This day, we started off in the morning by visiting a beautiful temple in the mountains, then having a delicious gamjatang (pork bone soup lunch), and ending the day with home-cooked Korean food and the best kimchi I’ve ever had!

0:29 Geumsansa Temple - 3,000 Won ($2.56) - Geumsansa Temple is a beautiful temple just a short drive from Jeonju, and it’s a wonderful area to go hiking and to visit the temple and surrounding parks. The nature is beautiful. On the hike, you’ll find some snacks, and so we decided to stop to eat some dried persimmons, which Korea is known for. The persimmons were sweet, and while I was expecting the entire thing to be dried all the way through, it was still soft and gooey in the center. It was amazing.

4:18 Hey Ru Gamjatang, Gamjatang - 9,000 Won ($7.69) - One of my alltime favorite Korean foods is gamjatang, a potato and pork bone soup with chili. In Jeonju, we went to a restaurant called Hey Ru Gamjatang, known for serving slow cooked bones piled high. My bowl of gamjatang also came with kimchi in the bottom. It was not only delicious, it was incredibly delicious, one of the best versions of the dish that I’ve ever had.

8:56 Homemade Korean Food - For dinner we had a treat and were invited over to a local home to learn how to make kimchi and also to have dinner. After assembling the kimchi with all the ingredients (and it was one of the most complex versions of kimchi I’ve seen as well), we then had dinner and ate some of the fresh kimchi. The kimchi was spectacular, eaten in it’s fresh stage, so it wasn’t fermented yet, so it was almost like a cabbage chili salad. For dinner, the main dish we had was Dakbokkeumtang, a chicken chili stew, which was also spectacular. Finally for dessert I had my first take of a Korean melon (chamoe).

Disclaimer: My trip to Jeonju was sponsored by the Jeonbuk Centre for International Affairs.