Day 27: Korean (Grand)Mama

Meet Korean Gramma Rachel, not to be confused with Roommate Rachel or Friend Rachel. This is the only Rachel I know that makes me amazing Korean dinners in exchange for helping her daughter with classwork. This arrangement has been happily in place for the past four years, and now we are progressing to the point where she wants to teach me how to make some of her treasures. I am very excited about this. My mother was never one to teach me to cook given that she only made two things herself, so this is a first for me. I can't help but laugh that the first 'family' recipe I'm learning isn't for chocolate chip cookies or lasagna, but for kimchee and bulgoki. What a strange, strange dowry I bring. Mama Rachel also doubles as my local grandmother inasmuch as she inquires frequently as to the status of my future husband. She asked me last Wednesday how old I was, and when I told her I was 26, she gasped in horror: "Oh, I will pray harder for him!" Yes, my friends. Apparently my biological clock is ticking. Maybe that's also why she wants to teach me to cook: to catch me a man.