Food is not merely about fulfilling a biological necessity. Food is a means of conversing and exchanging memories. “The kitchen is the heart of every home” (Debi Mazar) truly emphasizes the almost imponderable emotional bond that comes from cooking and sharing food together. For my family, food is a way of communicating and it’s a form of our love language. I was raised by food. My mom is in the food industry and so were my grandmas, therefore cooking and tasting were an integral part of our family time. Because of how I was raised, I also express my love and affection through food. Therefore, for this assignment I decided to choose my mom’s favorite noodle dish as a tribute to her. I would like to note that I truly don’t have a proclivity towards spicy, sweet, and sour flavored dishes. I would go as far as to say I typically avoid this flavor combination. I naturally tend to favor spicy, salty, and sour foods. However, I have learned to love and appreciate this dish because of my mom.

Jjolmyeon is loved for its chewiness and addictive combination of spicy, sweet, and sour. It is typically eaten in the summer and topped with a lot of refreshing, crunchy vegetables like cabbage, cucumbers, carrots, etc. Korea has primarily 3 major noodle categories: bibimmyun (cold, soup-less noodles), naengmyun (cold soup noodles), and guksu (noodle soups). Jjolmyeon is very similar to bibimmyun in taste and was actually a result of a mistake while making naengmyun noodles. It is typically served in snack restaurants, a type of restaurant that sells small dishes (similar to tapas). These restaurants are the home of making memories. Perhaps it’s the alcohol, but the casualness of jjolmyeon or other snack foods like tteoboki (spicy rice cake) creates a familiar and inviting environment. Korea’s snack restaurant culture is unique to the food culture scene and is one worth mentioning. The official term for these restaurants is “bunsikjeom” and they were promoted during the 1960s by the government due to a rice shortage. Most of the dishes were then made from flour (bunsik) or barley instead. This alternative gave birth to a bunsik culture. The bunsikjeoms are still popular to this day, even though the rice shortage is over, because of the memories made while eating at these restaurants.

Jjolmyeon has been loved by many for a long time because it’s quick, easy to make, and has a unique texture. The last time my mom had jjolmyeon at a restaurant was over 30 years ago, back in Korea. However, this is still her favorite dish, and she always reminisces about the taste. She doesn’t describe the taste in terms of if it was sweet or salty because that’s not what’s really important. She recalls how she ate it everyday afterschool at a bunskijeom with her high school best friend, and that is what food is about. Food vividly brings back memories through our senses. You can be teleported back into the past with one bite, a flood of memories with every taste. Does the taste have to be the same? Would the jjolmyeon she had then be as good now? It’s difficult to tell, but what remains the same are the memories associated with the dish.

Similarly, the memories I have of the dish will be of my mom. I’ve never tried this dish in Korea, so the only taste I will remember will be from my mom’s recipe. Whenever I try to replicate, it’s purely from my memory of how my mom made it. This is a translation of memories and recipes passed down from generation to generation. Although I’ve personally never experienced the bunsikjeom culture, I am able to understand vicariously by experiencing it through my mom’s memories when I share this dish with her.

Furthermore, my mom’s recipe is a direct tribute to her past. She completely created this recipe out of her memory of the way it tasted. I believe this is very common among immigrants because some are unable to return to their home country, and eating food common to their childhood brings a sense of connection to their identity. For me, food was always a common reminder of my Korean identity, and it grounds me in who I am. This brings me back to the quote, “We are what we eat.” We are what we eat because people are who they are because of their memories and experiences. Food is a large component of living and is a carrier for memories.

I appreciated this assignment because it brought me closer to my mom. I was able to understand on a deeper level why she liked this dish. In addition, this assignment in itself will become a memory that I look back upon when eating this dish in the future. Memories are passed down in many ways and we can see them in the form of a recipe.