House on Wheels: Episode 6

by kaycee

This week, our tiny house occupants leave their bamboo forest and journey to a new “front yard.” As we’ve come to expect, a new location means new adventures (or is that misadventures?) — and new mouthwatering foods. With its hilarious banter, fun-loving conversations, and meaningful moments, House on Wheels continues to be a simple and enjoyable “healing” show that also has the power to make you hungry. Very hungry.

EPISODE 6 RECAP

When we last left our tiny house family and guest, Lee Sung-kyung, a masked visitor had arrived. We finally see who the mysterious man is, and it’s none other than Lee Joon-hyuk!

It turns out Dong-il secretly invited Joon-hyuk over earlier that day as a surprise. Sung-kyung (who was the only person to guess Joon-hyuk’s identity correctly when he still had the mask on) is delighted to see him.

They’re actually well-acquainted already, thanks to their mutual love of photography — they’ve even gone on photography trips together!

It turns out their new guest of honor has arrived just in time — in other words, the pork is ready to eat. Dong-il carefully pulls everything out of the bamboo container… and this episode has only just started and I’m already salivating! He starts slicing and gives Sung-kyung the first bite.

There is so much anticipation on everyone’s faces as they watch Sung-kyung chew and wait to hear her verdict on the pork. And hooray — it’s delicious, tender, and has great flavor.

Special guest Joon-hyuk is next to be served, and Dong-il hand feeds the others and only takes a bite after everyone else has had a taste. They dig in and make vegetable wraps with the pork, fresh bamboo shoots, and the rice.

Joon-hyuk picks up his camera to snap some photos and Sung-kyung mentions the “muted laugh” trend, where you have your picture taken while laughing, but you’re actually just faking it. Our cast needs no further excuse than that — Jin-gu tries it out right away and nails it, so Dong-il brags he can do it too, but then fails miserably to laugh without noise.

Hee-won tsks disapprovingly and refuses to take part in the muted laugh, haughtily pretending he doesn’t care about being trendy. However, as soon as Joon-hyuk turns his lens to Hee-won, Hee-won unleashes an epic silent laugh (he ends up looking pretty villainous, though).

Joon-hyuk says the muted laugh is a good way to make people feel less awkward in front of the camera and Sung-kyung shares that she also coaxes her parents to say their dog’s name “Gureumi” (which means cloud in Korean) when she takes their photos to loosen up the atmosphere. On the topic of clouds, Dong-il asks Jin-gu about his drama, Moonlight Drawn by Clouds — except that was actually Park Bo-gum’s drama, hah!

Joon-hyuk says he was the one in that drama, whereas Jin-gu was in that other one where he played the king. Jin-gu, still not sure what drama they’re talking about, offhandedly saying he’s been king a few times.

His comment prompts Dong-il to tease him about being arrogant. Dong-il asks what the highest-ranking role Joon-hyuk’s ever played in a sageuk. Joon-hyuk: “Eunuch!”

They move onto their next course: noodles. Jin-gu cooks three different noodle dishes by himself: spicy bibim noodles with bamboo shoots, soybean noodle soup, and anchovy noodle soup.

Kingly chef Jin-gu gets a round of applause when he brings out the dishes and his sunbaes tease him about how a king came to make noodles. Joon-hyuk: “You were a king and now you’re making noodles!” Then Dong-il laments, “Man, a king is serving a eunuch.”

Joon-hyuk gets into eunuch mode to thank Jin-gu for the meal, and Jin-gu regally tells him to eat his fill. Jin-gu’s come so far since the first episode — his noodles get rave reactions from everyone. When dinner is over, Joon-hyuk says his goodbyes and goes on his way with his camera.

Sung-kyung and Jin-gu take the house while the sunbaes settle in outside in the tent. Hee-won suddenly suggests they prank the two young ‘uns by pretending to be ghosts in the bamboo forest. It doesn’t go that far, though, since Dong-il tells Hee-won to stop since he’s gotten a case of the heebie jeebies lol.

In what may be a first, Sung-kyung wakes up before the cast and she goes for a morning stroll. By the time she gets back, Dong-il and Jin-gu are also awake and Jin-gu gets to making coffee. Coffee gives Dong-il a new inspiration: making bamboo cups.

He heads into the forest and just casually cuts down bamboo with a saw, as one does (don’t worry, they got permission beforehand!). Bamboo grows in sections, so if you’re smart about where you make your cuts, you can have a naturally-grown bamboo cup with minimal effort.

As Dong-il works on his masterpieces, Hee-won attracts Sung-kyung and Jin-gu’s attention with his sleep noises. They watch him like he’s the latest Netflix show and he carries on making sounds similar to what I would imagine a giant, angry baby might make.

Hee-won eventually, grudgingly, gets up and ready for the day. Dong-il urges them to get ready quickly — they need to hit the road soon if they want to make it to the new home before the tide comes in. Their next destination is Gochang, and their aim for the day is to visit the mudflats in order to go clam digging.

In the car, Dong-il gives a quick satoori lesson that covers several regions, and shares that he sees traveling as being important for actors. It expands their horizons and helps them learn satoori too.

On arriving at the mudflat, they gear up and Dong-il proposes they split into teams. The losing team (i.e. the team that collects the least clams) will be in charge of cooking clam ramyun later on. Terms agreed to, the teams are Hee-won and Dong-il versus Jin-gu and Sung-kyung.

