Episode: South Korea

Presenter: Melissa King, Neville Passmore

If you want to experience the grace of old Jeonju and get a taste of the traditional Korean architecture then the place to absorb it all is Hanock Village. You can see incredible views over the old majestic roof tops and it is a really good contrast to the surrounding modern city.

Hanock Village lies at the heart of Jeonju City, the ancient capital of Korea, which is about 2 and a half hours south of Seoul. The traditional style buildings emerged in the early parts of the 1900?s, both as an expression of national pride and as a reaction to the growing Japanese influence.

When you walk through the streets you feel a bit like you are stepping back in time but with a modern edge because it is a piece of living history. While the buildings may look like they have stepped out of the pages of a history book, it is actually a place where people live and work. It is not a display village and apart from the fantastic architecture, it is also home to a very famous dish called Jeonju Bipimbap.

There is nothing like immersing yourself in the local cuisine and that is exactly what Neville does!

Neville visits the head chef of Gogung Palace Restaurant to make up the fantastic dish, Bipimbap. There is over 25 different ingredients in the dish with many of the ingredients coming from the mountains. There are mushrooms, radish, fern shoots, over five different nuts and heaps more.

The whole idea behind the dish is that it is prepared and then goes onto the table in a red hot bowl. You mix the ingredients together and it cooks at the table. There is also fresh meat that has been marinated in lots of herbs and spices, chilli paste, sesame oil and even nashi pear sliced very finely.

There are some really fantastic tastes in the dish including red pepper paste so there is definitely a little bit of heat in the dish. Some of the finishing ingredients include seaweed, for a salty flavour and gingko nuts from the beautiful maiden hair trees that line the streets.

The dish is finished off with a little sesame oil before being put onto the heat.

Gogung Bibimbap