travelling: why not now?

Since high school, I’ve always heard the term “Anyeonghaseo” among my friends. Being the curious person that I am, after a few dictionaries and several minutes of google searching, it turned out to mean “How do you do?” in Korean. Interesting! Luckily I had the opportunity to visit Seoul in 2013 on a quest for culinary tour. From fine dining restaurants to street hawkers, Korean food gained popular support from movie industries that constantly depicts international environment in a homely style cooking. For example if we ordered Korean dishes in a restaurant, most of the time guests will be served with a set of Banchan (complementary dishes). This delicacy of pancakes, sesame seaweed, pickled turnip and sour sweet anchovy produces a complete but separate taste of salty, spicy and sweet. This simple gesture attracts potential gourmet lovers to explore the library of taste at their leisure and most of the time, order more foods curiously.
As for Korea, the byword would be Kimchi. Having tasted the spicy pickled cabbage for several years, the cuisine always has a strong emphasis on using local, seasonal vegetables. And in Indonesia, imported Kimchi somewhat tastes better than the ones made locally. In addition, most Korean cuisines are processed through fermentation and known for their nutritional values such as Kimchi and Doenjang. Attaining the position as the national dish of Korea, Kimchi can be found in every restaurants and eateries within the country. Cuisine adress to vegetables diet and consuming strong-smelling vegetables, such as garlic, shallots, leek, chives and scallions. One of the most attractive points is that the colors of dishes are a treat to the eye: Red, yellow, and green colors. No wonder many people said that “having Korean food is not only the enjoyment of the taste, but also to the mind”.
From its cooking methodology, Korean presents a rather healthy term by emphasizing on rice, spiced vegetables, soup, boiled meat and fishes. Each region has their authentic signature dishes that cater loyally to the methods above.
Kimchi is best consumed with other foods such as Bimbimbap (mixed rice with meat). Not only that, the latter is adorned with colorful vegetables, neatly arranged and supplemented with Gochujang sauce (chili pepper paste) and sesame oil. Simply speaking, Kimchi would be akin to America’s bacon, Chinese tea and Indian curry : a loyal companion of day to day meal to complete a perfect travel!