KBS1 ‘Koreans' Dining Table’ episode 757
Here and now! “We live for this taste!”
At 7:40 p.m. on the 4th, KBS1 ‘Koreans' Dining Table’ episode 757 features 13 wild-green dishes you can enjoy for just 6,000 won, with seasonal mountain-and-sea delicacies such as rock eel·wild greens·sea squirt making an appearance.
We regret yesterday and worry about tomorrow, and before we know it we live forgetting today. What reminds us of the value of today? Rare things that, unless you taste them now, you must wait a year for, or that you can taste only right here, beckon us to enjoy the present.
Rock eel said to be caught only off the coast of Goseong in Gyeongnam; a rustic table in a country home set with Yangpyeong wild greens; and even sea squirt embraced by Jindong Bay in Jinhae, Gyeongnam. On a table prepared with ingredients in season, the precious life stories of the people are mixed in, making the meal all the richer.
‘Flower rock eel sashimi’, where the small, nutty rock eel is trimmed for easy eating; a sea squirt steamed soup once eaten only around Jindong-myeon, Goseong-gun; and 13 kinds of freshly seasoned wild greens for just 6,000 won will be introduced to captivate even viewers' palates. In this episode of ‘Koreans' Dining Table’, rich in flavors and stories, we are reminded that happiness exists here and now.
■ The sea where sisters took root, rock eel that lets them live in the present – Donghae-myeon, Goseong-gun, Gyeongsangnam-do
KBS1 ‘Koreans' Dining Table’ episode 757
Jinhae Bay, a sea as quiet and calm as a lake. Among the rocks beneath its waters are eels that grow firm while withstanding the current: the ‘rock eel’. Smaller than the common conger eel, it is renowned for firm, chewy flesh; especially around this time, rock eel becomes rich with fat and its nutty flavor reaches its peak.
This season, Kim Eun-hyang (72), who hauls up rock eel with pots, followed her fisherman husband from Pohang to Goseong and settled here. In the old days, when they caught rock eel, they would sometimes clean it on the spot and sell it. As the work steadily increased, she even called her younger sister Kim Eun-ok (63) to come and put down roots here.
When she first came here following her husband, she found rock eel so unnerving she could hardly look at it. Now she feels only gratitude to the rock eel and this sea that have enabled her present life.
Here, they skin it and score it into a flower pattern to enjoy as sashimi, or grill it over charcoal until nicely browned; what never leaves the table then are ginger and perilla leaves. With a pot of savory grilled rock eel and spicy rock eel stew in the middle, the time of sharing a lively, affectionate meal unfolds. The sisters say they are happiest precisely because they have this sea and this season now. At that laughter-filled table, we meet the taste of living each day to the fullest, right now.
■ Flavor will not wait, a set-meal eatery open only two hours a day – Cheongun-myeon, Yangpyeong-gun
KBS1 ‘Koreans' Dining Table’ episode 757
The five-day market in Yongmun-myeon, Yangpyeong-gun, famous for its thousand-year-old ginkgo tree. Whenever the market opens, Oh Kyung-suk (77), nicknamed the ‘Yangpyeong herb granny’, always appears. She runs a village-house restaurant in Cheongun-myeon, on the far edge of Yangpyeong-gun, where even the signboard is barely visible.
Having left her hometown too early, raised three children, and returned, Oh took over the restaurant her grandmother and mother had run and grew attached to it as she lived on. The restaurant is open exactly two hours, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Even with a generous spread of as many as 13 seasonal wild greens, the price remains just 6,000 won.
People around her urge her to raise the price, but when she adds in vegetables shared by the villagers, she says she can welcome guests without greed. She keeps to the two-hour window because that is precisely when the greens taste best.
After suddenly sending off beloved family members one after another and then developing a heart condition herself, she chose to stick to two hours of business so she could enjoy today; the rest of the time, she spends mingling with villagers. Oh says she has only now come to know the true taste of life. Within that deep ‘philosophy of flavor’, we are newly reminded of the value of today, alive now, and of this place.
■ The sea that gives unstintingly, a four-generation journey with sea squirt – Masanhappo-gu, Changwon-si, Gyeongsangnam-do
KBS1 ‘Koreans' Dining Table’ episode 757
Jindong-myeon in Masanhappo-gu, Changwon-si, Gyeongsangnam-do, accounts for about 70% of nationwide sea squirt production. Around 30 years ago, as sea squirt aquaculture took off in earnest, most people here came to rely on it. May and June are when sea squirts, carrying the aroma of Jindong Bay, taste best. The fragrant briny scent that bursts and spreads in the mouth, and the crunchy texture, can revive even a lost appetite at once.
Jo Young-jo (56), who says he sliced sashimi helping his mother from the age of ten, and Jo Se-in (27), who, following his father, began working with sea squirt right after graduating high school. Father and son still painstakingly trim sea squirt today, preserving local tastes unique to this place, such as sea squirt sashimi that can be eaten only here and the sea squirt perilla-seed steamed soup the villagers all shared on the first full moon of the lunar year.
As the years grow hotter and water temperatures rise, making sea squirt ever scarcer, this moment of sharing its aroma feels all the more precious. At this family table, the taste that will not return once this moment passes and the preciousness of the people beside us are preserved just as they are.
