Little girl see, "little" bigger girl do

A majority of the limited time I got to spend with my mom as a child was in the realm of our kitchen. She worked long hours at her job and even at home, she was kept busy cooking planned meals for my grandparents. Most of the foods she cooked were traditional Korean dishes, made with traditional Korean ingredients. Although I was in the kitchen often because I wanted to spend as much time with my mom, I naturally picked up on cooking techniques and recipes. I suppose that's when my affinity for cooking began.
Years later, I find myself in the kitchen making foods that she made for us, the way she made them. I never saw my mom once look through a recipe book. When I asked her how she knew certain things like how to fill the dumplings the right way, she said she had learned everything from my grandmother, her mother.
There are some foods I try to mimic what I saw as a young girl that always remind me of her. But no matter how hard I try, my food never tastes as good as hers. It's nice though, because I catch myself smiling when I add the tofu to complete my pot of jjigae. She always reminded me not to add it too soon because it didn't take long to cook through.

Bulgogi with Dangmyun



Kimchi JJigae

These are probably two of the more popular dishes among Koreans and foreigners of Korean food alike. I have yet to develop written recipes for them because I make them free-handed, just like my mom did.