Growing up in the south under North Korean mother

 

     I happened to be born to a lady from the north when the smoke of war seemed not completely gone yet in the air, so to speak, in Korea of late 1950s. We lived in Busan, the southernmost city, but the dining table of my family belonged to PyongYang. The food she, so tall and handsome, produced with such an ease to the little boy's eye, was not that salty and spicy, different from  the foods I could smell and see in my classmates’ Dosirak ( Lunchbox ). It looked whiter over all, using less red pepper and soy sauce. And that was the way I liked it.   

DongChimi, sometimes called Mul-Kimchi, is one of the typical northern Korean foods

     

     Like there are various dialects in Korea, there are as many different tastes and dishes by province. And that was one of the reasons why a lot of Korean restaurants have come to specialize in one specific dish, like Sun-dubu, Samgetang, Cold noodle, Jokbal, Haejang stew (hangover stew) and Gomtang, you name it. Many war refugees in their harsh new town just made and sold their hometown staple at the makeshift street shop, the only thing left for them to be able to send their children to school, and that's how it all started.

Street Bowl Soup (국밥) shops run by refugees in Busan during the Korea War  

     

     

         

          The generalization is that foods get more salty and spicy going southward. Having grown up under the North Korean mother, I know the dishes also varied by province.

         From the very childhood, I drooled over the cold noodle and Kongbizi ( 콩비지, ground soybean stew with pork meat ). The home-made big mandu ( dumpling ) soup was one of the reasons I waited for the traditional holidays. And the northern Koreans enjoyed DongChimi ( see picture above ) as much as the typical red Kimchi, and when they do Kimchi, they do that with less pepper and less seaproduct ingredient ( jut-gal ) for fermentation. I remember tasting the Busan-style radish Kimchi ( 총각김치, Chong-gak kimchi or Bachelor Radish Kimchi ) for the first time at my high school friend’s and being surprised at the vehement fermented flavor that the northern style did not carry that much of. I got a bit enlightened about the southern flavor that met me behind the bar of the pungency I had not been that keen to cross over. I grew a bit more of South Korean.

Chong-gak kimchi or Bachelor Radish Kimchi, known for its pungency from the sea-product fermentation, was a milestone on my way to become a whole Korean.

   

        These days the Korean food as enjoyed in the South is the mixture of the northern cuisine and southern style. So, the people have variety of choices to their palate. A lot of Koreans like spicy foods, but there are still many not that much into spicy foods and they may find haven in northern dishes, Japanese food and Koreanized Chinese noodles. Yet, the average, and averaged, Koreans just enjoy all foods, hopping over the variety to appease their appetite of the day and the needs of the occasion.

<Left to Right> North Korean Sundae/ Polish Kaszanka / Jewish Kishke

     As for me, I still drool most for the piquancy of the northern Korean foods, such as Mul-NaengMyon ( Cold Noodle P’yang style ), original SunDae of the north ( Blood sausage or stuffed intestine like Polish Kaszanka and Jewish Kishke, different in stuffing from the street sundae in Seoul ) and the chilly and piercing taste of DongChimi punch that used to quench your thirst even before the bowl touched your lip.

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My mother in Hanbok with her first born and husband, Dongrae, Busan, 1957 or Dan-gi 4290. ( South Korea used Dan-gi as official calendar year, years counted from the foundation of the country by their ultimate Father Dan-gun, until 1962.) See the year 4290 inscribed by the photographer on the bottom right.