The oh so infamous....Coex

Last week one of my kinder kid's missed school and came in the next day not sick at all. I asked him, "Why were you absent yesterday?" He replied excitedly, "I was at the Coex!" I looked at him a little confused and said, "what were you doing at Coex?" (I thought it was a big grocery store or something) and he replied, "I went to the kimchi museum!" As soon as I heard those two words, I realized I needed to look into this whole Coex thing. What was it? Why do I keep hearing about it, and if it is so cool why haven't I gone there yet? I asked my friend Kyle who has lived in Korea before, and he got the same goofy look on his face. He was so excited about Coex and told me I HAD to go and check it out. He had never been to the Kimchi museum and neither had my friend Trista, so we decided to make an outing of it on our day off yesterday.

As you first enter Coex you see beautiful lights streamed over your head. As an American you are happily surprised by the array of familiar restaurants that are around you. We first ran into Bennigans, Cold Stone Creamery, and Dunkin Donuts, then ventured inside to find Outback and On the Border!

You realize very quickly that there is no rhyme or reason to the layout of this place, as it is so much of a maze you HAVE to look at a map to find your way around! Luckily Kyle found a high tech map that was touch screen! I was amazed by this feature as I thought the paper map I held in my hand was as helpful as the Coex was going to be! Boy, was I wrong! We easily found our way to the Kimchi museum through this touch screen map!

As we got to the Kimchi Museum I was very excited. I had no idea what I was going to find! My kinder kid was so thrilled about it, that I just knew it was going to be good! The first time I had kimchi, August of this year, I hated it. I thought it was weird and spicy and could not get past the idea that it was fermented. But now, living in Korea for 4 months, I have to say I am a huge fan of the stuff. I hate having a meal without it. Just the thought of going to the kimchi museum had me craving it all day, and all night after we left.

We entered for Museum and I soon learned that kimchi is NOT fermented cabbage with the spicy sauce, that is merely one type. Kimchi is the name of the process! Korean people would put a vegetable (the popular type is cabbage) in a huge pot and bury it underground for a long time until the fermentation process was finished.

 

Kimchi pots that would be buried

 

They would combine garlic, ginger, salt, and red chili powder to make a sauce and would eat it through the cold months helping them to not go hungry as their fields of food were not producing. I was honestly so amazed and had so many questions as I saw the amount of variations of kimchi that I was unaware of! I decided I really need to venture out of my normal cabbage kimchi choice.

 

In case you were wondering, here are the Ingredients of Kimchi:

 

Now before you go trying to dig up your back yard to make this, keep in mind there is a certain process you need to follow. Also, now-a-days many people have 'kimchi refrigerators' where the fermentation process will take place. Also, if you try to make the sauce, remember you will probably need more garlic and red chili powder than you would regularly choose. Koreans LOVE spicy food and garlic, believing it helps the body to cleanse and get rid of illness. I will definitely vouch for these facts, as garlic is in everything I eat and my spice tolerance has grown dramatically since moving here! Also, when I was sick, a good and spicy Korean meal really did clear my sinuses and made me feel a little better the next day!

 

 

We finally got to the tasting room and got to taste 8 different kinds of kimchi. We also proceeded to learn about the 'good' bacteria in kimchi and how it helps keep you from aging, cleanses the colon, and is an anti-illness food. (especially cancer) Who knew something I despised four months ago was so key to my health? How will I ever live without it now?

 

 

After the kimchi museum we walked aimlessly throughout Coex marvelling at the size of the place and how it was the closest thing we have seen to an 'American-style' mall since being in Seoul. I proceeded to try to find hand sanitizer in a HUGE department store by typing it into Google Translate on my phone, and when we didn't have any luck we decided we needed to take a break from the chaos of Coex. So we ducked into 'On the Border' for some good ol' Margaritas and endless chips. You have no idea how spoiled we are in America to have so many places that give you endless chips or bread! You don't realize how awesome it is until you are gone! Also, here in Korea no one knows how to make a good mixed drink. Now I'm not a pro at making a margarita but I know you need real limes and salt on the rim. Many restaurants don't use limes here.... they are like some weird precious commodity, and so the margaritas suffer. But On the Border did not let us down! We were all so happy to have a real margarita that we didn't have to manufacture to make it taste appetizing.

 

 

We left Coex really happy with our outing! We got to see a very cool mall, learned so much about kimchi, and got an amazing taste of home with a familiar restaurant! I could have spent hours in that place. Now I can join my Kinder kids in saying that Coex really is great and I hope to return soon!