Intro
Korea has a word for it: mombosin. It means restoring your body by eating well when you’re worn down or low on energy — but it’s more than just “having a good meal.” It carries a distinctly Korean idea about food and health, the belief that certain dishes cool the body’s summer heat while others rebuild your stamina, each eaten with intention. The recovery food tour of the KBS variety show 2 Days & 1 Night carried on from Taebaek into Pyeongchang, the highland county that hosted the 2018 Winter Olympics. Here the cast bedded down in a European-style forest chalet, feasted on night-market snacks from Jinbu Market after dark, and woke to buckwheat fields that look like scattered salt and a 40-year-old dried-pollack restaurant, before closing the trip at a fog-wrapped highland ranch. This post rebuilds that Pyeongchang route as a practical travel guide, so you can follow the same trail — and eat just as well along the way.
Chalet Resort Pension — a European-style stay in the forest
The Pyeongchang base camp was Chalet Resort Pension, a timber lodge so grand the members joked it looked like a European mansion — “Jong-min’s estate!” With its steep pitched roof and standalone setting in the woods, it made an instant impression. Here the cast played a sleeping-assignment game, donning bell-topped helmets to hunt for indoor-sleeping tickets while each ring of a bell made one of the five rooms disappear; despite the tension, everyone secured an indoor bed. Tucked into the forest near Phoenix Park ski resort, the pension is well suited to families and groups who want a pool and barbecue in one place, with plenty of room to spread out.
📍 Chalet Resort Pension
- Address: 71-20 Seogibau-gil, Bongpyeong-myeon, Pyeongchang-gun, Gangwon State
- Check-in 3:00 PM / check-out 11:00 AM
- Facilities: outdoor valley pool (bedrock groundwater, summer peak season), barbecue area, seminar room (40+), foot-volleyball court, walking trail, campfire area, shop
- Rooms: couple, family, and group types, 42 total / in-room cooking allowed (equipment varies by room)
- Naver rating: 4.18
How to Book
- Book via Naver reservation or by phone
- Summer peak season and weekends fill up early, so reserve ahead
- The pool mainly runs in July–August; confirm availability in other seasons
- Cooking equipment differs by room, so check when you book
How to Get There
- Via the Yeongdong Expressway, about 2.5 hours by car from Seoul
- From Bongpyeong intercity bus terminal by car; a car is recommended given the forest location
What Visitors Say
- Many praise the quiet, secluded surroundings for a restful stay
- Visitors are happy with the summer pool and barbecue facilities
- The large scale makes it easy for families and groups to spread out
Jinbu Market Night Market — “Oh My God” night snacks
Even after all that restorative eating, the night mission left everyone hungry again — and the crew had a spread waiting, hauled in from the “Oh My God Night Market” at Pyeongchang’s Jinbu Traditional Market. The table groaned under spicy fish cakes and rice-cake skewers, fried and sauced chicken, fiery grilled chicken feet, chewy-spicy whelk-and-dumpling salad, plus sweet rice punch, stir-fried blood sausage, and scallion pancake. Naturally, they had to earn it: the members won a six-letter consonant quiz (guessing “asparagus”) and a four-character-idiom fill-in-the-blank, saving the fish cakes and chicken. Then they dug in, declaring the broth a work of art — spicy, warming, and exactly right for a cool mountain night.
📍 Jinbu Traditional Market “Oh My God” Night Market
- Address: around the Culture Plaza, Jinbu-myeon, Pyeongchang-gun, Gangwon State
- When: Fridays & Saturdays 6:00–10:00 PM (seasonal; check the schedule before visiting)
- Signature eats: gondeure-perilla makguksu, scallion pancake, pumpkin sikhye and other local foods
- Also on offer: food stalls, flea market, pop-up stores, local-food zone, kids’ zone, cultural performances
- Perk: a free photo-booth print (one per person) with a same-day market/night-market receipt of ₩5,000+
How to Get There
- Close to the Jinbu IC on the Yeongdong Expressway; easy by car
- Reachable on foot or by car from Jinbu intercity bus terminal
What Visitors Say
- Families love that food, shopping, play, and performances are all in one place
- It gets crowded around sunset, so popular stalls may have a wait
- Visitors appreciate the free photo perk for a fun keepsake
Bongpyeong Buckwheat Fields — “as if sprinkled with salt”
After the morning memory mission, the cast drove past the Bongpyeong buckwheat fields, made famous by the beloved short story When the Buckwheat Blooms. September is the county’s most dazzling month. This is the very landscape from the story — where the traveling peddler Heo Saeng-won and a young woman once met at the Bongpyeong market — and where you can see for yourself the buckwheat blossoms that the author described as looking “as if salt had been sprinkled” under the moonlight. Stroll past the waterwheel on the Heungjeong Stream, follow the flower paths, and continue to the Lee Hyo-seok Literary Museum to take in the full autumn mood of Bongpyeong.
