Wednesday Gourmet (Wednesday Food Talk / 수요미식회)

Welcome to the 215th episode of Wednesday Food Talk.

Welcome. - Welcome.

Let me start with today's theme.

Goodness. It's a surfing paradise...

with waves during the day.

At night, it turns into a paradise for parties with delicious foods.

It's the hottest sea of this summer.

It's a paradise for surfers. It's Yangyang, Gangwon Province.

Here are today's guests.

She is good at all sorts of sports. She can eat all sorts of food too.

She's a bright and healthy actress. Let's welcome Lee Yeon Doo.

Lee Yeon Doo. - Hello.

This guy loves surfing.

He has a funny, yet sad memory about Yangyang.

He's a handsome actor, Hyun Woo. - Welcome.

Hyun Woo has a funny, yet sad memory about Yangyang.

He served in the army there.

It's not even funny. It's just sad.

I performed my military service in Yangyang in 2005.

There was nothing except the military base.

Nobody visited there at all.

When I went there this time, I saw how they built new roads.

It took me about four hours to get there in the past.

But it took me only two hours and a half this time.

There were many surfers too.

It's like a foreign country. - Right. It has the foreign vibe.

I was shocked at how much it changed.

Doesn't it feel like Miami?

You are right. - Yes.

I haven't been there, but... - Me neither.

It just feels like Miami.

It's just how I feel.

I saw many pictures of Yangyang.

Me too.

Hajodae Beach in Yangyang is...

Korea's first surfing beach.

It's called Surfyy Beach.

When I said that I had to visit Yangyang for this show,

people told me about the hashtag about Surfyy Beach in Yangyang.

As I looked at the pictures, I thought I should go.

I had to go.

It felt so exotic. It didn't feel like Korea at all.

It looked like a foreign country. It had cool music also.

I saw people with buffed-up bodies carrying surfing boards.

I thought it became a cool place.

It's where men and women of all ages can go.

It was really trendy and cool.

I see.

Why do surfers love Yangyang so much?

People usually surf in Jeju Island or Busan.

Surfing boards have pointy edges,

and people make big movements.

But there are a lot of people at beaches.

To prevent accidents,

they gradually narrowed down the surfing zone.

So there weren't many places to surf.

Many people complained about this matter.

The government opened up...

a surfing spot in Yangyang.

That's how Yangyang became popular as a surfing spot.

I heard that Seok Jin...

has good memories about Yangyang.

He kissed someone at a beach in Yangyang.

He kissed by the beach. - What kind of question is this?

It says, "Have you ever kissed?"

What is this story about?

I went to Yangyang two years ago to shoot an ending scene of a drama.

I wasn't supposed to kiss Ko A Sung according to the script.

But the ambience and view were very beautiful.

The director said that he could edit the scene out later.

So he asked us to just shoot an extra scene of us kissing.

The director was into it. - Right.

But it got aired.

What's the name of the director?

Why? - He told me a story.

He said, "Seok Jin begged me for kissing scenes."

He said Seok Jin gave him a hard time.

Seok Jin was a rogue. - Right.

He messed up everything. - "I want a kissing scene!"

This is what Chan Il said.

Yangyang is more known for its mountains than its beaches.

Right. Yangyang used to be more famous for its mountains.

But this is what Koreans think.

Yangyang is a big district that is attached to coastal areas.

So people think of its beaches only.

They don't really know about the mountains in Yangyang.

As we introduce about Yangyang,

we should feature both the beaches and mountains.

It also has a river. - That's right.

Yangyang used to be one of the big cities in Gangwon Province.

It was a huge city in the past. - It is still huge.

The area is huge.

Before Sokcho got developed in the early 1960s,

Sokcho belonged to Yangyang.

Sokcho was just a small village.

As Sokcho got developed, it attracted a lot of tourists.

Sokcho also had Mount Seorak as one of the tour attractions.

Sea bathing in Sokcho got popular...

because expresses buses started going to that city.

That's how the sea bathing business grew.

Yangyang itself is a huge city with a lot of potential.

It has the energy from the mountains.

When you think of the East Sea,

people think of Sokcho and Gangneung first.

I can't think of any food that's famous in Yangyang.

You served in the army back in 2005 in Yangyang.

What kind of food did you have then?

This is the most memorable one.

I was training in the mountain.

Some villagers in Yangyang...

gave me some fresh pine mushrooms. - There you go.

They asked me to try it.

It looked like ordinary mushrooms.

But they were really big.

It didn't look like a typical mushroom...

because I didn't know at first.

I was told to shake it off and eat it.

I just dusted it off on my military uniform...

and ate it. Yes. - Without washing it?

The fragrance of the mushroom hit my sense of smell.

It was a wild pine mushroom. - Gosh.

I thought, "What's this? Can a mushroom smell like this?"

Eating the wild pine mushroom is the most memorable.

When pine mushrooms are in season,

people prefer traveling to Yangyang.

Yangyang is famous for their pine mushrooms.

Yangyang, Uljin, and Bongha.

You can find great pine mushrooms from inland regions...

along the East Sea.

It's not something you can predict or farm.

As you know, the places where pine mushroom grow...

are passed down within certain families.

They share the locations among themselves only.

The spores fall in those places, and pine mushrooms keep growing there.

You can find a lot of pine mushrooms in Yangyang.

There's a lot in Yangyang, and it's famous there too.

But what he had was the tastiest mushroom.

The fragrance of the mushroom is at its peak when it's just picked.

The value goes down as time passes by.

When you get the pine mushrooms delivered to Seoul,

the flavors get diminished.

Those pine mushrooms are not farmed. They are wild,

so those wild mushrooms have a unique fragrance.

Right. - Yes.

Which dish does Yangyang remind you of?

Yangyang reminds me of ttugeoritang.

Ttugeoritang? - It's a freshwater fish.

They live on the bottom of clean water.

But I bet the population has gone down by now.

It tastes like a less fishy version of mudfish soup.

I see. - It tastes similar.

They either grind or add the whole fish. The recipe is similar.

They add doenjang and other pastes in the soup...

and boil the soup the way they'd cook mudfish soup.

So the broth is quite thick.

It tastes like fish stew.

It has a deep flavor.

And the next one is ayu.

There are farmed ayus and wild ayus in Yangyang.

So along the inland waters...

Ayus have homing instincts just like salmon.

So they'd come up the stream...

and lay eggs there. - I see.

People say they smell...

like watermelon. - Right.

I wondered if the wild ones smelled like watermelon.

But no matter how much I smelled it, it didn't smell like watermelon.

People say that the moss they ate smells like watermelon.

The moss wild ayus ate.

That's a famous dish there.

Yangyang has both the sea and the mountain.

Which dish does Yangyang remind you of, So Eun?

Well, Gangwon Province is famous for having quality buckwheat.

Yangyang reminds me of buckwheat noodles the most.

Actually, as a matter of fact, I asked my cousin.

He runs a guesthouse there.

He recommended a famous restaurant for buckwheat noodles to me.

I asked why he would recommend the place to me.

He said a chairman of a conglomerate flew in all the way there...

via helicopter to eat their food for lunch.

He used to eat the noodles and go.

You've got to be lying.

It's true. It really is.

He rode the helicopter for that? - It's true. Yes, a helicopter.