Three Generations of Women Representing Nourishing Traditions

In white from left to right: Tanya, Greg, Mike with the
daughter and grand daughter of the inventor of
Jeonju Bibimbap. 

At Korea House, in Jeonju, there is a special connection that goes back three generations. The Happy Bears minus two, are standing with the daughter and granddaughter of the inventor of this tradition. The mother of the family invented the Jeonju bimbimbap.

What they represent are food traditions in Korea that go to the beginning of the 20th century and extend beyond those times. They represent a knowledge about food that rivals health food gurus and trekkie nutrition experts. Because of this knowledge, they have our respect.

The daughter of the inventor Jeonju bibimbap sat down to tell us how to make the Jeonju Bibimbap. I say inventor of Jeonju bibimbap because the idea of mixing vegetables with rice(which is what bimbimbap means) was long before thought about. What the inventor of Jeonju bimbimbap did was to make the food grander, more beautiful but also heartier.

Her daughter dressed in traditional hanbok told us Happy Bears what the vegetables and meat were before us, how to prepare them and then portioned out the varieties into our bowls. After some time she stopped putting things into our bowls and asked us to finish our presentations ourselves.

We were to make our dishes beautiful first. Then we were to mix the sauce with the meat, oils, and vegetables together. Tanya called bimbimbap truly slow food. This is because so much time is spent on correct preparation of the bowl before mixing the ingredients together- such a difference from fast food today.

She continued giving her opinions and recommendations while we worked on our presentations and after we finished and ate. She came around and judged our bimbos and gave her recommendations on how to improve the tastes.

Such care, love and knowledge she gave us in her critiques. This doesn't have enough flavor together or this has too much oil, or this doesn't have enough seasoning she would say.

In pre-literature societies such knowledge from an elder was essential for the survival of a community for they gave their knowledge they had on nutrition to their community. Why don't we respect our elders more?

The results were nourishing. We felt fantastic after our bibimbap.

-Greg

If you liked this piece, other Happy Bears have blogged about their perspectives at Korea house:

Happy Bear Tanya wrote about the FULL experience in a piece called Beloved Bibimbap.

Happy Bear  Mike wrote about the vegetarian nourishment he gets from bimbimbap called  Bibimbap: Veg Heaven. Check them out!