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I remember being bundled up in a woolly scarf and thick coat as we drove 90 miles across the frozen Minnesota prairie to a small Asian grocery store, my parents in search of transparent mung bean noodles and chewy rice cakes. I remember wondering why people stared at our grocery cart brimming with heads and heads of cabbage.
I remember, too, those late nights when my mother, sisters and I diligently prepared Korean mandu, or dumplings, in batches of 500, the pungent scent of fresh pickled cabbage wrinkling our noses. When, weary and cranky, one of us would make that final scrape of the bowl, then fill and seal the last mandu, it seemed we had reached a milestone.
It's more than 20 years later and, just as in the old days, I'm watching my mother puree mung beans for the bindae ttok, mung bean pancakes, a tradition in our household on the Korean New Year. The lunar new year, which this year began Tuesday, is a time when families get together in a celebration filled with wishes for good luck and long life. The day has always been bittersweet, though. My grandparents still live in Korea, along with assorted aunts, uncles and cousins. The day is a reminder of family members far away.
But this Korean New Year, celebrated early in our family this year, is a reunion of sorts. My father and mother, who are visiting from Minnesota, meet up with friends they haven't seen in about 20 years. My father's old neighbor, Daeshik Kim, originally from Seoul, makes the drive from Cerritos with his wife, Moon Ku Kim, to meet my father. My mother is reunited with her junior high school friend Young Ja Kim, who has settled in Torrance. And for me? It's a chance to see my youngest sister, Rose, now a college student at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. I haven't seen her in three years.
The gathering takes place at the home of Inseong and Soonie Paik. Their spacious house, with its marble floors, pillow-laden couches and gourmet kitchen, sits atop the Hollywood Hills. We arrive loaded with groceries and Korean dishware after spending the day shopping at several markets, looking for rice cakes (ttok) of the...