Of course, after touring the Korean Folk Village, I HAD to do some shopping in their souvenir shops. Do you have idea what that is in the picture above? I didn't but I thought they were cute. They are ceramic and hand painted.
They are chopstick rests. I never heard of them but when I showed them to Curt (hubby) when he came home from work, he knew exactly what they were. Now, my mother would wonder what I am going to do with them. I'm not sure but they were so cool, I had to get them. They were 15,00o won ($15.00 US).
I love boxes and one can never have too many! This one was so unique and beautiful. I thought to buy it for my daughter but I just had to keep it for myself.
This is what it looks like opened up. The price was 35,000 won ($35.00 US).
I love the hand painted Korean scrolls. This one just screamed to me, "BUY ME!" Of course, I did. It is pretty large, about 2 1/2 feet long byd 1 foot across, just the painted section alone. The cost, 50,000 won ($50.00 US).
A Korean man was painting these and selling them for 3000 won ($3.00 US) a piece. He had a piece of paper that translated all the sayings to help you make a decision. I chose one about happiness and family. I should have written down what it said exactly. I didn't really look at it too closely but when I showed it to Curt, he said, "Do you know that's Chinese characters?" Duh, I can tell the difference but it never occurred to me that it wouldn't be Korean. But Hangul (Korean characters) was developed in the 1400's, until that time most Koreans could not read or write because Chinese characters were too difficult. Many children today are still taught the Chinese characters.
Mr. Choi was really worried that Curt would be upset by all the spending I was doing. It was really endearing. His wife did buy what I thought was a pestle and mortal but Mr. Choi said that it was used to grind sesame seeds. I have no idea why you would want to do that but that's just something else I need to learn about South Korea. My education here never ends.
4 comments:
Gorgeous stuff! I love the box.
Just because it's in Chinese characters doesn't mean it's not Korean--it's just Korean hanja rather than hangul. (On the other hand, it may actually be Chinese, but I would guess not.) I know the first character is "family" and the next one is "peace."
Well, though a crazy bit of google-fu I have found it:
http://tinyurl.com/29x2qg
It's all in Korean, but apparently it means something like "if you only have peace in your home, all your doings will go well."
Becky, you grind sesame seeds to make sesame paste...it's used in a lot of Asian dishes.
I love your stainless chopsticks!
New Mabel Lou video on my blog... You won't believe what that brat has done now!
Helena: I couldn't bring that site up. I think I remember it saying something like that.
Holly: I KNEW you would know that! My cooking skills are pretty nonexistent. I'll check out Mabel now!
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