Gainesville, FL: 2012 Korean Food Festival

Very beautiful Hanbok (traditional Korean clothing) worn by the Greeters upon entering.

The 2012 Korean Food Bazaar is an annual event held in Gainesville, Florida at the Korean Baptist Church. This year was the most organized yet--- with many people greeting visitors and explaining the menu.  If you look around the room carefully, there are also items available that are not on the main menu.  Just pay close attention, accept and give items with two hands, smile, be patient, open your mind, and bring cash.

The base menu, but you will find other goodies.  The prices are very low compared to most restaurants, and the food has a homemade effect.  This is the closest taste you will get to dining in a Korean-American home. 

The dish I always look forward to is the Ho-ttuk (#10 on the menu), sweet chewy pancake filled with cinnamon and sticky sugar.  I always buy more to take home for later.  This time, my family devoured all of them before I was able to have a second serving.

Originally, I am from Gainesville (moved there when I was six years old).  After High School, my husband and I moved around quite a bit.  When I lived in Gainesville last year, I would come to the Gainesville Korean Baptist Church once a week for Korean language lessons.  Also, I was lucky enough to be accepted into the Tower Road Branch Library's Language Exchange Program, where I was able to learn from and teach many adult Korean students.  If you are interested in this program, please contact Jin Lyons by submitting your resume and completing a formal application at that branch.  

Even though I live in Tampa now, I try to visit at least 1-2 times a month to visit my family (who still live there) and meet with my Korean language teacher/friend at the church. Luckily, I have made a great connection and I am able to learn about the culture and food.  It was so nice to see happy familiar faces at this event. 

One of the many dining areas.  This is the main room where the food stalls were located.

As I have noted before in last year's post on this event:  Gainesville is lucky to have such an open and outgoing Korean-American community that is willing to open their doors to everyone.  The above photo was taken as soon as the event opened around 4:00PM, and you can see how many locals have already started dining.  It was definitely a success!

Spicy Pork Bulgogi (돼지 불고기) with a side of Korean steamed rice and salad.  

Out of all of the meat dishes associated with "Korean Barbeque,"  Dwae-ji Bulgogi (돼지 불고기) is my favorite because of the vibrant taste--- a mix of sweet. spicy, and umami.  I have found this dish easy to make at home, when thin sliced pork is available at the market.  

Perfectly cooked spicy cold squid with radish kimchi, comes with a side of rolled rice (충무김밥). 

Every year there is a new authentic style Korean dish that I have never had before, so it is always an experience.   This year my favorite was the above photo of Chung-mu Kim-bap (충무김밥), originating from the seaside city of Chungmu (충무).  The squid (꼴뚜기 무침) is spicy, sweet, meaty, and tender- and the radish (무김치) is crispy and slightly sour.  It all is served cold and goes perfectly with the soft rice rolls.  I like how the squid and radish are not rolled inside the rice rolls as a regular kimbap, which would be quite messy and soggy.  Instead the squid and radish are served as side dishes.

Korean rice punch,  (식헤) Shik-hye.

Since I have been eating Korean food for a long time now, I have started craving Shik-hye at the end of a meal as well as sliced fruit.  It is a sweet rice punch that is made from starch sugars and ginger, you will find grains of rice in the bottom of the serving and sometimes pine nuts.  I like to try to swirl the drink around in the bottom to get all of the rice without having to use a spoon. 

For the entire photo set, please visit my Flikr Page.