March 3, 2005

During my quick lunch I caught the last part of the Korean soap, "Great Jang-Geum", which is about a palace chef. I don’t know much about it yet. The episode I saw today was about an old woman who was on her deathbed and she wanted to take a type of rice with her to her grave. This rice was given to her by her brother when she was young, and soon after her brother died. The old woman wanted to find this rice to take with her to see her brother as a gift.

Jang-Geum located the rice, but the kitchen keeper told her that it wasn’t ready yet, and required a few more days of sun-drying. Jang-Geum wanted to give the rice to the old woman, fearing that there wouldn’t be enough time left for the old woman. Jang-Geum dried the rice more quickly by heating it over a fire. When she brought the rice to the old woman, the old woman tasted it and said that it tasted somewhat like the rice she was looking for, but the old woman couldn’t be sure. Still, the old woman thanked Jang-Geum for her efforts.

Then the kitchen keeper came in with another bowl of rice, and offered the rice to the old woman. The old woman ate it and began to weep. She said that this was the very rice that she was looking for, and now she could die in peace, knowing that she could take this rice to her brother.

Up until then, Jang-Geum was determined to find out what was the secret recipe or formula for the delicious food that the kitchen keeper made. However, she could not see how the kitchen keeper did anything differently from what she could have done. This incident helped Jang-geum realize that the secret to delicious food is not only the ingredients. The heart-warming character of the dish comes also from the earnesty and sincerity of the person cooking with those ingredients.