It’s a slow start, and at first the hoobae team has more success. But the sunbaes turn it around in the end and manage to harvest the most clams. And what do you know — Hee-won’s expectations are fully exceeded, as he’d planned to dig up exactly two clams, which would have been just enough for the ramyun.

But the ramyun can wait till dinner — they opt to get takeout for lunch, which is a delicious-looking clam bibimbap. One very tired Hee-won is relieved he doesn’t have to cook. “It would have taken us six hours to make this,” he quips.

The bibimbap re-energizes Hee-won and he starts to muse on the tides and the moon. His conclusion? “The earth is one.” Sung-kyung successfully covers up her laugh, but Dong-il can’t resist the urge to poke fun.

Dong-il: “You know, you’ve become nonsensical while filming House on Wheels… I’m worried your parents will watch and worry about you.”

Hee-won gives a chic little head shake and answers, “Nah, my parents say the show is fun.”

Hee-won goes on another random tangent and brings up dolphins, which gets Sung-kyung wondering why dolphins jump out of the water.

Jin-gu posits they do it to breathe and Dong-il goes a step further, “Their mouths are on their backs so when they kiss, they do it back-to-back.” Jin-gu questions his sunbae’s assertion (“Isn’t that their nose on their back?”)

Jin-gu goes back to eating his food when he clocks Dong-il’s unhappy face, and Hee-won takes this chance to “scold” Jin-gu, while basically making fun of Dong-il.

For a post-meal treat, Barista Yeo is back, and Sung-kyung gets to work making bingsoo. Dong-il takes in the two of them working hard and he says he feels like he’s intruding on them lol.

As Dong-il is enjoying his iced coffee, he asks for a cup holder. Jin-gu takes out one of the bamboo cups from this morning instead and Dong-il shows off his work to Hee-won. Hee-won asks about the hole near the lip of the cup, and Dong-il explains it’s designed to string along a tea bag. The idea is good, but it’s not the greatest execution as a whole bunch of coffee spills out from the hole.

Sung-kyung grabs her camera and Hee-won does an unprompted muted laugh for her. Aw, Sung-kyung looks adorable when she’s focusing on getting the perfect angle and shot, she’s all splayed limbs and focus.

The conversation keeps flowing and Hee-won talks about all the ways he’s changed since he started filming the show. He’s stepped out of his comfort zone and is trying new things for the first time.

Traveling’s shown him the joy of the small pleasures in life. For instance, he never knew showering could be so wonderful, LOL.

When talk turns to dinner, Sung-kyung says she’d like eel along with the clam ramyun, and Jin-gu starts to look up a restaurant he likes to go to whenever he is in the area.

He gets a surprise when he checks out their menu and they actually named one of the dishes “Salt-grilled eel enjoyed by actor Yeo Jin-gu.”

Jin-gu and Sung-kyung head to the restaurant and Hee-won walks after them, nagging like a mother hen to be careful when they drive. He asks Jin-gu if he input the right address in the GPS system and Jin-gu actually says, “Yes, mom” by accident, LOL.

Sung-kyung praises her own driving skills and whoo-hoo’s with the windows down as she speeds along. When they reach the restaurant, Sung-kyung teases him saying she wants to try the Yeo Jin-gu special.

She’s determined to find the menu board with Jin-gu’s name on it and they’re both a little put out when it’s nowhere to be seen.

Then eagle-eyed Sung-kyung finally spots the menu board on their way out, and she gets Jin-gu to pose next to it for a cute photo.

Back at the house, Dong-il and Hee-won set up the dinner table and Dong-il cracks open a package of fermented skate and 3-year-fermented kimchi that his friend sent him.

The smell makes Hee-won take a few steps back and I can’t say I blame him. I can almost smell the funkiness through the screen. (Fermented skate supposedly smells a lot like ammonia.)

Dong-il attempts to persuade Hee-won to give it a taste, despite his hesitation. When regular persuasion doesn’t work, Dong-il tries guilt, “I want to keep seeing you.” Hee-won: “If I don’t eat the skate, does that mean we’re breaking up?”

The show overlays their dialogue with sad music and it really looks like something out of a drama. Hee-won acknowledges the merits of the skate, but the smell is too much for him.

Dong-il: “Let’s break up.”
Hee-won: “If that’s what you want.”
Dong-il: “You give up on people easily, don’t you?”

Their melo breakup scene comes to an end when Sung-kyung and Jin-gu return, and Dong-il can’t wait to see Jin-gu’s reaction to the skate. Jin-gu’s thrilled, and Dong-il is both thrilled and gratified to see how happy Jin-gu is.

Tonight’s dinner is ready in a jiffy: pork, kimchi, fermented skate, and grilled eel. Dong-il and Jin-gu dig in, stacking fermented skate with pork belly and kimchi. Jin-gu is really loving the skate, and his hyungs tell Jin-gu he’s an old soul when it comes to his taste in food.

Sung-kyung also tries a piece of the fermented skate and compares the smell to the chemical perm solution but says it just tastes salty. The last dinner course is the clam ramyun, and while they wait for it to cook, they battle with the mosquitoes that have come out in full force.

It’s not too long a wait and of course, the ramyun’s fantastic. The clams make a huge difference in flavor and Sung-kyung says it’s so good, it’s making her forget about the mosquitoes. As they enjoy the clam ramyun, the mosquitoes keep travelers on their feet — literally — till the very end.

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