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.