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We reach Yangju, general area of the DaeJangGeum (大長今) theme park.  Actualy the theme park used to be the set of the DaeJangGeum TV show.  Back in ‘Pinas, it’s more commonly known and titled "Jewel in the Palace".  Admittedly, prior to coming over to Korea, we had no idea what the show was about (except for those who watched the show), since we have not seen one episode… Well, actually I saw a special titled Cooking in the Palace, which is a one-shot spinoff showcasing the cooking of Royal Korean Cuisine.  Thanks to our guide, we understood the gist and premise.  For those still not familiar, you can go to Wikipedia and read about the show.

The show is so popular the studio set became a tourist attraction.  So, we alight from the bus.  The set is about 100m from the entrance.  Along the way, there are walls of pictures from MBC Studios’ shows and personalities.  And then there’s this field where you can play some Korean traditional games, one where I saw from a GMA TV show which also featured about this park.  Past this playing field is a row of snack and souvenir shops on one side, and a wall of plaque with handprints of the principal cast and director of the show. 

Finally we reach the main entrance to the studio set.  It is amazing what the producers had to make do with so little space.  The throne would be in front, and then the prison set would be at the right door, and the kitchen on the left and so on.  It’s more than just a set, it’s a slice of what 16th century Korea was like.  There is a set where the king dines, and there is a mockup of the Korean royal cuisine.  I had to make sure I got a shot of a sample of the king’s daily menu of some 30 odd dishes.

I can identify soups of some type, 2 kinds of rice, jellyfish, sunnyside up, a chicken dish, kim, blood sausage.  The Empress Dowager of China has a larger choice of dishes.  Obviously, neither royalty can finish or even sample all the dishes.  And imagine, the chef must come up with something different everyday!

Most sets have lifesize cardboard cutouts of the characters.  We posed in some of them as if they were really beside us.  Soon, we had enough, and along the way, one of the vendors in the food stalls I mentioned talked to us, offering food, and figuring we’re from ‘Pinas, boasted of having been classmates with Carmna Villaroel.  We highly doubted it and moved on.    We pack into the bus, and make our way to our final destination, Seoul, where we have a pretty early dinner.

Lunch is at another Korean restaurant that pretty much serves only one type of dish.  Irene calls it as Korea’s version of chicken barbecue.  We arrive at about 1 pm.  Many tables are filled with diners, though Irene got us table reservations.  I wouldn’t exactly call it a barbecue.  What we saw are small cut chicken pieces, with cabbage and tteok (rice cake) on a black pan with stove underneath.  Still uncooked, the stove is turned on after we took our seat.  The tteok is different from the one we tasted in the kimchi factory.  This one is long elongated and white.  Actually, we thought it was pices of cuttlefish, particularly the tentacles, but there are no suctions throughout.  I only figured out after we got back to Pinas and viewing Arirang TV.

Anyway, after the ingredients start getting cooked, the waiters/waitresses put in the rice.  The chicken in our table are not covered in gochujang, the hot pepper sauce.  There’s a bit of frustration in our table, since it takes a while to cook the chicken and we are not sure how to mix up the ingredients as they are being cooked.  Anyways, once the food is okay to eat, we dig in.  There is the purple lettuce we also had during yesterday’s lunch, so we instantly figure out what must be done.  I think most everyone just ate from the pan to the small aluminum rice bowl.  James and I ate with gusto - grabbing a lettuce, put some pieces of banchan and sauce, the main dish… yummy…   I lost count of how many lettuce wraps we had.  There’s not enough chicken around, so our guide asked the cook to stirfry the chicken  and add to our pan.

We find out that the other half of our group seated at another table have been eating the spiced version.  They described to us that it wasn’t so hot, but the spice added to the flavor.  This made some of our half of the group commenting the blandness of the chicken.  Still, James and I thought it was delicious.  We understand Irene asked specifically to serve this chicken because she is concerned we can’t take the spiciness.

Another cool thing about this restaurant was that the softdrinks are refillable.  Everybody had the softdrinks,  except for the two of us.  With food this good, who needs Coke?  Around this time, we noticed that there are no more patrons and diners, but us.  Non-descript restaurants here are rather like the carinderias of ‘Pinas.  Anyone who wants cheap affordable eating come to eat for lunch, otherwise that’s it.  The restos we’ve been to are relatively clean though.  I know we ate a lot of wraps, but we don’t feel stuffed.  That’s good.

Now that everybody’s been well-fed, it’s time to go to Dae Janggeum studio/park.