The best restaurants in Korea are often those outside the tourist areas. Sarangchae 사랑채 (85-9 Angol-gil, Doil-dong Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi-do) is one of the dozens of hidden gems minutes from Camp Humphreys. This sits behind an elderly couple’s house, and though they didn’t seem to speak much English, they were very polite and accommodating. Specifically, they brought us forks without asking and put up with my very active 4-year-old. Bring your phone and make sure you have Google Translate, but don’t miss the stop.
Waze will get you 90% of the way there, but follow the signs to 사랑채 once you get close. The Korean pork belly, 삼겹살, comes with bean sprouts, seaweed, spicy soybean paste (쌈장), and kimche as well as lettuce. Don’t worry, none of it was extremely spicy; I’m not one for It was plenty of food for 4 people, and we ended up taking some home.
We tried the Korean bacon meal with pumpkin soup and a vegetable pancake. Some tips for Americans with the Korean: cook everything except the lettuce (even the kimchi and bean sprouts) and use the chopsticks to place the food into the lettuce leaf rather than your mouth. The soy bean paste (tofu) soup or 된장찌개 was an excellent side to add. Here, use your spoon to dip rice into the soup and eat the rice. We also had a veggie pancake, which you can just cut up with your spoon. My guide also ordered us a green bean pancake, 녹두전, which you can eat with a spoon if you like. In all, it was abou 40,000 won and fed four with leftovers.
After a huge meal like that, why not get some exercise at the nearby Manti-sa temple, 만기사 Set your navigation app for 181-82 Jinwi-ro, Jinwi-myeonPyeongtaek, Gyeonggi-do. Driving up, you will be greeted by multiple terraces overflowing with flowers. You can take the path up, or drive to the front entrance.
This very colorful temple has beautiful, colorful statues and buildings throughout. With my son and my guide’s children, as you see, the biggest hit was the koi pond with several dozen large fish. This is a ten minute drive toward the signs for the youth center.
Finally, why be content to look at other people’s flowers when you can grow your own? On the way back to base, we stopped at 대웅전, or Daeungjeon Hall, a nursery where they also do gardening classes. The owners here give gardening classes as well as operate a large blueberry orchard. What truly caught my attention was the wide variety of orchids as you see below. Again, though there was a language barrier, the owners were polite and helpful as my son re-potted his new plant.
This article is written by Oren Hammerquist a PIEF Foreign Reporter
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