Home cooking

It's always a little weird having Korean food that's not prepared by my mother. Obviously, restaurant preparations are different from home cooking no matter the cuisine, but the difference is always more jarring to me with Korean food, probably because I've had fewer instances of different Korean food in my life.

A more-relatable explanation? As Americans, we're all familiar with hamburgers. We've had different hamburgers in different contexts with different preparations all our lives -- the bland, thin, flat McDonald's burger that tastes of overly-sweet bun and ketchup; the more flavorful In-N-Out burger that tastes of animal-style; the mystery-meat, school cafeteria burger; the Better Homes and Gardens® burger; the Midwestern housewife burger made with Lipton® onion soup mix; the overly-thick, burnt-on-the-outside, raw-on-the-inside, Memorial-Day-picnic burger; the nearly perfect Zuni Cafe burger -- and we're used to those differences. Let's call it a large sample size.

But imagine if you'd only had one kind of burger your whole life. Say, hypothetically, that I... I mean, you... grew up with only McDonald's hamburgers. Something different might excite you. Or scare you. Or puzzle you. But you'd probably always have a soft spot for that McDonald's hamburger. Or Quarter Pounder with Cheese, say.

I now feel the same way about Korean food. Don't get me wrong. I always enjoy kalbi and bulgogi. And kimchi in its many iterations. But I must profess to liking my Mom's recipes best.

And isn't that the way it's supposed to be?

P.S. - Meatloaf should be covered with gravy. There should not be any sort of tomato paste or ketchup anywhere near it.