How I went to kimchi festival^^

Hello, you are reading my new post again^^
This time I am writing about the day, when I went to kimchi festival (김장축제), on 1st of December. You can see I am a bit late with the article, it is just that I  felt too lazy these days was waiting for inspiration.
Let's start with basics. Do you know what is kimchi? It is a very Korean-style food: cabbage (or radish, or onion, or cucumbers... the list goes on and on), fermented with different seasonings, always spicy. It is a main side-dish for Koreans, it is a bit funny how they eat even European cuisine with kimchi. Every one who has ever visited Korea, would be familiar with this specific dish. Back in Mongolia, my Dad, who has stayed before in Korea for a short period, loves to eat Mongolian food with kimchi^^
So on that day in the morning I went to Garak market (가락 시장), one of the biggest markets in Seoul, specialized in vegetables and seafood. The weather was quite nasty that day. I arrived a bit late, so the opening ceremony has already started. As you would expect, some important people, organizers of the kimchi festival, came out on the scene and gave speeches about purposes of this event.

there were quite a few speakers

From what was said I learned that this festival was organized for charity, and kimchi, made on this festival, will be given out to neighborhoods in difficult circumtances.

the poster reads: putting love in kimchi and transferring

There were a lot of ajuhmas (middle-aged women) in red aprons, making kimchi. I suppose they are workers of Garak market (or maybe not).

they seemed very close with each other, laughing non-stop

Me and other foreign students also started making kimchi. I can't show you my photo, because I looked very dorky in apron and cook's hat -.- I will just leave you with your imagination :D
Little children were also taking active part in making of kimchi.

cute Korean kid

So what did we do? We took already fermented cabbage and soaked it in special spicy paste.
Below you can see how simple cabbage transforms into yummy kimchi.

After we were finished making kimchi we had some lunch and then we went to sight-see around Garak market. We saw a lot of fruits and vegetables:

this scene wouldn't be much different from Mongolian markets

and a lot of sea and marine products. Like these:

i was very scared by those unidentified sea monsters :O

I also noticed these cute mascots of Garak market:

Veggies and Fishies going hand-in-hand, so sweet^^

At last we were given lots of free kimchi as "souvenirs" and we called it a day.

Kimchi festival is held annually, and this was the 3rd time. Next year, if you have this opportunity try going to this festival, it would be fun :)