Enjoy a meal fit for a king, if you can get your hands on a ticket

Korean Heritage

Published: 12 Jun. 2022, 16:54

Enjoy a meal fit for a king, if you can get your hands on a ticket

A gayageum (12-string zither) is performed while people enjoy royal snacks and tea during this year's “Invitation to Gyeongbok Palace’s Kitchen: Suragan Sisikgonggam" program organized by Cultural Heritage Administration and the Korea Cultural Heritage Foundation, which kicked off on June 8 and runs until June 20 at Gyeongbok Palace's Sojubang, or royal kitchen. [CULTURAL HERITAGE ADMINISTRATION]

One of the very first Korean historical drama series that triggered the Korean Wave known as hallyu was MBC’s “Dae Jang Geum” (2003-4), which tells the tale of an orphaned kitchen cook Jang-geum (played by actor Lee Young-ae) who becomes the king’s first female physician.

The series was a sensation both at home and abroad. It had an average viewership rating of 45.8 percent in Korea, making it the 10th highest-rated Korean drama series of all time and was exported to 91 countries.

Industry experts say the drama is “really the main factor in attracting global interest in Korean traditional clothing known as hanbok, the royal palaces and the buildings known as hanok, Korean traditional cuisines called hansik and confectionaries called hangwa.”

The kitchen where Jang-geum worked as a young apprentice cook inside Gyeongbok Palace was called Sojubang. It was located to the east of Daejeon, or the king’s bed-chamber.

It was destroyed during the Imjin War (1592-98) between Korea and Japan, was rebuilt by King Gojong in 1865, but again demolished by the Japanese during its colonization in 1915. In 2004, the Cultural Heritage Administration discovered the site where Sojubang used to be located and began restoring it based on historical information. It was completed in 2015 and unveiled to the public in May of that year.

Sojubang is composed of three buildings — the outer kitchen called Oesojubang, the inner kitchen called Naesojubang and Saengmulbang, a kitchen where snacks were made.

Oesojubang is where the food was prepared and cooked for major banquets and seasonal festivities such as New Year’s Day, Dano (the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar) Chuseok (Korea’s traditional harvest holiday), and Dongji (winter solstice, the longest night of the year), as well as for special royal occasions such as the birthdays of kings, queens and other royal members of the palace. Naesojubang is where food was prepared and cooked for the main meals — breakfast, lunch and dinner — that were served to the kings and queens of Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). Royal meals were prepared by top-grade cooks with only the very best ingredients, which included special and rare local products brought to the capital from across the country.

Each of Korea’s five palaces had kitchens. But now, the only remaining kitchens are inside Gyeongbok and Changdeok palaces. However, as the one in Changdeok Palace has been switched to a western style, the only traditional Korean-style kitchen can be seen in the Gyeongbok Palace.

Officials at the Gyeongbok Palace dressed as palace courtesans wait to greet participants to Sojubang, Gyeongbok Palace's royal kitchen for the “Invitation to Gyeongbok Palace’s Kitchen: Suragan Sisikgonggam″ program organized by the Cultural Heritage Administration and the Korea Cultural Heritage Foundation. [YONHAP]

The Cultural Heritage Administration and the Korea Cultural Heritage Foundation kicked off the “Invitation to Gyeongbok Palace’s Kitchen: Suragan Sisikgonggam,” an early summer evening program that allows visitors to have a taste of either royal cuisine or royal confectionaries and traditional teas at Gyeongbok Palace's Sojubang on June 8. The program runs until June 20.

Visitors can only experience Sojubang’s royal food and snacks whenever special programs are organized. Therefore, the competition for “Invitation to Gyeongbok Palace’s Kitchen: Suragan Sisikgonggam” was fierce. The tickets, which were sold via Ticket Interpark for 25,000 won ($20), were snapped up in minutes. The Cultural Heritage Administration said it will carry out a lottery-based reservation for more tickets on June 15 to 17, and also added that there are frequent cancellations as people forget to make final payments by the deadline so “watch out for last-minute vacancies.”

Participants have to pick either one of the two programs — Sikdorak or Saenggwabang. The program is run twice in the evening, once at 6:10 p.m. and again at 7:30 p.m., when the palace closes its daily operation. For those who want to enjoy the food, tea, music and the royal palace after sundown, it’s better to select the second option as the sun is still quite bright around 6 p.m.

