If you work or study in South Korea, I am sure you will have heard of MOFA โ also known as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The MOFA is a government department responsible for Koreaโs international relational affairs and diplomacy, as well as providing support both for expats like myself, and Korean citizens abroad. Every year, they organise many unique activities that are available for foreigners to participate in for free! Including a unique traditional temple cookery class led by a Korean monk.
MOFA Traditional Temple Cookery Class
Today I would like to share with you my personal experience of a very special MOFA event: learning to cook traditional Korean temple food from a genuine Korean monk! The event was held online due to Covid-19 and the first 50 people to sign up for the program received free ingredients for the class ** limited to foreign residents living in Korea. Of course, I applied without hesitation!
Letโs get cooking!
I was lucky enough to be one of the first 50 participants to apply and so I received my ingredients a day before the class. When the day came, I was so excited. I unpacked my ingredients and washed them in preparation. The class was held on Youtube, which was useful as I could rewind the video if needed. When the class began, the monk introduced herself as well as the traditional temple dishes we were going to make that day. She then began cooking, taking us along step by step. She made it look so easy! However, it was more complex that it seemedโฆ
Furthermore, we were given the opportunity to post content on social media as part of a cooking competition. I spent almost 2 hours just trying to find a nice angle to take videos and photos! Finally, after finishing the class, I was able to taste my dishes. My dishes were not perfect, but they tasted good and I was proud of myself for completing them. The traditional flavours in temple cuisine were very new to me. Therefore, if I stayed at a temple, I think Iโd need some time to get used to it.
Final Thoughts
Overall, the food was really healthy and was super fun to make too. I achieved a reward as one of the best content creators in the competition and received some gifts as a reward. It was an enjoyable experience and I look forward to participating in more activities like this in the future, including MOFA events.
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