Albertos

Yesterday, I was wondering what I should eat for lunch. I was looking inside of the refrigerator and there were nothing. Then I remembered what my friend told me last week to try the burrito at Albertos. So I called Yong, from our English 100 class, to go get some burrito for lunch. We went to Albertos to get some burrito. We went in to Albertos and ordered Alburto’s Burrito. There was something different about this burrito than other burritos. Their burrito had eggs, beacon, cheese, and ham inside, just like any other burritos. However, something was different about this burrito. They had fresh cut potatoes inside of them. They were chunks of them. It was not soggy and mushy. It gave me this fresh biting feeling that I have never felt before from any other soggy burritos. The price was cheap and very tasty.
It was different from Americanized burrito like in Del Taco or Taco Bell. They had their own unique Mexican feeling inside of the restaurant and from the taste of the burritos. Then I thought people in different region of Mexico will have different types of burritos. By changing what is inside of burritos, they can make thousands of possibilities. You can have only vegetables and call it a “vegeburrito”. Also you can put meat, pork, and chicken at all once in a burrito, and then call it “fusion burrito”.
Mexican people made the burritos in a really flexible way. People could change what it is inside of it and have the different types of burritos. Like the burritos, many people are greatly affected by what they eat. Different parts of the region are acting differently because the way they eat. By doing many blogs throughout the semester, I have learned that everyone is sharing the same food together. They learn more cultural aspect of others easily by just sharing their traditional food to others. Like how the burritos are open to everyone to change what is the inside, everyone is open to each other to change their thoughts and personalities in a broad multicultural person.

Rice Cakes

The word “rice cake” sounds like a regular cake with rice on top of it. However, it is sort of different. Rice cakes are cakes or little desserts that are made of rice as main ingredient. It is originally from Korea. To make the rice cakes, you grind the rice and add little water and mix them up like dough. Then you steam up the dough. There are many different kinds of rice cakes: rainbow, plain, In Jul Mi, Song Pyun and more. Song Pyun, one of the types of rice cakes has honey and sesames inside of it. There are three different colors to it: yellow, pink, white, and green. Many Korean people eat rice cakes when they are having a first birthday for the baby, wedding, or some celebration. Sometimes they just eat it because it is delicious.
Rice Cakes are made first in South Korea around early 1300’s. At first, it was only served to the loyal king. Then it became to known to everyone, but it was too expensive to eat it. Since the price of the rice was so high, only nobles and upper middle class were able to afford to eat it. For the poor people, they only ate it for special occasion like wedding or new years. In new years, South Koreans eat the rice soup. Inside of rice soup, there are dumplings, boiled eggs, seaweeds, and sesames. South Koreans eat this every year to say that you age one more year by eating it. There are some jokes saying that if you eat more than one bowl, you get more aged.
Now days, people eat it like just appetizer or dessert. They are small and chewy which attracts many people. Rice cakes are cheap and so small now days, but now I know that these are only served to kings and nobles long time ago. They are really good and I want to spread this Korean’s traditional food to everyone in the world, because they do not know what it is. They should know that it is so good that it was only served to nobles and the king.

Soo Jae Bee

Last Friday, I was hungry and I did not know what to eat. My mom came home and I asked her to make me something really good. She asked me if I wanted to eat Korean Barbeque. I replied back to her saying that it is too greasy and I am sick of it. I was asking for something new. She told me that I was asking too much and I should be thankful of what I have right now. After she said that, she was started cooking. She poured flours into a bucket and start mixing with water. It became dough and she started to split those into little pieces. She boiled the water and put that little dough into the water. After boiling in water about three minutes, she poured it into a bowl. Then she told me “this is what we ate when we were poor.” I tried it and it was okay to eat. I was thinking if you put some eggs, onions, and other ingredients, it will taste good. Then I asked to my mom “how come you are telling me this?” She told me that long time ago, when South Korea was under control by Japan, South Korea was really poor and they had nothing to eat. Since rice was too expensive to buy, many people bought flours. Flours were the only thing they could afford. There were no other ingredients that time because it would cost too much to make something delicious. Since many people were not able to afford to buy rice, they ate Soo Jae Bee for every meal. Even though it was not really good, they had to eat it, because it was filling in stomach and cheap.
After she told me that story, I knew something about South Korea. They were suffering in famine long time ago. They had not enough money to eat rice like they do every meal now. This traditional food made me think that cheap rice right now used to be something valuable. And also people in this generation are not appreciating what they are getting now.