Cooking without the equipment, Jeju, South Korea

November 27, 2008 by Jim Saunders · 2 Comments
Filed under: Cooking

Enjoying the curry

No oven? No worries. Sweet and spicy chicken pineapple curry could be just the ticket
Story and photos by Breeana Hill

What’s for dinner? It’s a question that we ask ourselves every night. However, when you are in a new country with new surroundings, it can be a little more difficult to answer! Finding certain spices and ingredients can be a chore which will often at times turn people away from cooking. No one wants to go to a million different stores or markets trying to hunt down a specific ingredient just to make dinner.

Tags: , breeana hill, Cooking, curry, JEJU, SOUTH KOREA

‘My Jeju’ photo gallery opens at Bagdad Cafe, Saturday 29th November 2008, By Brian Miller, Jeju, South Korea

November 26, 2008 by Jim Saunders · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Art Galleries & Museums, Festivals and Event Ticketing

Brian Miller lives and works on Jeju Island, South Korea. These are his images from his life here.

Through them he hopes to share a foreign perspective of life on Jeju.

The gallery includes three distinct and different sections: portrait, sport and micro, totalling nearly fifty two images. Some of which, were over a year in the making.

Jeju’s Haenyeo are a standout theme throughout the gallery that provides an “intimate look at a part of Jeju’s unique culture which is slowing fading into history,” according to Miller.

Tags:

Bicycle tour of Jeju’s northeast coast

November 19, 2008 by Jim Saunders · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Things to Do

Gimnyoung beach

Off the 1132 highway, a winding coastal road makes for memorable bicycle tour
Story and photo by Marcus Kaulback

Being an English teacher at a hagwon, you don’t get too many holidays. So, when you find yourself being given a full four days off from cultivating future Ban Ki-Moons, you make the most of it. For our summer holiday, my best friend and I thought the choice was never in question: Jeju-do, but with a twist. We were going to spend our days on bicycles and our nights in a tent.

Tags:

Young Gu’s American style restaurant, Jeju, South Korea

November 14, 2008 by David Holmes · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Places to Eat

Decent western food at decent prices
Story and photo by David Holmes

Folks, in Jeju it’s is no secret that American style family restaurants are few and far between. There is unquestionably a culinary void that is often pseudo-serviced by the occasional Western-style Korean restaurants (also known as “fusion cuisine”). You know the scenario: a restaurant looks deceptively good from the outside, but the menu tells a different tale: It speaks of candied yam pizzas, cream cheese stuffed crust, a garnish of sweet pickles and the inexorable side plate of kimchi. Or perhaps you are more familiar with the seafood pastas, complimented by the time-honored California “looks too good to be true” rolls unexpectedly stuffed with sweet mayonnaise, kiwi sauce, pickled garlic and fish and who knows what else. That being said, however, there is a plethora of delicious Western-style restaurants on the island, and Young Gu’s, located in Shin Jeju, is one of them.

Tags: , JEJU, SOUTH KOREA, western style

Jeju’s Shamans

November 11, 2008 by Brian Miller · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Jeju & Korean Culture

Shaman

Jeju’s mythical past still alive and well
Story and photo by Brian Miller

For many in Jeju, this island is a haunted place. It’s home to 18,000 gods, and nearly every rock, tree, mountain, pond and home is claimed by one kind of spirit or another. If you want to communicate with these spirits and gods, you can either visit one of the island’s many shrines, or contact a simbang. The ‘simbang’ (or shaman) is a man endowed with supernatural powers. He’s a conduit between gods and humans who uses his psychic abilities to transmit messages between this world and the next. They perform in ceremonies called 굿 or “gut” (pronounced like “good” with a hard d). There are three levels of simbang. The first level simbangs mainly do manual chores at guts while learning the skills required to perform ceremonies. Once they’ve graduated to the second level, a simbang will be allowed to perform minor guts, but is most often found performing music at the major ceremonies. The greatest of them has attained all the supernatural powers of a simbang. One such man is Kim Yun Su, a simbang of the highest order who lives here in Jeju and can often be found leading major guts on the island.

Tags: event, gut, JEJU, shamen, SOUTH KOREA

Alddreu Airfield harbors occupation memories, Jeju, South Korea

November 8, 2008 by Jim Saunders · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Jeju & Korean Culture, Things to See

Pastoral present belies airfield’s dark past
Story and photo by Jim Saunders

Winding down the window of the car, we shouted across to the farmer tending her field in the late afternoon sun. “Which way to Alddreu Airfield?” we asked. Straightening up a little and turning to look at us: “You’re in it!” came the reply. “And, to see the hangers, you have to keep following this road straight!” she added while waving the tool in her hand a little. We looked around slightly incredulously. Fields of crops stretched in every direction with only Sanbangsan standing tall in the near distance. We started off again down the single track road in amongst the fields with dried mud kicking up from our car’s tires. A few minutes later, the first of the remaining structures from the airfield appeared- reinforced, concrete aircraft hangers, overgrown with long grass swirling in the light breeze.