📍 Bongpyeong Buckwheat Fields (Hyoseok Culture Village)
- Address: around 157 Lee Hyo-seok-gil, Bongpyeong-myeon, Pyeongchang-gun, Gangwon State
- Scale: about 600,000 ㎡ of buckwheat fields across the Bongpyeong area
- Highlights: the Heungjeong Stream waterwheel, flower walking paths, Lee Hyo-seok Literary Museum, the author’s birthplace
- Bloom season: roughly late August–September (varies with weather and bloom conditions)
- Note: the fields can be viewed outside festival grounds even beyond the Hyoseok Festival period
How to Get There
- About 10–15 minutes by car toward Bongpyeong from the Jangpyeong IC on the Yeongdong Expressway
- Reachable on foot or by car from the Bongpyeong intercity bus terminal
What Visitors Say
- Many say the white waves of blossoms in the September bloom are spectacular
- Pairing the fields with the museum and waterwheel deepens the experience
- The flowers are small and delicate, so visitors recommend sticking to the marked paths
Hwangtae Hoegwan — 40 years of dried-pollack cooking
Breakfast brought Pyeongchang’s signature restorative dish: hwangtae, high-protein, low-fat dried pollack. The cast headed to a 40-year-old specialist, where the memory-mission rankings decided the menu. Third place got a clear, refreshing pollack haejang-guk (hangover soup); second, a grilled pollack set; and first, a lavish spread with grilled pollack plus grilled deodeok (mountain root). The savory soup, the eye-opening grilled pollack, and the deodeok — which even picky eater Dindin found sweet rather than bitter — all landed well. Daegwallyeong dried pollack is cured over a long winter of repeated freezing and thawing, which leaves the flesh tender and protein-rich.
📍 Hwangtae Hoegwan
- Address: 19 Nunmaeul-gil, Daegwallyeong-myeon, Pyeongchang-gun, Gangwon State
- Signature: grilled-pollack set (lightly sweet, tender and chewy), steamed pollack (spicy and refreshing, with bean sprouts), pollack hot pot, pollack haejang-guk (milky and clean)
- Hours: 6:00 AM–10:00 PM / open year-round
- Size: 200 seats, group seating available
- Price: roughly ₩10,000–20,000 per person
- Amenities: parking, takeout, reservations; fully non-smoking; accessible facilities
- Naver rating: 4.17
How to Get There
- Close to the Daegwallyeong IC on the Yeongdong Expressway, near Hoenggye-ri in Daegwallyeong-myeon
- Opens at 6:00 AM, handy for early starts; easy to pair with Yongpyong Resort
What Visitors Say
- Visitors like the 6:00 AM opening for early travel days
- Many recommend the clean, mild soup as a way to start the morning
- It’s convenient to combine with Daegwallyeong-area attractions
Daegwallyeong Sky Ranch — highland pastures in the mist
The trip ended at Daegwallyeong Sky Ranch. It’s famous for wide-open skies, green pastures, and views stretching all the way to the East Sea — but on this day the fog rolled in so thick the members joked the sky “had no intention of clearing.” Even so, the mist lent the pastures a mysterious beauty all their own. A tractor-wagon carries visitors up toward the ranch’s summit past rolling meadows and wind turbines, where you can meet sheep, goats, and ponies, then finish with the ranch’s milk ice cream and yogurt — an easygoing, hands-on farm experience for all ages.
📍 Daegwallyeong Sky Ranch
- Address: 470-5 Hoenggye-ri, Daegwallyeong-myeon, Pyeongchang-gun, Gangwon State
- Hours: 9:00 AM–6:00 PM
- Admission: adults ₩8,000 / children ₩6,000 (dogs ₩5,000)
- Tractor wagon: adults ₩10,000 / children ₩8,000
- Experiences: tractor-wagon tour, hay-feeding, sheep/goats/ponies, wind-turbine scenery, milk ice cream and yogurt
- Amenities: Naver reservation, parking, cafe, gift shop, rest area, pets welcome
- Naver rating: 4.44 (11,336 reviews)
How to Get There
- Close to the Daegwallyeong IC on the Yeongdong Expressway; a car is recommended
- The ranch is large with walking sections, so comfortable shoes are a must
What Visitors Say
- Many recommend comfortable shoes for the large grounds and walking paths
- At Daegwallyeong altitude, cloudy days can be colder and windier than expected, so bring a jacket
- The pasture views plus the food make it a great hands-on outing
The Takeaway
Pyeongchang strings together a forest retreat, a heartwarming night market, literary buckwheat fields, hearty dried-pollack fare, and a highland ranch — all in a single day. A rental car makes the route above the most efficient way to travel, and the county changes with the seasons: September buckwheat, autumn mist over Daegwallyeong, winter snow on the ski slopes. Following the 2 Days & 1 Night recovery tour from Taebaek into Pyeongchang, you’ll find this is a corner of Korea where you can truly refuel — body and spirit alike.
Korean drama, made easy — one episode at a time. This has been K Trip Easy. ✈️