OUR FAMILY’S CHERISHED TREASURE

It was 1968 when a special gift was handed down to my grandmother. It remains with our family to this day and continues to provide us with luck, health, and countless memories. The name of that special gift is called “Jangdok.”

In Korea, Jangdok is commonly used in a household as a container for fermenting essential fundamental ingredients such as soybean paste, red chili pepper paste, and soy sauce. Back then, these ingredients were often made and fermented with my grandmother’s special recipe. However, the recipes and fermenting process can be quite complicated, and therefore requires a delicate touch along with time and patience.

Jangdok is like a magic treasure box to our family. It stores kimchi, purifies water, ripens fruits, and turns red chili pepper paste into a delicious add-on to our most adored Korean dish, Bibimbap. This magical, multi-purpose Jangdok has always been my grandmother’s favorite earthenware jar for providing our family with memorable food made with love. The ingredients she made were non-replicable, with them solely depending on her senses and 70 years of cooking experience. Along with her homegrown vegetables such as red pepper, perilla leaves, and lettuce, the food that she made became even more special to our family. Within every little process of making the ingredient, there lived my grandmother’s breath and touch that cannot be compared to any other.

Words by Shelly Lee

To me, she was my one and only chef who knows exactly what I like and what I don’t like, a friend who would listen to every little worry and joy, and a mother who would always stay by my side and be ready. When our family immigrated to the United States in 2008, my grandmother sent us one of her cherished Jangdok from Korea, with fermented red chili pepper paste that she made inside it. With the love that she has sent along, the Jangdok has become our family’s greatest traditional treasure to this day, one that continues to provide us with comfort and energy.It is a lucky charm that takes us back to my grandmother and the taste of home, providing us health and courage to move on through the struggles as if she is there with us.

The ingredients she made were non-replicable, with them solely depending on her senses and 70 years of cooking experience.

It is our home and strength that keep us connected to our family’s history.

Jangdok may be nothing more than an ordinary and unknown earthenware to others, however, it is a cherished treasure to our family that carries the greatest responsibility for creating remarkable taste in our daily food, bringing a bit of the luck to our table each day. No other earthenware can be compared to our family’s passed down Jangdok, especially when I can taste the magic that has been fermented there over the years.