Seaweed: a Delicacy?

Last weekend, I was lucky and fortunate enough to eat some great Korean food thanks to my Korean mother, grandmother, and cousin coming up to visit the kids and I from Florida. My mother resides in Naples, FL and took the long road trip up in her camper to good ole Fort Mill, SC. My grandmother and cousin reside in the Los Angeles suburbs and were visiting her down in FL when they all decided to come up here and pay us a visit to which I was very delighted and grateful. I am half Korean, 1/3 welch, and 1/3 polish. I grew up as a US Air Force military brat and was born in South Korea, spending my first three years of life there.

To the amazement of most people, my first language was Korean and the only food that I would eat growing up as a kid was Korean until my parents split when I was 5. After living in Korea until I was 3 yrs. old, my dad was ordered to move to the states where we spent some time in NY before residing in CA until I was 10. When my parents divorced, I ended up living with my dad. Thus, no more Korean food!!! Granted, my dad did make attempts to feed us Korean food every once in a blue moon, but it just wasn't the same. I was subjected to American food which took me a long time to get used to! I used to abhor the look of my cereal getting soggy in milk while I was told to eat it. I would sob, throw tantrums, act like I was going to throw up, and have the look of utter disgust on my face when asked to eat my grean beans or peanut butter and jelly sandwhich. It really didn't matter what it was, I just wouldn't eat it! My mother till this day would even tell you that the only thing I liked that was American was Apple Juice. I loved Apple Juice and drank it like it was about to go extinct! At one point in 1st grade, my dad made a special visit to my school just to make sure that the teacher would sit with me in the cafeteria and make sure that I would eat at least most of the contents in my lunch bag because I had gotten sooo skinny. Eventually, I grew out of the poor eating habit and learned to love American food...amen!

Needless to say, anytime I'm around my mom and other Korean relatives, I'm in Korean Food Heaven!!! They brought all kinds of Korean delicacies that I love and my fridge quickly became the refridgerator from the Far East! My kids just looked in amazement as their Korean grandmother and great-grandmother took over the kitchen. Their eyes would gaze over the hot and spicy anchovies, eyes would grow bigger, until you hear the snarl from Tyler, "Ewww...that's nasty!" He had the cutest little look on his face when he said it with his face all scrunched up, then turning to a little smile because he saw me smiling at him. Of course, Tyler didn't even want to try it. He's probably the most picky eater out of all my kids at this point in time. CJ used to hold that title but he's more open now to foods that don't look right to him. All the lectures I've given him on being open to different kinds of foods (even if they don't look right) and healthy foods until he's blue in the face have helped. Madison is the best eating machine out of all three! However, even her "I will eat anything attitude" was challenged by the smell and looks of the Korean dishes that were laid out for all of us.

I can dabble with a little bit of Korean cooking and have given my kids Korean food before, but they're not use to seeing an array of Korean foods sprawled out on the table. To my surprise, they all liked a portion of the food that they had never tried before. However, what surprises me most is their love for Korean-style seaweed called Gim, sometimes spelled kim. The seaweed is roasted with sesame oil and salt seasoning. If you want to see the definition and/or picture of it, go to this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gim_(food).

I've seen people quiver at the sheer site of this seaweed when I've introduced it and the get me out of here looks start to hit you between the eyes. Most people I know would dare to try it unless I egged them on or dared their manhood if it was a guy. What puzzles me though that if you were to give my kids the choice between a hamburger and kim, they would choose the kim. I'm proud that my Korean blood is in them but never in a million years would I have imagined that one of my kids (Tyler) would yell to me over and over again, "Daddy, I want kim and rice...Daddy, I want kim and rice...Daddy, I want kim and rice!"

You can buy it at most Asian food markets and I use cooking scissors to cut the roasted seaweed sheets in 4 squares so that you can take one in the palm of your hand and wrap white rice in it. You can add anything you want to it in the wrap like beef and/or vegetables. My kids love it and would probably call it a delicacy if they were old enough to know that word! It was great having my family around! Good food, good laughs, and for this single papa of 3...it was just nice not to have to cook for a day! Oh, and before I forget...thank God for seaweed!