Food Storyist.

Korean Culture : Grandma and Korean Food on Lunar New Year



Before

Every year, on lunar new year holiday, I used to go to my grandma’s house.
She lived alone and gladly welcomed us whenever we visited her house.

My grandma welcomed my visit but I didn’t welcome her food. I visited her only on holidays, and I was pretty sick of the same food she gave to me. I dislike rice cake soup(ddeokguk), japchae, galbi, kimchi, fruit salad, vinegared cucumber, and everything that I had already eaten at home. At her dinner table, I didn’t eat much. But Grandma always pushed me to eat more and more. I was too fed of all.

I wanted to eat something new. At that time, western food such as hamburgers, pizzas, and pasta was just introduced to Korea. As a trendy youngster, I wanted to eat those extraordinary. Not those extremely ordinary.

Now


As Grown, my tastes on Korean food changed.

Now I think how stupid I was at my young age. Korean food is real awesome. It’s complex, deep, and nutritious. It’s a kind of slow food that prevails on flow of well-being.

As grown, my thoughts on my grandma changed.

Now I think how rude I was at grandma’s house. She must have prepared those dishes from early in the morning. There were more food she could make on her own. She deliberately cooked for us every holiday.