Author: JenHong

A cafe for the kids

By Foong Pek Yee
13 Dec, 2021
THE  kids were visibly excited as they made their way to the bookshelves one  Autumn afternoon.
Todak Cafe – a book cafe- in Namwon, a small town in Jirisan,  is no ordinary cafe.
The brainchild of a few people who fell in love with Jirisan, it is a favourite haunt for people of all age groups in the otherwise quiet small town.
The young love  to read their favourite books and enjoy the food there.
It is also a waiting place for their parents to fetch them.
The cafe is also a  venue for meetings, activities and, a collection and drop off point for courier services.
The founders including Kim Hyun-Suk are from Seoul but have lived in Namwon for some time.
And they brought along ideas to help the people evolve  with changing times.
Visionary: Hyun – Suk  on her plans for Namwon
 Hyun-Suk says Jirisan, with the most beautiful mountains in South Korea,  is the perfect place to be with nature
“San means mountains in Korean,” says Hyun-Suk when we met at the cafe in the Autumn of 2018.
Calming : Jirisan offers a slow-paced lifestyle amidst nature.
Fluent in English, she and her two kids  left Seoul for the countryside many years ago.
She and her husband Cho Yang- Ho had wanted them to grow up among nature and have social contact with the community daily – something that can be rare in big cities.
 Hyun-Suk and their children stay in Namwon while Yang-Ho who stays put  in Seoul visits them on weekends.
Fast track to 2018, their  20-year -old-daughter and 17-year-old son were already in college and high school in Seoul.
But Hyun-Suk continues to stay in Namwon and run the cafe while Yang-Ho travels to be with her for the weekends.
Farming remains the major economic activity in Jirisan though businesses like   homestay and tourism are  thriving -thanks to the social media.
 Fresh produce: Harvest time in Autumn.
Hyun-Suk says many city folk who relocated to Jirisan soon found out that not everyone is cut out for agriculture work.
After giving farming a try, they ventured into other jobs.
Meanwhile many youngsters  from the countryside still flock to  Seoul for its  business and job opportunities.
Ha Jin- Yong who has been tasked by a non governmental organisation (NGO) to research on life among the younger generation in rural areas says the young still want to go to Seoul.
Serene: Mountains, stream and greenery a trademark of Jirisan.
At 25 (in 2018), Jin Yong who hails from Seoul says he fell in love with the rustic lifestyle after staying and working in Namwon for four years.
“City living can be lonely beneath all the hustle and bustle,” says Jin Yong

