Korean Comfort Foods: Kimchi Fried Rice
I still remember the first time I ate kimchi fried rice. It was my first week at ELS, the language institute I taught at, in December 1990. Everything still felt new then—the streets, the sounds, the rhythm of the workday, even the weather. Two students from a class I had observed asked if they could take me to lunch. In those days, students often did that. It was one of the unexpected kindnesses of language teaching in Korea. Sometimes it was partly for extra English practice, and I’m sure that was part of it then too, but in those first uncertain days it felt like something more generous than that. It felt like a welcome. Down the street from ELS, there were several little restaurants that seemed to exist for the lunchtime rush of teachers and students from the nearby hakwons . At noon, they filled quickly with voices, steam, metal chopsticks, and the coming and going of people who had only a short time to eat before hurrying back to class. That day was gray and overcast...
