Cycle 4 – Item 257

19 (Thu) September 2013

Chuseok à la Chinoise

2.5

by Mom and Aunt H

at the Cabin

-Changchon, Seowon, Hoengseong, Gangwon, Republic of Korea-

with the Famly, Mom + Dad, maternal relatives

For some reason, Mom decided to serve Chinese food on the Korea’s most iconic food holiday of the year.

I used to eat Chinese takeout on American Thanksgiving back in college, but that was a political statement.  To distance myself from the inherent absurdity/hypocrisy of the holiday – Columbus Day is even worse – the idea of the personal rebellion was to eat something, all by my lonesome, that had nothing to do with turkey or traditional notions of white-washed Americana.  Thankfully, living in Korea, I don’t need to deal with Thanksgiving anymore.

I wonder if Jewish-Americans living abroad eat Chinese on Christmas.

The food ultimately kinda turned out tasting Korean because neither my mother nor my aunt, despite their valiant efforts, is particularly expert in the cuisine.   It was all pretty good and a welcome change from the typical stuff.

(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)