A street dedicated to coffee lovers

By Foong Pek Yee
13 Dec, 2021
Jeonpo Cafe Street in Busan, South Korea has 40 cafes and still counting.
It is the place for coffee lovers; from good coffee, ambience and  service to an interesting history behind it.
Stumbled upon the place during my trip to Busan in the Summer of 2019,  I went there a few days  to try out the cafes and has plans to go there again.
After all, my favourite pastime is sitting at a cafe reading or watching the world go by.
I learned  that South Koreans are particular over the  ambience of a cafe, and this is not without reason.
To begin with, coffee was the drink for only the royalty until 1930.
In 1896, Korea’s King Kojong was introduced to coffee in Russia  where he took refuge from invading Japanese.
He fell in love with hot coffee with sugar and brought home his favourite beverage.
From then until 1930,  sipping hot coffee, eating sweet snacks and listening to classical music was only for the royalty.
Coffee beans were available in the market from 1930 but only the rich had access to it.
By 1950, coffeeshops or  Da-Bang started to crop up in town areas.
In 1970, a  company, Dong – Suh, started manufacturing powdered coffee in South Korea, making coffee easily available to the people .
The history of coffee in Korea is proudly displayed at the entrance to Busan Coffee Museum (BCM)  in Jeonpo Cafe Street.
Kim Dong-Kyu – the founder and owner of BCM- has an extraordinary love for anything coffee.
Focus: Dong-Kyu aims to make Busan Coffee Museum the largest of its kind in the world.
Allergic to coffee beans and never tasted coffee before, Dong-Kyu went on to marry Woo Hee Nae, a licenced master Barista.
BCM was set up in 2018 and Dong-Kyu in his early 30s, says he has researched on coffee for a decade by then.
His collection of some 450 exhibits;  from roasters, grinders, coffee makers, coffee beans and literature from all over the world, some dated back a few centuries, makes BCM a one-stop-centre for coffee lovers.
Fascinated : Visitors to Busan Coffee Museum.
Priced collection: An old fashioned coffee grinder.
Your favourite pick :  Coffee beans from around the world.
The Korean Economic Institute of America was reported saying some  two billions cups of coffee are consumed daily worldwide.
Koreans reportedly drink an average of 12.3 cups coffee a week in 2019.
Dong-Kyu –  a professionally trained curator  and landscape engineer-  has plans to turn BCM into the largest of its kind in the world.
He  has another coffee museum in his house in Yangsan, a 30-minute-drive from Jeonpo.
Attention : You can find anything coffee.
Jeonpo cafe Street is certainly an ideal location for BCM.
Jeonpo rose to be among the trendiest spots in Busan in just a decade, with some 40 cafes among its 170 outlets which are mostly eateries and accessory shops.
Prior to that, Jeonpo was like any backstreet with sunset businesses like hardware stores .
Young people moved in to transform the area – renovated the empty stores into chic cafes and eateries, and the rest is history.

Jeju: Bikers’ paradise

By Foong Pek Yee
14 Dec, 2021
The weather in Jeju in Summer can be hot but it is a good time for outdoor activities.
In Seogwipo, east of Jeju, a row of red bicycles outside a cafe caught my attention.
For 10,000 won (RM36), you can have a bicycle for the whole day to explore the area.
According to the bicycle shop owner Lim Sung- Hoo, local and foreign tourists usually rent the bicycle to cycle in Udo Island and the ferry terminal is nearby his shop.
He says it is a small island and it takes two hours to cycle round it.
It was evening and he advised us to return the next day, preferably in the  morning, if we want to visit  Udo Island.
Meanwhile, he recommended that we explore the nearby area as the sunset scenery is beautiful and not to be missed.
Picture perfect: sunset by a lake in Seogwipo.
At 51, Sung-Hoo, and his wife Jang Jung Hyun relocated from Seoul to Seogwipo about eight years ago.
They run a  cafe – Papaya Cafe – which is next to their bicycle shop.
Cosy : Jung Hyun gives a personal touch to their cafe.
The couple who love a  leisurely lifestyle certainly saw the business potential in Jeju.
Sung-Hoo says exploring Seogwipo on bike is increasingly popular among local and foreign tourists, citing rising health and environmental awareness as among the reasons.
Jeju is indeed place to relax and tune out.
Calming:  As the day fades into sunset in Seogwipo.
A Korean told me that we should make at least four trips to Jeju;   each trip to one part of the island  –  north, south, east and west- to take in the  beauty of each part.
Dubbed “Hawaii of South Korea”,  the beauty of  Jeju is also defined by the different seasons.
Seoul and Jeju are the top two destinations for  international tourists to South Korea.
Authentic taste: seafood is plenty in Jeju.
Business minded: A typical scene of a market in Jeju.
Reflection : Symbol of  Jeju women in the past.
Women in Jeju is seen to be an enterprising lot,  and they  appear to out number men as small traders in the market or  small eateries.
Some Koreans say that women in Jeju had somehow learned to be independent  in the olden days.
Many were widowed at a young age.
The men were mostly fishermen and many perished in the rough seas.
In the olden days,  women were seen waiting by the shore for their husband to return.
Fast track to modern days, statues of women of a bygone era is one of the tourist attraction in Jeju.
The present day women may no longer have to face the wrath of rough seas but they continued to be a  strong figure in the family and community.