Cycle 3 – Item 245

6 (Thu) September 2012

Yukgaejang

3.0

by Nanny 8

at home

-Oksu, Seongdong, Seoul, Republic of Korea-

solo

For Koreans, the “comfort” in comfort food comes from broth.  Preferably spicy broth.

Getting in from Manila at dawn, going straight to school, sleeping on a cot in my office for a few hours, teaching class all afternoon, I wearily arrived home in the evening to find that our nanny had concocted a batch of yukgaejang, just for me.  Frankly, it didn’t really taste like authentic yukgaejang – Korean-Chinese nannies tending to have their own distinct style of cooking Korean food – but it was comfortingly good.  I ate the entire pot – wok, actually, as everything first has to be stir-fried, apparently.

(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)