Day 11 : Extra Special Hosting

[Bronwyn38]

After 4.5 years of hosting, I have been fortunate in having many absolutely delightful guests stay with me in one or other of my self contained units set on 2 acres (1ha) of lightly treed Australian rural land and for all the many beautiful people I have had the pleasure to host, one family in particular has left a very special mark for just a simple little event... They were a Korean family, based in Sydney, but planning to move back to Korea within a year or so, so I doubt I shall have the pleasure of meeting them again. Parents with 3 young children aged about 3, 6 and 8 years.

During their stay of a few nights with us, they were cooking up their traditional meals including Kim Chee (sp?) (apparently it is eaten by them every single day) … and asked whether we had ever tried it... we said no, so they offered us some and we tried it later that day... Phew! Hot! Anyway, their last morning with us, the 3 children were out on the verandah sitting at the table, and they started singing a song together in Korean... They couldn't see that I was outside on our balcony upstairs, and I don't know whether they would have been too shy had they known, but their beautiful harmony was like a little chorus of angels... it filled my heart with joy and touched me like nothing else ever has in my time as a host. It's only one of many delightful moments shared, but always the one I consider to be just that little bit extra special.

[Paul1255]

Ah @Bronwyn38 what a delighful moment and guest stay, sounds so sweet.

I LOVE kimchi, I cannot get enough of the stuff 🙂

[Bronwyn38]

thanks for the correct spelling of kimchi, @Paul1255. What part of London are you in? I named my B and B 'Finchley', after what I consider to be my own 'home away from home' in London, where I always base myself with very very dear friends... maybe we will catch up some time. I am a bit of an Anglophile, and get over there as often as I can!

[Paul1255]

You're welcome @Bronwyn38 

I live in North West London, Kilburn to be exact- and I look after listings in Kilburn, Kings Cross, Camden, Islington, Seven Sisters, Old Street and Westminister- so I am all over the place really!

Finchley isn't too far from me, I have 2 great friends who live in East Finchley.

Yes let's meet when you're back next time 🙂

[Quincy]

Kimchi is very nice indeed @Bronwyn38! My partner is Chinese/Korean, so we eat this quite often :-). 

[Susan151]

@Bronwyn38  Such a lovely story. Children singing is one of life's great pleasures.

May I correct you? Kimchi is not eaten once a day in Korean cuisine. It is eaten with EVERY.SINGLE.MEAL! I keep some in my fridge for my Korean guests who love steamed rice with kimchi and banchan for breakfast. Personally, I love the stuff, though I buy/make a less spicy version but Mr. Susan is not keen. I have a Korean market at the end of the street that makes fabulous banchan in house, so I don't make these items very often. Why should I? They do it better!

Favorite way to eat Kimchi– Kimchi pancakes with dipping sauce.

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/02/kimchi-pancakes-recipe.html

Thank you for sharing!

[Rita662]

It looks delicious, you made me curious @Bronwyn38; I've allready look the recipe in the Web.

It's nice to share these good things.

[Bronwyn38]

Indeed, Rita662, sharing our experiences can broaden not only the experiences of others but also the understanding of the diversity of our guests over time, and we can give each other a helping hand every now and then when we're not sure how to handle unusual situations... I had a Chinese couple staying last week, en route to visiting their daughter at Australian National University in Canberra:  this couple's English was very limited (although of course far better than MY Chinese!), and I felt that verbal communication was extremely limited and not guaranteed to get the message across, so the first thing I realised was that they might not be able to read my 'guidelines for staying with us'... so, before they arrived, I typed up the basics for a one night stay in our small unit, then got Google to translate it to Traditional Chinese, printed it out and slipped it in the folder over the top of the English version. Then, when I found out where they were going, most likely through an area that was experiencing massive bushfires, and the highway closed, I had to explain to them how to get there the 'back' way, avoiding the blocked section of coastal highway. When I typed that up and translated it to Chinese, I saw for the first time, how the Chinese version wouid look translated back into English and it was abominable!!!! It had about 15 different words for the name of my town (Wandandian), none of them anywhere near the correct spelling, and various other words were absolutely useless as well, so I went through it and TYPED over the top of the failed attempts at place and road names, in the English version that they would see on signs, and left the infill dialogue in Chinese, hoping that this would make more sense for them. I don't know whether it did, but I thought it was worth making the effort for them.

[Miloud0]

Salute, 

It look a so delicious meal. Thank you @Bronwyn38 for sharing this interesting topic 

Thanks, 

Miloud

[Helen427]

Thanks @Bronwyn38  and sorry I've not read your contribution earlier.

Having hosted Korean language school students in days gone by I was blessed to often have Red Pepper Paste & Kimchi in my home well before it became a trendy food item.

We used to merge different nationalities food types, e,g Italian pasta with Asian sauces etc  to create new flavours - something that has taken off worldwide and at times I wonder who on earth has a guilty conscience for some rather weird combinations! 😉

One thing I do know many Koreans do is go to Church to meet new friends and to improve their listening skills to the English.

Attending Midnight mass over Christmas is an incredible mixing of all cultures.

All the best