Nov 10, 20193 min read

World Culture Tour: Korea part 1 - Snacks

So, first things first. The world culture tour is supposed to be a virtual world tour where my boys and I "travel the world" through movies, music, stories, crafts, customs, and food. However, they're not the only ones learning. I'm learning plenty along the way. Obscure things. Cultures. History. Amazing recipes. Also, though,every once in a while, I learn something that I really should have already known.

Case in point: the geographical location of Korea.

I had intended to make a stop on the world culture tour that included "all of Southeast Asia", excluding Vietnam because there's plenty to learn for that country specifically. In my early plan, I had Korea as part of that stop. Then, I took a look at a map and saw where Korea actually is!

The country with the famous 38th Parallel is next to the top right corner of China, even sharing a border with Russia! Directly across the Sea of Japan (though Koreans don't seem to call it that) from Japan. Now, it made so much more sense to me that Japan was nervous with Korea's missile testing!

I felt foolish, but the goal of this ongoing "world culture tour" is to teach my kids while having fun and, when possible, learn a thing or two along the way myself. After all, something that sparked this idea in the first place is the fact that, when I was in school, so much time was spent on US and Western European history, I never learned a lot about other areas of the world.

For our first stop into Korean culture, we delved back into our Taste of Asia box of snacks from Worldwide Snacks. While the collection of snacks we received, which is different with each order, didn't include a lot of Chinese or Japanese snacks, it included quite a few from Korea.

The snacks, shown above, were all fairly decent. The wrapper with the king fish on it was simply gummy fish. The chips were very similar to Pringles. The remaining things, with the exception of the package with the banana on it, were all packaged mini cakes or cookies, each of which were not bad but not great either.

The unique snack of our Korean selection was by far the package with the banana. The "Banana Kick" snacks are pretty much exactly like cheese puffs, same consistency and shape, but they taste like bananas! I'll admit that saying that sounds like it'd be nasty, but they were actually very tasty.

The rest of our "Southeast Asia...AND Korea" stop of the World Culture Tour:

SouthEast Asia (Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines) & Korea

Movies

Impossible (T)

Beach (T)

Rambo 4 (T)

No Escape (T)

Ong Bak (T)

Bangkok Dangerous (T)

Anna and the King (T)

Man With the Golden Gun (T)

Kickboxer (T)

Volunteers (T)

Crazy Rich Asians (M)

The Raid (I)

The Chanting (I)

Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid (I)

The Host (K)

Train to Busan (K)

The Wailing (K)

Rampant (K)

The Great Raid (P)

Heneral Luna (P)

Thrilla in Manilla (P) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyXZt4RQ5uI

Malaysia doc - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxHDF5C6T5U

Indonesia Nature - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQMPdrJIb-A

Indonesia & Malaysia History - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiuY2Hej9w8

Krakatoa - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_sSkqygcuM

Thailand History - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfOMEP_7AJM

Thailand Nature - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erwDcszmddA

Korea History - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6EnEXPprXY

Korean War - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxaegqvl4aE

Korea Land of Morning Calm - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_YdXpvk8hI

Food: Thailand -Pad Thai, Siam Pork Ribs, Curry Fried Rice (Khao Pad), Gaeng Daeng (Red Curry), Pad Krapow Moo Saap, Peanut Noodles, Rice Noodle Soup

Indonesia - Sate Ayam

Korea – Korean BBQ, Kimchi

Philippines – Pork Adobo, Tocino/Tosilog

Watch, don’t eat – Dehydrated Tarantulas (Cambodia), Balut (Philippines)

Music:

Traditional Thai (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXXK4P2Ogs0),

Traditional Malay music (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj2Ehv21VGQ),

Traditional Indonesia Music (West Java: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nrgTossoB0,

Korea – Traditional (Pansori) and KPop (H.O.T. and Top 10 iconic Kpop songs - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzJvBgsFjvQ)

Stories:

Thailand: The Speech of Parrots (https://www.uexpress.com/tell-me-a-story/2007/1/14/the-speech-of-parrots-a-folktale), The Clever Monkey (http://www.sirinyas-thailand.de/2015/08/09/a-thai-folk-tale-the-clever-monkey/)

Indonesia: Too-too-moo and the Giant (http://www.aaronshep.com/stories/022.html)