[Book] Crying in H Mart

image from https://theburlingameb.org/6389/showcase/dont-be-surprised-if-crying-in-h-mart-makes-you-cry/#photo

This book is written by Korean American Michelle Zauner.

She is also a musician, the singer of the indie rock band called Japanese Breakfast. 

I got to know this book because one of the podcasts I listen to talked about this book. There are two reasons why I was interested in this book -- first, I thought it was about food, and second because it was a story about a Korean American.

I really enjoy reading books that are related to food. If the food is something I know of, I can use my senses to share sympathy with the book. I know how the food looks, smells, and tastes so it is so fun to know what the character in that book describes, feels, and enjoys that food. If the food is something I don't know of, I use my imagination to get to know about that food. It is also very fun to finally look up on the internet and see what this food actually looks like. 

I always dreamed of living abroad. I wonder about the life outside of my own country. I love exploring new cultures and the best thing you can learn about the culture is living in that culture. I love traveling but I admire living abroad more than simply traveling because I want to experience being a part of that culture. However, it is not very easy to live abroad as a foreigner. I am more interested in Korean people living abroad and always wonder about how life would be if I live abroad as a foreigner. In this case, the author is Korean American so I wondered how it would be to live as an American but also have a Korean identity at the same time. It is definitely different from being 100% Korean and living abroad. So I wanted to know what her life was like to live as Korean American in the USA. 

Anyways, this book is partially about food but not really. Food is the medium to tell a story about her family, her identity, and mostly about her mother. It was so interesting to read about her story with vivid descriptions of Korean food. After reading this book, I became curious about how the author described Korean food in English. So if I have a chance, I will try to read the English version of this book. 

After reading this book, I thought about what kind of heritage or legacy I would like to leave. It was Korean food that the author's mother used to give and keep Korean identity in the author and to leave a legacy to her daughter. Whatever it is, I hope that there will be something that my family and friend can relate to when they think about me. What is something that you would like your family and friends to remember when they think about you? What kind of heritage/legacy would you like to leave??