camping story
Samgyupsal with lettuce, garlic and miso
Every year, my church holds an annual camp at Jumonville during Memorial day weekend. (For those of you who are not American, Memorial day is a federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May to commemorate U.S. soldiers who died in the military service.) Jessy and I also went to the camp with many of our church friends. It was so gorgeous days. In my opinion, as much as different cultures of different countries, people enjoy very different type of activities in these events. The first thing Korean people enjoy is food. Every time there is any kind of outdoor event, people bring a lot of food such as fruits, soju, beer, and pork belly. (FYI, it is allowed to drink outside in Korea.) The most famous one for Koreans is pork belly. You would see people grilling 삼겹살 (Sam-Gyup-Sal) in beaches, parks or even at home. It is basically the same part of pork as bacon but Korean people grill the fresh pork belly and eat them with lettuce, miso, garlic and rice. After the food, they play usually soccer or kickball. If they stay overnight, they usually have campfire time. Surrounding the fire, people sing or talk and also at the same time, people cook potatoes, sweet potatoes or yams.
playing frisbee
In America, people usually eat in the kitchen. And, unless they have any designated area where they can grill, they would not set any fire and grill anything. (Regarding regulation related with drinking, it is all different per state. In Pennsylvania, basically, you cannot drink outside. In some parks, you can drink with permit.) During free time, they play frisbee, corn hole or softball or throw football. There might be some other things but those are the main things you can see from any picnic areas or beaches in America. If I would choose the most famous thing, it would be frisbee. I doubt many people would know what the frisbee is. The picture of a girl playing frisbee is a very typical scene you could see in beaches of U.S. What? You wanna come to the U.S. only because you can see it? Haha! You should! 🙂 During the campfire time, people roast marshmallow. Well, I have never heard of marshmallow before I came to the U.S. I think it is basically made of sugar or syrup. People also put marshmallows into a hot chocolate.
Speaking of marshmallow, there is an expression I learned. It is a type of food American people enjoy a lot whenever there is outdoor events. “S’more” Here is the definition I found from the Wikipedia.
Roasting marshmallow
S’more is a traditional nighttime campfire treat popular in the United States and Canada, consisting of a roasted marshmallow and a layer of chocolate sandwiched between two pieces of graham cracker.
I am not sure who made this one first. Is it American or Canadian? I do not think European people eat this. Even though I know this is not really good for my health, I have to admit that this one tastes really good. One boy whom Jessy and I talked in the camp said, “If you have not eaten s’mores, you did not live a life!” 🙂 So…. Have you lived your life?
I would like some Korean bacon… you have been holding out on me.
You will have it soon. I saved it for the best. 🙂
I’m betting instead of this:
.. the boy said,
Of course, there could be some variation in there, but the key is, “You haven’t lived”. You’ll also see it the other way around, like:
Close, but no cigar!
Nice,
For the readers of the blog, the meaning of the “close, but no cigar!” is “that is almost correct, but not quite.”
Weird … I had no idea what corn hole was, so I looked it up. I’ve usually heard that called “bean bag toss”. Don’t look up corn hole on urban dictionary!
Also, it’s called football, not foolball. Quit insulting American sports, T-bone!!
OMG, that is another meaning of cornhole? What? Good thing I know what it means for some people. From now on, I will use “bean bag toss.” And, oops, I will correct foolball. Man, I love football.
Other things to cook around the campfire:
– weenies (hot dogs. I think a weeny roast is the only time they’re called weenies instead of hot dogs, although others might disagree)
– hobo pies (also called mountain pies. These are hot sandwiches made by putting an iron container filled with sandwich into the coals of the fire to cook. You can put anything inside a hobo pie – fruit filling, pizza makings, or meat and cheese are some examples. Here’s a picture of a hobo pie iron: )
– If you’re hard core (like if you’re a Girl Scout), you might make foil packs. Here’s a recipe.
shoot, I’m not allowed to post pictures, I guess. Here’s a link, instead
I remember you brought this for the techies’ retreat two years ago.
Let’s have all of them in the next techies’ retreat.
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