“Eating food is about more than just consumption. It is rather the consumption of a particular culture. Each culture's food will have differences in style, and this year’s food festival aimed to publicize the cultural elements embedded in Korean food”.

Organized with the above purpose, Korea Food Festival 2012 brought renewed attention to cultural and social aspects of Korean food in the city of delicacies, Jeonju.

Eating food means more than just consumptio. It is rather a consumption of a particular culture"Eating food is about more than just consumption. It is rather the consumption of a particular culture." Korea Food Festival 2012, held in Jeonju from October 18 to 22, higlighted the cultural elements that can be found in Korean food.

This year’s festival, held from October 18 to 22, presented the historic changes in Korean food and meals to introduce visitors to the identity and uniqueness of Korean food.

When food and stories meet
Under the title of ”A dining table of Koreans,” the festival featured a variety of plain and simple but generously prepared dining tables, and also showcased different table styles from the Three Kingdoms period to the present day. The exhibits, which allowed a peek into the lifestyle of ordinary people through presenting what they eat, received favorable evaluations for its uniqueness compared to other food festivals.

Among the special exhibitions was temple food, known for healing both the body and soul, prepared by monks. Wuguan from the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism cooked a salad of balloon flowers with citron and shared the recipe secrets of wellbeing food with the audiences. According to Wuguan, one of the important eating habits in temples is to consume a proper amount of food, and too much is considered worse than too little.

The biggest hit of the festival was where famed restaurants offered their own specialties. A total of three restaurants were invited: Jinmi Restaurant from Iksan which has been serving bibimbap for 77 years, Hanilguan in Jeonju serving bean sprout soup for 57 years, and Sunchang Restaurant cooking soondae (boiled or steamed cow or pig’s intestines stuffed with various ingredients) for 57 years. Every day, a long line formed in front of the booth with waiting crowds who were looking to have a taste of the legendary delicacies, and all the food was sold out before closing time.

Three food festivals light up Jeonju
This autumn, a total of three gigantic food festivals were unveiled during the same period to give special attention to Jeonju. Korea Food Festival 2012 was held together with the International Fermented Food Expo and Jeonju Bibimbap Festival 2012.

Top: Tourists from Sri Lanka pound rice cakes using mallets during one of the cultural programs of Korea Food Festival 2012. Bottom: Festival visitors try their hand at making kimchi (photos: Yonhap News).

Visitors to the International Fermented Food Expo were offered an impressive opportunity to learn about fermented Korean foods such as gochujang (hot pepper paste), doenjang (bean paste), and cheonggukjang (soybean paste), which might be considered as off-the-wall for foreigners but are staples for Koreans. Meanwhile, around the Hanok Village where the Bibimbap Festival was held, more than 10,000 participants took part in a bibimbap performance, where they mixed ingredients in a large bowl to create 13,000 servings of bibimbap. The Hanok village, which welcomed an inflow of 600,000 people during the festival, is said to still give off the savory smell of bibimbap.

When asked to rate the event out of 100, Lee Charm, president of the Korea Tourism Organization, said that he could give a score higher than 1,000. He also added that these festivals have great growth potential and that he is especially happy to see a higher participation rate each year.

Legendary artists arrive in Jeonju
Jeonju’s food festivals may all be over now, but now is the time to delight your eyes. Since October 19, Jeonbuk Museum of Art is offering the chance to rediscover masterpieces by world-renowned artists. 

The exhibit, entitled "My Chagall, Your Picasso," invites art lovers to enjoy fine pieces by legendary artists, from Manet, Picasso, and Mondrian, to Chagall and Andy Warhol, whose works had only been approachable through books or media channels. The total number of art pieces showcased in the museum is 128, which are together worth a total of approximately 100 billion KRW.

The exhibition is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day but Monday. For the convenience of visitors from Seoul, the KTX schedule on Saturdays and Sundays will be specially adjusted during the run of the exhibit. More detailed information is available at the website of the Jeonbuk Museum of Art (Korean only).

By Lee Seung-ah
Korea.net Staff Writer