Eunpyeong Hanok Village Cultural Experience

Highlights

• Make apple, pear and persimmon kimchi and take your own jar home
• Share a home-cooked Korean meal your host makes for the table
• Roll three-colour rice cakes and choose your own coating
• Make a keyring to take home as your own souvenir
• Small group of 8 in a hanok village, one direct bus to Incheon Airport

Description

Eunpyeong Hanok Village sits at the foot of Bukhansan, on the northern edge of Seoul, a quiet neighbourhood of tiled roofs and wooden gates where people actually live. This is where you'll spend your morning: not in a classroom, but around a table, cooking and eating the way a Korean household does.

Your host starts you with a seasonal welcome drink. It changes with what's good that week, often a citrus cheong ade pressed from Korean mandarins.

Then you make kimchi. Not the cabbage kind you already know: this is fruit kimchi, made with crisp Korean apple, pear and persimmon, seasoned with mild chilli flakes, chives, garlic and plum syrup. You cut, season and taste as you go, adjusting it to your own palate, then pack your own jar and write your name on the label. It keeps for two weeks and tastes best after three days in the fridge.

While the kimchi rests, lunch arrives. Your host cooks a full Korean home meal and brings it to the table: steamed rice, a clear beef and radish soup, golden potato pancakes, spicy seasoned squid strips, braised anchovies with sesame. Not a tasting portion, a real meal, eaten together, with your own kimchi on the side. Let us know in advance and a vegetarian version is prepared for you.

For dessert you make three-colour rice cakes. Soft glutinous rice dough, rolled into small rounds and coated in the powders laid out on the table, you pick your own. They go home with you in a box.

You finish with your hands on something that isn't food. Working with mother-of-pearl and cord, you make a keyring and a bracelet to carry with you. It's the same inlay craft that has decorated Korean lacquerware for a thousand years, scaled down to something that fits in a pocket.

Groups are capped at eight, so there's room to ask questions and time for your host to help you directly. English is spoken throughout.

One practical note travellers tend to appreciate: bus 6012 leaves from Gupabal Station, ten minutes from our door, and runs direct to Incheon Airport with no transfers. If this is your last day in Korea, you can go from the table to your flight. Luggage can be stored here during the experience.

Includes

All materials and ingredients Guidance from an English-speaking host Everything you make, to take home

Important Information

• Suitable for all skill levels; no experience needed Family-friendly Located in Eunpyeong Hanok Village, Seoul

Easy cancellation

Cancel up to 24 hours in advance for a full refund