Soomy Village

For those who don't know, I have relocated from Beijing to Seoul for my Masters degree, so henceforth I will be writing more about my time in Korea. Korea is not an unfamiliar place to me as I was here last spring semester for exchange. One of my favourite thing about Korea is how convenient city living in (and yes that is not a statement I make lightly since I grew up in a city state) and how accessible the Korean countryside is. Hop on any buses going out of the Express Bus Terminal or buy a KTX pass in the morning and you will likely be in the countryside in time for lunch!

So here I will be sharing about a village that is located relatively close to Seoul (a mere 1.5 hours drive away), called Soomy Village (수미마을) in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi province.  

I am all happily dressed up in my ahjumma pants and the farmer's straw hat!

For those whom the name Soomy rings a bell, it is probably because the potatoes produced there are turned into a very popular brand of chips called.... Soo (秀). My (美). chips! As can be seen in the picture above where I hold a bag of it in my hands. Those who haven't had the chance to try it yet... go to your nearest Korean supermarket and you will be able to find it. 

Now back to my experience at the village... we arrived at 9:30 in the morning, somewhat drowsy since we all napped on the bus on our way there. But the announcement that we would be making our very own buns for breakfast drove away all the sleepiness. 

All of us rural tour ambassadors from all over Southeast Asia lining up for our very first famtour group picture!

Then we all hurried into the giant tented area as seen in the picture above where we got a quick lesson about how to make the perfect steamed bun. Similar to the red bean buns (豆沙包) that we have back home in Singapore but also very different, and I shall elaborate on that further on in this post. 

So first things first... what is steamed bun in Korean? 찐빵 (jjinbang) Simply put, you have unsweetened dough, wrapped around a traditional red bean filling, then steamed. Was it easy to make...?  Relatively.

The lady who taught us how to not ruin the dough for  buns and lecturing us about the importance of having enough filling! 

The dough we got had special additions thanks to the late summer harvest. The tiny specks that can be seen in the dough are actually diced up carrots and squash that are also grown on the farm!

The red bean filling is also different from the ones used in our tau sar bao. How so? We have a finely ground red bean past that is smooth and quite sugary. The Korean version has the beans mashed but not too completely, and the remnants of the skin adds more texture to the buns when eaten. Sugar is also added in moderation so it is only mildly sweet without masking the flavour of the beans.

FYI: beans are home grown too (I asked:))

And this is how you wrap it! With a LARGEEEEE spoonful of red bean that will earn you a nod of approval!

So there was a lot of photo taking, video making etc in the process of making the most creative buns we can while we were in our groups of four. The buns were each placed on a piece of paper before being placed onto the steamer for ease of packing and eating post-steaming.

The buns we made were a late summer special. Visit in late winter and you will get strawberry buns as strawberries are a winter fruit, or in late spring if you are a huge meat fan since the bun on the menu is bulgogi (stir fried beef) bun! All in all, ingredients used are mostly what can be harvested from the self sufficient farm at that time so you can be sure that it is super fresh :)

Featuring the rabbit bun that I made~

Stealing a shot with da buns before they are popped onto the stove for steaming!

So while we patiently waited for the buns to steam (it takes around 20 minutes since there were a 7-8 trays that had to be done), we headed to the river to take in some fresh air and natural scenery... and boy it was a sight to behold (at least for this Singaporean girl). Shall let the pictures do the talking...

Somewhat misty morning... featuring the cameraman who shadowed us for the trip!

Can't keep the grin off my face cos I am surrounded by nature! 

Demonstrations for how to make stones skip across water. I guess it all comes down to skills rather than the stone since... I basically had the perfect stone but still failed to make it skip >.<

These rocks bring us across the river and towards the sweet potato field for the next part of our village experience!

And then we heard the ahjumma's announcement that the buns were done and we were back in the tented area in a flash! After all the failed efforts at stone skipping, we were ready to taste what we succeeded in making. The buns expanded considerably (something we forgot to account for, hence some of them bonding together) but on the whole, success! 

Special mention to the bun that I wrapped jiaozi (Chinese dumpling) style but which split open, albeit perfectly!

So we scarfed down the buns, packed what we couldn't finish, and headed down to the sweet potato field to experience what it was like to dig up sweet potatoes from the ground. Prior to actually doing it, I thought it would be easy... dig a little, spy the tip of the sweet potato and then yank it out. But as it turns out... there is an art to digging them out with efficiency and with as little damage to them as possible. 

The gorgeous landscape at Soomy farm. 

The one tool that we were issued to help us with the arduous task of sweet potato hunting :)

This is the haraboji who demonstrated the perfect way to uncover a sweet potato that is buried in the ground.

SEE HOW FLEXIBLE HE IS? I can't even bend over to touch my toes... *ashamed*

His tip:
Use the tool to loosen the soil and scrape the top layer of soil outwards.
Then as one gets deeper, be careful not to be too forceful with the metal tool as it can hurt the sweet potatoes (like scraping their skin off).
Once you locate the tip of the sweet potato, wrap your hands around it and pull, but not too forcefully. If it is stuck, loosen the soil around it a little more and it will slip right out.

Sounds easy? Yes.

Is it really easy? No.

Why? I have zero idea where the sweet potatoes are lurking hence it was like digging in the blind under the sun.

FINALLY. GOT ONE. And I am probably crushing a whole colony of little bugs that live in the soil with my butt.

With my find. 

This entire experience left me with a newfound respect for the farmers who toil so hard every day, rain or shine, to grow the food that ultimately end up on our table. With the young people heading to the cities, many of them are the elderly left behind, and healthy as they are, farming is back breaking work. Many of us Singaporean children do not get to experience this for ourselves as food is mostly imported from abroad, and because of the distance in the food supply chain, we don't think much about goes into the process of growing and harvesting food. 

I mean, I myself only learnt after asking the haraboji that it takes 4 months for the sweet potatoes to grow before any harvesting can be done. And that the sweet potatoes need to rest for a week (this process is also known as curing) or so at room temperature and in the air after being dug up so that its wounds and bruises from the harvesting can heal.

Thank you haraboji! 

Post harvesting, we headed back to the main part of the farm where we had a tractor ride that could give any theme park ride a run for its money. It was bumpy, and we had to shift left and right at various points in time to balance out the weight as we travelled from the roads into the stream and then back again.

So bumpy that I didn't get any half decent shots, but here's a picture of the tractor and the tractor ahjusshi with mad skills.

He also very nicely posed, while seated inside, for a picture with me.

AND THEN IT WAS TIME FOR... *drumrolls* LUNCH!

With many many sides to go with our main dish of stir fried pork (제육볶음) and a spicy fish stew (메기매운탕) 

And this is how you eat the fried pork: wrapped in freshly harvested lettuce from the farm! (pardon the unglamness but see how the meat is completely wrapped in the leaf? THAT'S HOW IT SHOULD BE WRAPPED. Not more meat than vegetables...

The fish used in this stew grows in the river that runs through the village!

Finally, as we wrapped up our lunch... there was some time left prior to boarding the bus and I made spent it befriending the farm dog:) I spied him wandering around our activity areas a fair bit, and he finally settled by the chairs in the tents outside, sitting lazily with his tongue out and just people watching. 

If you made it past my loooooong post and want more information about Soomy Village, you can visit http://soomyland.com/main/main.php (Korean) for more information about the available activities as well as the pricing for the various activities~

I will be back with a post about another charming winery in the Gyeonggi province, so check back soon:)