How do I get one of those clown cars?

Departing Busan this morning, we drove straight to Jeonju. Jeonju is an ancient Korean town that’s been preserved, a highly popular vacation spot for Koreans. In fact, that’s how we found it. I searched “where do Koreans go on vacation in Korea?”  The town has a village within it filled with hanocks, the traditional wood framed houses elevated from the ground.

We arrived in Jeonju around lunch time, and we were entirely famished. This area has the reputation for the best food in Korea, and we were ready to try something new. We had read that soft tofu soup was famous in this area. We decided to give it a try. If it wasn’t edible, we decided we would move on and buy a different lunch. 

Joel found the most famous soft tofu restaurant here, making all of their sauces and tofu in house. When we arrived to this remotely located restaurant on the outside of town, we knew we were onto something. The place was packed with about 40 cars and people were actively walking in. Regardless of the crowd, the big dining hall had enough seating for us to sit down immediately. 

The menu didn’t make sense to us, but we were determined. Jane was worried the stew would taste like fish. We like fish but we are all a little tired of that flavor. 

We ordered the stew and the tofu pork cutlet. Helpfully, the restaurant has a large TV in the wall playing a video of how they make all of their products.  We learned that the pork was sliced extremely thin and tenderized. Then it was stacked in about 10 lasagna-like layers with soft tofu in between before being floured, egged, breaded and fried. The sauce was made homemade in house, and was somewhere between a Korean BBQ sauce and a gravy. 

Results?  We ate EVERYTHING. The soup was the Korean equivalent to chili and the pork the Korean equivalent to chicken fried steak.  Nothing tasted fishy at all. The tofu was melt in your mouth good, more like a soft cheese but with less pungency. The pork flavor was savory and the spiciness added flavor without lingering hotness in your mouth. If we hadn’t seen the video showing how it was made, we would have never known there was tofu in that pork cutlet. It was simply the most tender and most pork I’ve ever had. 

The menu also featured bean donuts and bean ice cream, both being made fresh at the entrance. Our conversations went like this:

Mom: Are you going to get donuts?

Jane: Are they sweet or savory?

Mom, after reading: They’re bean donuts. 

Jane: That doesn’t answer my question. 

Yep, both of them tasted like beans ever so faintly but both were delicious. The donuts were not so sweet or dessert like, and tasted more like a fry bread. Some honey to dip them in would have been a win. Jane is worried that we ate soybeans five ways, which could have a laxative effect.  We will lay off the soybeans tomorrow.

We checked into our Hancock, ready to go exploring. It was warmer than typical this afternoon, so walking seemed more of a chore in the sun.

We saw some teenagers driving fast (and laughing gleefully) on electric motorbikes and tiny clownish looking golf carts. We decided we needed one of those clown cars for ourselves, to speed up our tour of this ancient village and give us some shade to travel in. Just steps from our Hancock we found a spot to rent at. 

Joel expertly navigated us through winding alleys, one way streets, a maze of shops, and sometimes full size car traffic. Every time we saw something interesting, Jane and I would ditch the clown car before Joel could even come to a complete stop.  We only got to rent for 2 hours because of battery life, and Joel said this was a perfect spot for Woody’s Polaris Ranger. He would have preferred more power. 

I’m insufficient as a writer to capture how adorable and fun this place is, so the best I can do is show video clips. 

A major food attraction here is Choco Pies, a Korean equivalent to the Moon Pie. Choco pies are far superior to any moon pie I’d ever had.  Early everyone had a choco pie bag in hand so we had to join them and taste one. 

We noticed a “foot soak and massage cafe” upstairs (see the foot sign in the pic above). We didn’t know what that meant, but signed up immediately. At that moment it started to rain slightly, making a picturesque view of the city in the drizzle while we soaked. We were given iced teas, listened to relaxing pan flute music (weirdly, they were Christmas tunes), and watched the world go by below and our feet soaked in the massage machine. 

After that soak, one puts one’s feet on this low table and moisturizes. 

Jane’s water was particularly hot, and she looked like she was wearing beet red tube socks for the rest of the evening. 

Having packed in a whole village this afternoon, we went to bed early.  Tomorrow we drive into Seoul!

Bonus video