Comfort Food

Day three of the flu, it was 29 degrees outside and the only thing I had left to eat was cereal.

I went over my options: Korean takeout, Korean delivery, the Korean grocery store.

All I wanted was chicken noodle soup.

I thought back to Saturday morning when I tried to make oatmeal pancakes for the roommates… I had talked about my “famous” pancakes for more than a month, and Chris, Kyle and Adam were excited for a taste from home.

I ended up making the pancakes, but not the pancakes that had me drooling down the front of my PJ’s. I was missing the buttermilk, the whole-wheat pastry flour, the baking soda, the long-cooking oats and the maple syrup.

Breakfast ended up tasting like something out of a Bisquick box, topped with the generic equivalent of Aunt Jemima sugar water. The boys loved it.

But I wasn’t interested in a Campbell’s condensed soup version of my mother’s beloved chicken noodle. Nor was I interested in starring in another episode of Cooking American Food in Seoul, 101.

So, I gave in. I ordered takeout from the gimbap shop down the road.

And while there were no noodles, carrots or celery in the duk juk the owners made for me, the warm rice porridge ended up being all the comfort I needed.