Beef Soup

In my family, my mom values the food we eat and always tries to cook for us rather than letting us eat outside. My mom's signature dish is Taiwanese beef soup. The soup was thin with the combined taste of tomato and beef. It was supplemented with many traditional Chinese spices such wolfberries as well as some parsley. Not only did they contribute some taste to the soup but they also added colorfulness. The taste of Beef, of course, was the focus of the soup.
When I was a student in in Taiwan, I often times was overburdened with homework and daily exams. I frequently had to stay up late to study, therefore, I was always fatigued and had dark circles that made me look miserable. Every morning, I remember arguing with my mom over and over again about the beef-tasting soup she forced me to drink before going to school. Whenever I insisted on not having the soup, she always looked at me in my eyes angrily with tears coming down to her cheeks, saying, "The soup will make you less tired, and if you don't drink it, I will not let you go anywhere." I replied angrily, yelling " This soup is just like any other soup. No need to keep nagging me to drink it." However, as much as I wanted to argue with her, I often got tired of arguing. Therefore, I finished the soup quickly with several gulps and left the house, feeling annoyed and detached from her.
After I first came to study in the United States, I occasionally had to stay up late to study and work on projects. I was not as exhausted as I was in Taiwan. It was until my junior year of high school when I started feeling a kind of unprecedented exhaustion. Every morning, I struggled to keep myself
awake in class; moreover, I felt dizzy sometimes and had to stay home because of severe nausea. I was not hungry even though I did not eat; therefore, my weight went down abruptly.
I missed home. I missed being looked after. I missed my mom's beef soup- the blend of the tomato with beef and the supplement of parsley. Moreover, I missed the warmth of it when I put my hands around the bowl, sipping the soup.
I understand my mom. I totally do. She wanted to be feel warm on winter days. She wanted me have more energy. As I kept finding these incentives that made her wake up four o'clock every morning to prepare the soup, I found my tears dripping down from my eyes, feeling regretful for arguing with her. I miss her, and I miss the soup.

Tteokguk

Tteokguk

On the first day of the New Year, our family, including our grandparents, gather around one big table and share breakfast with each other. This is a tradition in our family that we have been doing since I was a baby. On New Year's Day, we eat traditional Korean food such as kalbi stew, dumplings, kimchi, and rice-cake soup. The food that is always on our table every year is the rice-cake soup, called tteokguk.

Tteokguk can be a very special dish for lots of people, because it differs based on what ingredients the cook puts into the soup. My mom, the cook in our family, adds sliced eggs, seaweed, dumplings, cooked beef, and green onions as a topping to the broth. Sometimes the rice-cakes that my mother uses are in the colors of pink, green, and white. The toppings and the rice-cakes make the dish more beautiful and full of various tastes. It is also the best combined with kimchi, which everyone in our family enjoys.

I like to wake up to the sound of my mom chopping up the carrots and the appetizing smell of her freshly cooked tteokguk. I love to have tteokguk as my first food for the new year, not only because it tastes delicious, but also because it helps me to realize that the new year has come and I have grown as a person. In Korea, people believe that by eating tteokguk, they will get a year older. Unlike how birthdays are celebrated in American culture, in Korea we grow one year older as the new year comes. My Grandma always told me that if I finish the whole bowl of tteokguk, I will become more mature and successful.

For me, tteokguk is a very special food because it gives our family joy and a strong bond. The warmth of the tteokguk brings our family an opportunity to get closer to each other. As the heat of the tteokguk spreads out throughout my body and makes me warm from the cold January weather, the chewiness of the rice-cake will follow and make a perfect harmony in my mouth. When I chew the rice-cake, it will move around my mouth like a slippery snake. The unique texture of the tteokguk will entertain me and help me finish the whole bowl. Tteokguk also means a lot to our family, because we believe that as we finish the whole bowl our New Year's wish will come true. We will gather around the table and make a wish before we start eating the delicious dishes that my mom and grandma made. Even though tteokguk is just a bowl of rice-cake soup, it is a dish that contains my dreams and the love my family gives me.

My Favorite Hot Pot

                        Chinese have more than 5 thousand years of food history. Throughout the history, I love hot pots the most. I go eat hotpot every week when I was in China. There was an impressive experience in my mind.

