea Travel guide Gaya :)

 It's such a hot and humid day as if the rainy season has begun. Are you all staying healthy? As a travel agency that began the business after the COVID-19 had broken out, <Inside Korea Travel> is facing difficulties in attracting customers. But fortunately, the support from the 'Korea Social Enterprise Promotion Agency' allows us to keep conducting tours with foreigners.

 

On June 26, Saturday of last week, we had a tour with #Mind_Food_Cooperative. We had diverse experiences such as cooking temple cuisine, meditating with tea, learning about Korean Buddhism, and visiting Suwolam Hermitage.

 

We arrived at Suwolam Hermitage in the morning and listened to the story about the Korean Buddhist culture from Venerable Hyebeom.

 

We also learned how to put hands together and the meaning of putting hands together and bowing in Buddhism. The participants in this trip were from various countries such as Cambodia, Kazakhstan, Myanmar, Mongolia, Uzbekistan and Canada. They instantly understood and followed the instructions well!

 

After having heard about the Korean Buddhist culture, we moved to a small vegetable garden upstairs. Buddhist monks in the Suwolam Hermitage cook with fresh produce without using pesticides. They grow sesame leaves and lettuce for self-sufficiency. How many opportunities can foreigners in Korea have to directly pick up their own vegetables in a garden? After having washed sesame leaves and lettuce eaten by insects due to no use of pesticides, we brought them to the cooking room.😊

 

Today, we had steamed ripe kimchi with bean paste and steamed super sweet corn and rice. At first, we learned how to cook from Venerable Jinhong, and then we were divided into two teams to prepare the meal. Because they were relatively easy recipes, the students followed the recipes very well. All the seasonings used in the food were made with care at the temple, so the sauce alone was so delicious!

 

Oh, I almost forgot one more dish! Cucumber salad with cucumber, lettuce, and sesame leaves mixed with vinegar was also very fresh and yummy. It was so sweet and sour as it was seasoned with homemade vinegar. 😊 The fried eggplants were prepared carefully by the monks for us.

 

Even for eating, there were some rules in Buddhism: Not to talk while eating and not to leave food behind. In order to eat all the food up, we put some food aside before eating if we thought we were served too much!

 

The monks said that they would not miss tea meditation after meals to control their minds. After we finished eating, we also had time for tea meditation with the monks and learned how to breathe and even how to drink tea. In the next posting, I will return with the tour story with a commentator specializing in the Hanyang Wall since he has been in Bukjeong Village for more than 20 years. :)