Issue 23: Memories of Our Dads
A Special Essay Issue to celebrate and commemorate our dads.
Hi KP,
Do you have a favorite memory of your dad or father figure in your life? Celebrating Father’s Day, Sarah and I exchanged our memories of our dads. We’re delighted to find that they both have a connection to food — and this connection still lives in our own lives. I hope you enjoy these tidbits from our memories! If they inspire you to think of your own, you can share them with us!
Happy reading!
Sibok Kim, Sarah’s Dad
Sibok Kim was born in Seoul and came to the United States in the late 1960s, when the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 opened doors to immigrants with professional or special skills and refugees seeking haven. He settled with his parents in Denver, Colorado, and attended his final year of high school in a foreign country. How tragic! After studying geology at The Colorado School of Mines, Sibok settled in Houston, Texas, as a geologist where he met his wife Sue, had a family and lived until 2022. Now he enjoys living in Duluth outside of Atlanta, Georgia, among a large and thriving Komerican community with myriad shops, restaurants and services that makes a new city feel like home.
Gyeran Bap with Dad
Gyeran bap is the most nostalgic dish for me and one of my favorite comfort foods. My first memory of gyeran bap is from early elementary school, maybe first grade. One weeknight, my mom and baby brother were gone somewhere and it was just me and my dad. Without a full house to feed, my dad decided to make a simple dinner for us. He scooped hot white rice into a bowl, cracked a raw egg on top, then drizzled soy sauce and toasted sesame oil over it all. With a spoon, he mixed it all up together for a few seconds, et voila! My bowl of gyeran bap was ready – glistening like a beige-hued and savory rice pudding.
I absolutely loved the umami flavor and succulent texture of this dish so much and wonderered if my bowl ha enough gyeran bap to would be enough to sate my appetite. My dad made a bigger bowl for himself and brought kimchi and leftovers to the table for us to eat with our gyeran bap. We ate quickly and in silence, per the traditional norm of not talking while eating. Food is just too precious in our culture to lend attention elsewhere!
Seeing how simple it was to make gyeran bap, I asked my dad to show me how so I could make it myself. I learned some important culinary rules that continue to stand the test of time:
Never touch the metal container inside the rice cooker — it’s so hot!
Crack an egg hard enough for a clean crack to avoid little shell pieces.
Drizzles of soy sauce and sesame oil makes almost anything taste great!
This bowl of comfort brought me so much joy and purpose. I loved that I could make myself a meal at 6 years old and choose how much or little to flavor my dish. Sometimes I went really salty with the soy sauce or super nutty with the sesame oil. Sometimes I wanted the raw egg yolk flavor to shine, so I would add the tiniest dribbles of condiments. Gyeran bap inspired confidence and curiosity in me at a young age. I think it’s why I trust my palate and enjoy cooking so much today. Thanks dad, for introducing me to this clever instant meal and my love for cooking. I’m still eating gyeran bap and so are my kids!
Heonsoo Kim, Aram’s Dad
Heonsoo Kim was an engineer with the heart of a poet whose favorite book was Jonathan Livingston Seagull. The eldest of four siblings, a husband, and a father to two daughters, he loved reading, writing, and taking long walks. For many years, he wrote weekly emails with love every Monday to his two daughters who lived abroad before he passed away in 2012.
Mandooguk after Church with Dad
The church was located in Chungmu-ro, Seoul, the area known for its close tie to the movie industry as well as for being home to many small presses and printers, although neither seems to be true now. It took a little more than an hour to get there, so we used to leave home around 9:30 in the morning for the 11 o’clock service every Sunday. I don’t remember when I started going as a kid, but it was all four of us- my parents, my sister, and I-who went at the beginning. At some point, Mom stopped coming. A few years later, my sister stopped coming. My dad and I kept going every Sunday. He used to drive us to church. But Sunday traffic was always bad, so we started taking subways. That way, Dad could also read.
I continued going to church with Dad throughout my childhood and early adulthood. When I entered college, I didn’t want to go anymore. The weekends were precious! I wanted to sleep in, watch my favorite TV shows, or go out with my friends. But I kept going to church because Dad went. It was our tradition. We weren’t spending much time together like when I was in high school where he drove me to and from every day. Then he moved to a different city for a job and came home only for the weekends. I was rarely home during weekends hanging out with new friends. So the commute to church was our time together. We normally came home after the service, or occasionally went out for lunch with other church members, but sometimes we ate out together. Just two of us.
There was a restaurant called Mandoo II near church whose menu consisted of only mandoo dishes. They only sold homemade mandoo or mandooguk, and it was the simplest mandooguk I’d ever eaten. There were 4 big, slightly oddly shaped mandoo in broth with a few strips of gyeran jidan and chopped spring onions. I remember thinking that it wasn’t particularly delicious, but it was soft and very easy on the stomach. Come to think of it, it was a “healthy” food that wasn’t trendy back then. We went to Mandoo II from time to time, my dad and I. We always got mandooguk that wasn’t mind-blowingly delicious, but special. Until I moved to the States and didn’t go to church anymore.
H Mart Happiness: What’s your favorite product and why?
“As a carnivore, I like the meats at H Mart. Especially the smoked duck in the freezer section.” - Sibok K.
What’s your favorite H Mart product? Share the love and tell us in the comments!
