Recommended Reading:
Books:
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of 4 Meals, by Michael Pollan (2006)
Beriberi in Modern Japan: The Making of a National Disease by Alexander R. Bay (2012)
Articles:
Accompanying Music Video:
"Everybody Wants To Love You," by Japanese Breakfast (2016)
This video is dedicated to the men I encountered with "Yellow Fever," the women I met who harbored resentment against Asian women due to jealousy, the Mongolian Uber driver that asked me what my "real name" was, the inebriated sophomore who told me "You have good English" after ordering orange chicken in a Chinatown dumpling cafe, the GI - Breast Plastic Surgery attending couple with rage issues who singled me out because I reminded them of their newborn daughter, the dark parts of the K-pop Industry, growing up chubby and physically unattractive, to later observing pretty privilege experiments.
I call it "Grandma" rice, but it's really just a mixture of traditional and contemporary elements to create a delicious, wholesome grain part of one's meal.
When I was in college, one of the O.G. Korean cooking bloggers introduced to me by a roommate was Maangchi, around 2011 -- according to her website post here, this is her version of the nutritious recipe: Multigrain Rice (Japgokbap) recipe by Maangchi
Maangchi has since gone on to have a fruitful career, even collaborating with other creators, such as Michelle Zauner from Japanese Breakfast, author of NY Times bestseller 2021 memoir Crying in H Mart, vid here:
Growing up in the United States, I was raised with mostly short grain white rice -- a polished, refined type of grain that was a result of industrialization and Westernization of South Korea's economy and culture in the late 20th Century. The South Korean government was extremely interested in introducing Western culture and education into South Korean society to help encourage growth. Historically, centuries ago, white rice was associated with the royal class, as they were the ones who could afford it. From a nutrition standpoint, people started getting beriberi, or thiamine Vitamin B1 deficiency due to the fact that removing the husk, bran layer, and germ from brown rice to create white rice would strip it of its natural thiamine. Once this was discovered, the government and subsequent collaborative efforts started fortifying cereals and other grains with Vitamin B1 to prevent beriberi from occurring.
Introducing what was then known as Western capitalism and other methods was perhaps, from my point-of-view, a carefully drafted plan in response to centuries of attempted colonialization by Japan and China, and also simply to help society flourish. For a while, it worked extremely, extremely well. No doubt, it led the country to an unprecedented economic boom, with the rise of companies like Samsung, but as a result, without tempering such competitive efforts, there have been devastating social consequences such as lowered birth rate, mental health problems, social isolation in parts of South Korean society that perhaps also echoes the more negative aspects of some kinds of Japanese business culture, historically. Now the country is well known to be highly influenced by groups of those known as "Chaebol," which helps teach us about the darker side of power too concentrated in the hands of few, and what it means to truly wield power.
Recipe
Ingredients:
short white grain rice
black rice
brown sweet rice
barley
Directions:
Prepare to your preference, your Highness.
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