TV Show: A Complete Korean Experience at a Hanok Stay

Youn Stay | 윤스테이 (2021)

As a Korean-born, I came across a few old-fashioned traditional Korean housings whenever we visited the countryside in my childhood. I’ve always thought that the grand palace-like houses and the stone fences surrounding them were only for kings and queens 👸🤴 Nowadays, there are quite a few accommodations in Korea in these Han-Ok (Korean traditional buildings) for travellers to experience the authentic Korean stay, and to have a peak of the old-lifestyle.

Youn Stay is a reality show that runs a Han-Ok inn in the South Jeolla Province. The stay was offered to foreign visitors in the country for school or business, who could not cherish the full Korean culture during their stay due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. The set was in an existing Han-Ok Inn, and the place was GORGEOUS ✨ - have a look around the place in this Youn Stay teaser video! The show features Youn Yuh-Jung, Lee Seo-Jin, Jung Yu-Mi, Park Seo-Joon, and Choi Woo-Shik as the owners, chefs, servers, and the bellboy of this accommodation. Having these world-famous stars from Parasite, Minari, and Train to Busan, visitors of Youn Stay who noticed their filmography were completely mindblown - who would’ve thought the Oscar-winning actors and actresses would be making their bed & cooking their meals? 😂

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The visitors were welcomed by the mum-figure of the show, Yuh-Jung, and after check-in, were shown around the Han-Ok rooms they’ll be staying in. One of the reasons why Youn Stay was complemented by the viewers was because of the special amenities they offered in these rooms 👏 The hair wash products that were prepared were all in solidified forms, so that plastic containers are not necessary. What I personally was interested to see were solidified toothpaste, that you could use by chewing on them. Here’s a video of Woo-Shik showing the first guests around their room & their amenities! All these eco-friendly touches showed how much the production team considered raising awareness of the environment-friendly options we have for daily products (the amenities products were all sourced from the Korean companies: Donggubat and Toun28.)

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The staff also put veganism as one of the important aspects as well, by making sure they have at least one vegan main dish available in the course menus 🥬 Even the side dishes, appetisers and desserts were made completely vegan to respect multiple dietary preferences. Two recipes that trended in Korea after the show was the vegetable-based broth used for soups, and the bean sauce. Koreans are more used to fish-based or meat-based soup in their food, but the idea of vegetable broth opened the eyes of the viewers to a new way of pursuing a vegan diet. As for the bean sauce, I’ll talk about it in a separate article 😉

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Not only thinking about making a good show, but the cast and the film crew made sure everyone that visits Youn Stay felt welcomed and respected. Thanks to the careful consideration of acknowledging and appreciating everyone's lifestyle and value differences in the show, I had my heart warming while watching Yoon Stay. Plus, the family-like chemistry between the cast was my favourite part 🥰 Ever since the show I am totally fangirling over Choi Woo-Shik, and neither will you be able to un-love him after giving this show a watch. 

Watch the show's subbed trailer here! 👉 https://bit.ly/3sLpjat