Dishes part of the Sikdorak program [YIM SEUNG-HYE]

The Sikdorak program is held inside Oesojubang, the largest kitchen, however, participants won’t be able to see the actual kitchen or the cooking process. It’s more like a dining experience. Once taking off your shoes and finding a seat at a one-person table called soban, you will be served a plate full of small dishes, nicely decorated in royal style on luxurious Korean brassware, or yugi.

A plate of snacks and tea served as part of the Seanggwabang program [YIM SEUNG-HYE]

There are a total of six dishes and a cup of tea. You are first advised to eat a porridge called Tarakjuk, made of milk and rice. As soon as you get a spoon full of juk (porridge) in your mouth, a play will begin in the courtyard.

Courtesans, or actually, officials working at the Gyeongbok Palace, will appear as they talk about each dish and how it was “so difficult to get the milk to make the porridge.”

Milk was reserved only for the royal family and high-ranking officials known as yangban. Feeling empathetic toward young calves who couldn't consume their mother’s milk because of people, King Yeongjo (1724-1776) is said to have once banned people from consuming milk, though it was one of his favorites.

You can take a bite of Maekjeok, or deonjang (fermented soybean paste) marinated pork, next, though the order you eat the dishes in doesn’t really matter from now. This dish originated from Goguryeo (37 B.C. to A.D. 668) and is said to be the prototype of the popular dish, bulgogi.

Tangpyeongchae is a mung bean jelly salad, a very healthy dish that was enjoyed in late spring and early summer. It is seasoned with a sauce made with Korean soy sauce known as ganjang, vinegar, sugar, sesame seeds and sesame oil. This dish first appeared during a feast that King Yeongjo had organized as he wanted to appease the conflicted relationship between political parties. This “policy” of holding frequent feasts was called Tangpeyongchaek, which literally means the policy for “harmony” and “meditation.”

Other dishes included in this program are, Oiseon, or steamed cucumber with other vegetables, Dubuseon, or steamed tofu with other vegetables and a strange-looking dish that looks like a fur ball, which is actually a dried croaker fish that has been puffed up, and seasoned with ganjang. The tea that is served is cold omija, a traditional Korean tea made from dried magnolia berries.

An alleyway offering participants traditional snacks [CULTURAL HERITAGE ADMINISTRATION]

The Saenggwabang program, which gets held in Saenggwabang, serves six different snacks and a tea of your choice. Live gayageum (12-string zither) music is performed in the courtyard while you enjoy your evening tea. If you have a sweet tooth, Saenggwabang should definitely be your pick. You are advised to start from left to right, as it "allows you to enjoy all the flavors,” one of the courtesans says as she takes your tea order from six different options.

This reporter, while participating in the program for the press preview last week, picked a Gamgukda tea, which is recommended for people to “calm down and soothe their anger.”

The snacks begin with Guseonwangodo. It is said to be a medicinal tteok (rice cake), recorded in Donguibogam, a medical encyclopedia written and compiled by Joseon-era doctor Heo Jun, which is also a state-designated National Treasure.

The other snacks are juak, which tastes like a glutinous rice donut, followed by walnut and apple jeongwa (a crispy and chewy snack made by combining fresh fruit or seeds with honey, sugar water or rice syrup), yakgwa, a fried snack made with flour and honey and maekjakgwa, a fried snack made with flour, honey, pine nut and ginger.

A participant having a go at playing a traditional royal game of gyeonggu, or a pole game. [YIM SEUNG-HYE]

A participant having a go at wrapping a gift with traditional bojagi, a wrapping cloth, during a preview of the “Invitation to Gyeongbok Palace’s Kitchen: Suragan Sisikgonggam" on June 3, at Gyeongbok Palace's Sojubang, . [YIM SEUNG-HYE]

Participants can also enjoy traditional court games, take pictures and have a go at making a royal snack of their own. There’s also a zone where participants can try traditional gift wrapping using bojagi, a wrapping traditional cloth.

An alleyway packed with different booths offering different traditional snacks, though not royal, has also been installed near Sojubang for participants to enjoy.

For more information, visit chf.or.kr.

BY YIM SEUNG-HYE [yim.seunghye@joongang.co.kr]