In Season: Eating Vegetarian in Damyang
Written and photographed by Karly Pierre
We took a wrong turn. My cooking teacher pulls over, trying to get her bearings. After a moment, she hails a passing car.
“Where is Soswaewon?”
“Follow me!” The man behind the wheel of the other car is excited to accommodate us, though the passenger in his car looks less thrilled. They pull out ahead of us, and my teacher follows.
We make our way down a long stretch of country road. It’s a crisp afternoon in early March, and the landscape is still a dull brown. Farmers are already at work clearing the fields of winter debris and preparing the soil for spring.
We’re headed out to a family-run vegetarian restaurant owned by my teacher’s former student. It’s been a while since my teacher has been there, so she’s having trouble remembering the way: This is the second time she’s asked for directions.
We cross a small bridge guarded by totems (jangseung, 장승) and a row of traditional bird-shaped figures on poles (sotdae, 솟대). The car in front of us stops, and the driver gets out.
“Over there!” he says, pointing to the right.
My teacher nods and smiles. After he drives away, we linger behind on the bridge.
“He was a very nice man,” says my teacher, dropping the car into gear. “But that’s not where we’re going.” She turns left at the end of the bridge.
Soon we arrive at Soswaewon Vegetarian Buffet. It’s a quaint restaurant on the edge of a pine forest, facing an open field. When we walk into the restaurant, the chef greets us with a deep bow.
“Teacher!” he says, blushing, then leads us to a table. We then make our way to the buffet. I head straight for cold dishes of wild Korean chives (dallae, 달래), laserwort or laserpitium siler (bangpung, 방풍), brown mushrooms, homemade seaweed jelly (cheonsachae, 천사채), and a variety of bibimbap vegetables. But there are also warm dishes, the most fascinating of which is the tofu bulgogi. My teacher takes a bite of the tofu bulgogi and laughs in delight.
“It tastes just like meat,” she says.
Apparently we’ve come to the restaurant at a good time. The Korean holiday Jeongwol Daeboreum was yesterday. It’s the day of the first full moon following Seollal, and vegetarian dishes of five-grain rice (ogok-bap, 오곡밥), dried vegetables (mugeun-namul, 묵은나물), and nuts (bureom, 부럼) are said to bring good luck for the rest of the year.
“After winter, Koreans like to eat vegetables to restore balance to our bodies,” she says. “Many of the foods we eat at this time of the year are wild plants found in the mountains.”
After we finish eating lunch, Heo Hae-suk, the matriarch of the family business, comes out to greet us. She wipes her hands on her apron, and when my teacher suggests she do an interview with me, she laughs and turns away, insisting she doesn’t have anything interesting to say. Eventually, Heo agrees to an interview the next week and offers me a roasted sweet potato from the top of a crackling pot belly stove on my way out.
The next week, I return with a translator. We’d taken a taxi to Damyang, and as we sit at a table waiting for Heo, my translator mentions again how expensive the cab ride was. An old lady in a purple hat sitting at the far end of our table catches my eye. She glances at us, then stares out the window. She takes her coat off, then quietly arranges it on the back of her chair. When her cane falls down and smacks the floor, a worker scuttles over quickly to pick it up. I would later learn that she is Heo’s mother, come to visit the restaurant for lunch.
“My mother was an excellent seamstress when I was a child,” says Heo, 61. “She made beautiful hanboks. Even now my sewing can’t compare to hers.”
Heo’s father was a government engineer, so she grew up in a well-to-do family in Gwangju. One of her favorite memories is sleeping in a room with her younger siblings – one sister and two brothers – and sharing blankets and pillows.
“My mother’s doenjang-guk (된장국, soybean paste soup) is a very special memory for me. Even now, I crave her soup.”
As a mother to two sons, Heo made kimchi stew, pork bulgogi, and bulgogi spiced with red pepper paste for her children. She learned to make all of her seasonings such as doenjang (된장, soybean paste), ganjang (간장, soy sauce), and gochujang (고추장, red pepper paste). “I never used any artificial seasoning. Everything was very natural.”
When the previous owner of this restaurant put the business up for sale, her sons encouraged her to buy it. She was working as a piano teacher at the time and at first was skeptical of the restaurant world. “Owning a restaurant is very hard, especially a vegan buffet. Many vegetarian restaurants aren’t successful. I don’t think that I could do this without the help of my family.”
Heo developed all of the recipes in the restaurant through trial and error on her own and by attending lectures. She also learned to farm, and most of the vegetables at the restaurant come from her fields. She insists on not cultivating fast-growing plants, as they require a lot of fertilizer. Her desire is to keep the food as pure as possible.
“People usually come to this restaurant because they are concerned about their health. After eating here, people’s health improves. Even my husband has lost weight working here. Growing up, my children liked beef and pork, but now they eat them only once a week.”
At the end of the interview, Heo leads us out the door. Her mother is still at the table eating lunch with Heo’s brothers and sister. “In good times and hard times, family is important,” she says.
My translator and I try to call a cab with an app, but there is no service out here. Heo calls her brother over. “He’ll take you back,” she says.
When he pulls his car around front, we’re surprised to see it’s a taxi. But this time, the meter isn’t running.
Cinnamon and Ginger Infused Tomato
Ingredients
80 grams of ginger
20 grams of Korean cinnamon sticks
1/2 cup of white sugar, brown sugar, or honey
10–20 roma tomatoes
water
Method
- Place tomatoes in a pot of boiling water for about 30 seconds to 1 minute.
- Drain the tomatoes, then immediately immerse them in cold water.
- Peel away the tomato skins.
- Put the peeled tomatoes in a container and set aside.
- Thinly slice ginger, then place in a pot filled with 5 cups of water. Boil the water for 40 minutes.
- Place the cinnamon sticks in a separate pot filled with 5 cups of water. Boil the water for 40 minutes.
- Strain out the ginger and cinnamon from the boiled water. Discard the ginger and cinnamon.
- Combine the cinnamon and ginger water in a pot and add white sugar, brown sugar, or honey.
- Boil again on high heat for 2–3 minutes, then lower to a rolling boil for 10–20 minutes. Allow the water to completely cool, and then pour into a container.
- Add the peeled tomatoes.
- Place the container in the refrigerator and allow to infuse overnight.
- Place a tomato on a dish and pour a spoonful of cinnamon/ginger water on top.
- This is should be served chilled and as a dessert.
The Author
Karly Pierre has an MA in mass communication and has worked as an editor and writer for several publications. She is currently an assistant professor in the ESL department at Chosun University.