Miyeok Juk – Korean Sea Vegetable Porridge

Why not serve something unconventional for Mother’s Day? Something with significance and meaning, albeit from another culture?

Miyeok (sea vegetables or seaweed) is a food/ingredient that evokes mothers or motherhood in Korea. In Korea, most postpartum women – maybe almost all – eat miyeok guk (seaweed soup). In fact, hospitals serve miyeok guk to postpartum women to replenish nutrients that may have been depleted during childbirth; and they continue to consume the soup during lactation due to its properties that are believed to stimulate lactation. So it’s apropos that it is traditionally served on birthdays as symbolism for the first food consumed after birth. Thus, it is also a food that connects the mother and child.

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Tteok Manduguk (Rice Cake and Dumpling Soup)


My grandmother used to tell me that I couldn’t ring in the New Year without having some Tteok Manduguk (Korean Rice Cake and Dumpling Soup) according to Korean tradition. Who am I to argue with this long-standing tradition?

I’ve been eating Tteok Manduguk on New Year’s Day as far back as I can remember. When I was young, my grandmother made EVERYTHING from scratch: the filling, the mandu skin, and the broth. I don’t have the luxury of my grandmother’s cooking anymore – haven’t for a few years now. But I still consume tons of the soup come every New Year’s Day, usually at a restaurant.

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Ddukbokki (Spicy Rice Cakes) – The Ultimate Street Food

Ddukbokki is hands down my favorite street food. That’s saying a lot, considering the number of street foods available just in Korea.

When I was in fifth grade, my parents sent me and my brother to Korea to visit my grandparents. That was the last time I had totally authentic Korean street food. But I remember the taste of ddukbokki like it was yesterday. Since then, I had ddukbokki at many (some fancy) restaurants, but none compares to the simple, street-vendor-style ddukbokki I enjoyed so much as a little girl.

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