about

Photo by Eric Wolfinger

I’m a Korean-American mom of two trying to keep it together. My mom had dinner ready for our family every night when I was growing up. Now that I have a little more time on my hands, I want to try to do what my mom did for years and will try to recreate some family recipes.

I had just had my second child and my husband and I desperately needed help. We were living in SF and had no relatives nearby. My parents traveled from the east coast to the Bay Area and stayed with us for six months to help us out (Thanks mom and dad!). My mom commandeered our tiny kitchen right away. We went to the nearest Korean market to buy staples and my mom was set. From Day 1, my mom cooked healthy and mostly vegetarian dishes for four adults and one toddler every night.  It was incredible. She started cooking at 4 pm and had dinner ready by 5.

My mom worked really fast and never ever used a cookbook. My husband and I were certainly spoiled and did not look forward to the day when she and my dad had to leave. My son was eating so much and usually gobbled all the banchan (vegetable side dishes) she made for him without a fight! So with each passing day, we crept closer to their departure date. What would I do? How were we going to survive? What were the kids going to eat? And that was it. I figured now with my new status as unemployed architect, or rather, “stay at home mom”, I was going to challenge myself and make dinner for the family every night. A meal that didn’t involve boiling pasta and microwaving a bowl of pasta sauce. Oh no, we were going to go beyond that. I wanted to learn how to make all of my mom’s Korean dishes .

A Blog was Born

There was a collusion of events that occurred in the fall of 2009. I had just completed an online writing class at UC Berkeley, I had just finished reading Julie & Julia and, as mentioned before, my parents returned home. Before starting my blog, I had never read a food blog, let alone any sort blog, before diving into this. It was only after reading Julie & Julia was I intrigued with the whole notion of cooking and writing…for FUN. I didn’t have to be a chef  or an expert – my only “training” was a course on French (now Culinary) Technique at the French Culinary Institute back in 1998, and I didn’t have to be the best writer. The fact that I didn’t have to be credentialed chef or writer was an epiphany. Blogging seemed like the perfect medium to start documenting and experimenting with my mom’s recipes for myself and to share with my family and friends. It has reignited my passion for food and cooking!

If you’d like to contact me, please email me at: howdy [at] kimchimom [dot] com.

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