Our car was at the corner of the street where the restaurant located, I smelt an amazing aroma, it made me think that was the smelling of spices and it was so pure and good. Then, I saw the front door of the restaurant and I confirmed my imagination was exactly right.          First, we had the pot with soup. Then, the waiter served us a bag of red solid oil. It was made of selected beef oil and it was cooked about 12 hours to become such a perfection. There were some yellow tiny cubs running out from the red spicy oil. Then, the waiter put that oil into our pot and I realized that was spicy beef oil because it melted when we were heating the soup in the pot. When it was melting, I smelt the extraordinary good odor. By the way, I am crazy about spicy. After the oil was melted, the waiter gave us different meat and vegetables. The most impressive one for me was the Kobe beef and the handmade noodles. The Kobe beef there looked like a beautiful stone because the mixture of beef and fat makes it white and red. Once I put it into the boiling pot, the red meat became brown and when I put it into my mouth. It makes the beef was tasted like some very delicious oil because the meat was so fresh and appetizing. When I swallowed the beef, the nice aroma stayed in my mind for a long time. Also, the handmade noodles there were also a popular commodity there because they are exactly handmade. First time I saw the noodle, it was some very small pastes and they didn’t look good. However, the waiter came to us and pulled the pastes by their special skills and the pastes became 1-meter-long noodles after they pulled and shook those pastes. Boiling those noodles in the tasty soup for about 5 minutes, they looked white and bright. When I was eating them, I found that those noodles were chewy and have a special aroma which makes me want to eat more. That hot pot restaurant is the best one I have ever been to.

Zhajiang noodles

Zhajiang Noodle

         The aroma from food are the most enticing smell in all fragrances. At the same time, China is like the heaven of food. Many people love and recognize China for the food there. My favorite dish is made of soybean sauce and noodles with tiny potatoes squares. It is very commonly seen in China called the Zhajiang noodles. As far as I know, regular Chinese food like Zhajiang noodles does not require that many utensils, machines or tedious procedures unlike food from many other countries. Even though it is easily cooked, it tastes super good and draws back a lot of memories.

            I like Zhajiang noodles because it is very common in small restaurants in the streets of China beside all kinds of sidewalks. In China, small restaurants look almost the same, with a front desk for ordering and paying, seats and a kitchen in the hind room. These small restaurants may look simple and crude but the dishes had good qualities in their flavor and amount. After ordering a bowl of Zhajiang noodle, a warm looking old woman would hold a big white bowl with steaming hot air with both hand to my table in less than eight minutes in most cases. On the surface of the big white bowl, there are full of yellow beans and potatoes covered in brownish black sauce. It will look salty just by looking at the surface. But it will not be salty if it is stirred evenly with the bouncy and chewy noodles beneath it. I love rolling the noodles on to my chopsticks when I eat the noodles. This way of eating made me feel satisfied and comforted after I lot of pressure in studying. Somehow, I felt the noodles are bouncier when I put a bunch in my mouth and chew it satisfyingly. The scent of the sauce smells delicious and the movement and smoothness of the noodles bouncing on my chopstick is like a little fountain of water sliding down. Whenever I see it, it reminds me of that period of time when I used to eat it every day for two months in a row. 

Breakfast

Food 

I love the sound and the smell when my mom is cooking. I usually wake up right before the breakfast even though my mom tried to wake me up a hour before the breakfast. When I go down the stairs from my room and went to the dining table, all of my three brothers and dad are already sitting. My mom is stirring the miso in a pot. Sticky natto, broccoli depressed with soy source and sesame, grilled salmon, rolled omelet, rice, and chopsticks were well organized on the table. This is very common Japanese breakfast. We were just waiting for miso soup. I love the smell of miso. It is kind of salty but very warm. Finally the miso soup arrived at the table after I chatted with my brothers and dad, and then my mom sat down. We said "itadakimasu", which has two meaning: thanks for the food and let’s eat, and started to eat at the same time.  

I love this breakfast moment because it is when the all of the family members can be at the same table. My first brother is ten years, the second one is 8years,  and the third one is 6 years older than me, so we have fewer chances to eat dinner together as we get older. This breakfast moment was usual and the daily moment. I did not realize the moment as happiness. However, two of my brothers started to live by themselves, and the third brother went to the US, so it became the special time when all of the family member is at the same table. Now, this breakfast moment happens less than five times a year. When I sit with one of my brother at the same table, it also makes me happy, but it is much happier to sit with all of the family members.