Last edited Sat Feb 2, 2019, 07:42 PM - Edit history (1)
So my wife went today with a friend. Because the Lunar New Year is coming up, the place was packed, literally. The shopping carts were bumper to bumper. When she got back she was exhausted. This store is about 50 miles from home, yet she met several people there that she knew. Mostly Korean Americans, but also a couple of Chinese friends originally from Taiwan.
I don't know if it's a chain or not like H Mart, they are using the name Lotte so it might be.
Looking forward to the fresh pan chan. We have buchu, gaenip, kamja, and gokuma, growing in the yard when in season. (chives, sesame, potatoes, sweet potatoes.) So the first generation women in the Korean church all make their own kimchi, kaktugi, ohee kimchi, etc. (regular cabbage kimchi, pickled radish, cuccumber kimchi, )They put out a nice meal every Sunday.
I know that single guys would buy it off the shelf like that, it's better than the junk food, and fried food, becoming more popular in Korea. So the people who abandon the traditional food culture of the homeland put on weight real fast.
I think the weed they're talking about is shiraegi, I don't know what it is either, it does look like a weed. I was driving with my wife once in Korea and she said pull over, I need to get something. We were in the middle of the mountains somewhere. She gets out and starts pulling what look like weeds on the hillside up from the road. She said, "no I'm going to eat these." There are other roots I have seen Koreans digging up but I don't know what they are, doduk, and oohang (kobo) and I eat those too. I like to eat the shoots from garlic and sweet potato, as panchan. Of course everyone knows about ginseng. (insam, the root that looks like a person)
The traditional knowledge of what is edible and what isn't in the natural world is a skill I admire. Sometimes older guys who go off the grid in Korea are referred to as jayeonin, natural person. They live off a small plot or two, and then literally forage around the hillside for other food. I don't recommend it. There are people on the many hundreds of habitable islands in South Korea living off the land and sea too. (you need the land owners permission to forage). People on the islands who dive in the shoals, he nyaw, (sea women) and who forage in the tidal flats for shellfish and seaweeds, are parts of small communities that share the work, food processing, and profits if any from their effort.
I think the three most common expressions in Korea are "did you eat yet?" "it looks delicious" and "it is delicious." meokawsaw? mashi getda! and mashisawyo!
Thanks for posting the video, these guys were hilarious. There is an unbelievable amount of video on Kor video, Bada.com, of Korean farming, fishing, food processing, cooking, restaurants and eating of all kinds. I think it's an obsession.
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