So my good friend Bo Hwe came up with a plan to visit Hadong, a small country town in South Central Korea famous for growing Green Tea. Like other Asian countries, 'Ryokcha' is an important and distinctive part of Korean food and cuisine. So on Sunday, we made the long trek out to the remote hamlet of Hadong to get some tea and take in the festivities.
Anyone wondering where wild green tea in South Korea comes from and what it looks like before its in a steaming cup can wonder no more. Endless rows of bushes cling to rugged, steeply terraced hillsides yield the leaves that make my favorite morning beverage. Hadong tea is very delicious as well. Several vendors at the festival in the town's market offered samples. Unfortunately, it tastes so delicious that vendors priced it right out of our budgets, and we only went home with small packages of the exceptional leaves.
We also visited and hiked to the remoter parts of Ssanggyesa Temple, a large temple and active Buddhist monastery in the region dating back to 840. It looked as though they were cleaning up after the previous day's Buddhist festivities.
To be continued...
Bo Hwe: I should have your pictures in a day or so.
No comments:
Post a Comment