Late Goryeo Mok Eun Lee Saek's Love for Tofu... Gyeongbuk Province's 'Humanities Travel' Receives Great Response

Gyeongbuk East Coast Humanities Tour Held on 13-14th at Gyesiri Village, Yeongdeok

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Dong-wook] The East Sea Region Headquarters of Gyeongsangbuk-do announced that the East Sea Humanities Travel project held over two days from the 13th to the 14th in Yeongdeok-gun received great responses from participants, centered around the 'Mok-eun Yi Saek's Tofu Experience Trip.'

The event organizers, considering the symbolic significance of the first event, prioritized residents of the Daegu-Gyeongbuk area who were exhausted from the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), selecting 60 participants from pre-registrants.

Most of the event took place in Gyesi-ri Traditional Village in Yeongdeok, where the birthplace of Mok-eun Yi Saek, a representative Confucian scholar and politician of the late Goryeo and early Joseon periods, is located. The first day included a tofu-making experience and exploration of Gyesi-ri Traditional Village, while the next day featured visits to General Shin Dol-seok's historic site and the Renewable Energy Exhibition Hall.

Chef Park Chan-il, who participated as the main guest of the event, is widely known as a "writing chef" and "chef of chefs," regarded as a distinguished figure. Despite his busy schedule, he readily accepted the invitation after hearing the purpose of the East Sea Humanities Travel project.

The tofu experience event was planned due to the connection between Mok-eun Yi Saek and tofu, according to the organizers. The first record of tofu in Korea appears in the collected works of Mok-eun Yi Saek, a Neo-Confucian scholar of the late Goryeo period. His anthology, (牧隱詩藁), contains several poems about tofu, including lines such as "bringing tofu from the main house to feed." As a modest gourmet, Mok-eun Yi Saek praised tofu as a food possessing the five virtues (Omi).

Kim Nam-il, head of the East Sea Region Headquarters, said, "Many participants in this event learned for the first time about the connection between Yeongdeok and Mok-eun Yi Saek," adding, "We will continue to discover and utilize Gyeongbuk's hidden humanities resources to create and distribute excellent humanities programs."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.