Climbing a mountain wwith the whole town

[Domestic Goddess]

I found out that in the first official spring sunday, the entire town (well most of its residents) of Janghowon would trek up to the Baekjooksan mountain for some hiking, spring cleaning and free noodle lunch. This yearly treks are sponsored by the local Jaycees club which one of my friends is a member of. He invited us to join in and have a chance at the raffle held on top of the mountain by those who could complete the hike up. Prizes up for grabs were tv sets, mountain bikes, microwave ovens, 24k gold tea sets, etc.

Assembly at my son's elementary school at 9:30 am. My kids brace themselves in the brisk autum wind.

After a few speeches and off we go! It takes about 15 minutes to hike to base of the mountain.

We finally come up to the start of the hike up. Jai pauses and looks at the beautiful view. Billy is just raring to go...

We finally get to the Buddhist temple on top of the mountain.

The temple provided the free lunch for the day and the Jaycee wives help serve it. We were going to have Kalguksu - cold handmade noodles with kimchi juice and veggies.

The fresh veggie kimchi juice is ladled from this huge vat.

After getting our bowls, we join the rest of the lunch group sitting on the ground (yes, that is loose gravel everyone is sitting on). Good thing I brought a picnic mat for me and the boys to sit on because boy the ground was cold. The noodles were perfect - cold, refreshing and the kimchi on the tables to add to it were the best I ever had in the 4 years I've been here in the country.

For drinks, the local bank gave away pepsi and chilsung cider cans while those craving for water can drink from the fresh mountain spring beside the temple.

Adults and the elderly line up for maekkoli, a wine fermented from rice. My friend told me that farmers would drink this homemade wine after toiling in the fields. It has a low alcohol content, pleasant taste and gives a full feeling to the tummy.

After lunch, the raffle was held and I saw a lot of acquaintances win prizes. Well, the kids and I ddin't win anything but we didn't come home empty handed. We climbed up a mountain, shared cold noodles with a whole community (sampled the best kimchi ever) and came home with a sense of accomplishment - we belonged here.

[Peter Green]

Nice post, DG!

The noodles and makkholi looked like a lot of fun.

But, boy, does it look cold out there!

[Domestic Goddess]

It was sure cold Peter. But whenever the sun came out from behind the clouds, it would warm up a little. The adults made a beeline to the maekkoli wine jug as soon as they got to the temple. LOL

[Soup]

nice post!!! thank you for sharing.

[...tm...]

Thanks for posting these great pictures. I love small town festivals that I never would have heard of without eGullet, or being there incidentally on the exact right weekend.

[SheenaGreena]

I never had kalgooksu noodles with cold kimchi juice, but I have had naengmyun noodles with chonggak kimchi juice before and it was absolutely delicious.

thanks for the pictures and making me extra hungry!

ps: my mom, little sister and her boyfriend are going to korea for a month this summer and I am so jealous.