Cultural Identity Narrative Rubric - Essay Example

Since the name of this dish combines two completely different and complimenting meals, some may be confused whether it is a rice like cake or cake like rice or both! Rice and cake don’t even serve the same purpose in a traditional feast, with the former being the main course and the latter being the sweet dish or the dessert that is to be served after the main course. In this sense, the name makes it sound like a dish that has mixed the main course with the dessert, that is quite insane to happen.

I have resolved to discuss the Korean rice-cake for two main reasons; first, my father owns a Korean rice-cake company that was previously run by my grandfather and his father even before him. So this company has yet served three generations of my family. Secondly, I want to solve the mystery of its name that I am sure many would like me to do. Along the way, I shall tell you what it is, why it is popular among the Koreans and how to cook it. I shall also briefly discuss my future plans of making this dish a specialty of our company.

Rice-cake is an umbrella term for a variety of foods made in rice that are given a compact form so that they look like a compact pastry. So it is basically a main course meal that looks like a piece of cake. It is not actually a cake! Rice-cake recipes are made from rice. Rice may be boiled or fried with vegetables. It is pretty much usual rice we eat but when the scattered rice are compacted, it does not only improve their texture but also enhances their aroma and taste. It makes the rice convenient to eat and elegant to present.

Rice-cakes have a variety of benefits. They are energy boosters, low in calories, large in fiber content and great to the taste. Rice-cake is one of the very few things I can recall from the days of my earliest childhood. I was only three years old when my father established a small rice-cake company. He started the business from a little shop in the corner of the market that was visible from the window of my room. Our apartment was just across the road. That shop paid my father off really good.

Savings of the first month were ten times as much as what my father would save in a whole year before that. My father would often take me along while going to the shop. The aroma of fresh and tender rice still mesmerizes me. I was too little at that time, so my father’s friends and coworkers used to cuddle me. In their attempt to associate me with my father’s business, they would call me rice names. “Rice cake, son of grains and Korean food” were some of the names they would call me. It has always been an honor to be associated with rice since it has brought such a profitable business to my father.

I am generally a reluctant eater, though saying “no” to rice-cake is impossible. I have grown up with this food. If there is one thing I am made up of, its rice-cake. It looks good, tastes good, smells good, feels good, what else can one want in a meal? When I was only a hundred days old, my family arranged a party, called ‘Doljanchi’, for me. It is a traditional Korean celebration of a child’s hundredth day after birth. “The number 100 has an inherent meaning of maturity and perfection, signifying a baby passes through perfection period safely as a human being” (Life in Korea, n.d.).

This day has special meaning in Korean culture, and some people believe that it is the time, God answers the parents’