VivaSync

I've had a complex relationship with Korean food, but I appreciate that I can now find it at popular chains like Trader Joe's.

I lost my innocence at a young age over a sandwich. When my teeth sunk into that white soft bread like an apple in the garden of Eden, and like Eve I found shame in the relief of belonging.

I'd felt freed from that humiliation that stopped me from eating my omma's carefully packed lunches of kare rice with little containers of kimchi and eventually led me to ask her to stop making me Korean lunches because they were "stinky." 

But now Korean food is cool and it's given me a complex. Korean restaurants earn Michelin stars, Korean BBQ spots are widespread, and Trader Joe's even carries Korean-inspired food. 

So when I went to Korea for the first time at age 23 and ate the same food my parents did in the city that wasn't even a city when they were born and raised, I no longer shrink. I find some happiness that there is a Korean kid out there who may never have to hear that their lunch is smelly. I also find comfort in being able to get Korean food beyond the aisles of H-mart and Korean Korner.

I just moved to New York and haven't been able to find a Korean grocery store near me yet, but Trader Joe's has remedied some of my homesickness.

With that, here's what I — a Korean American who just returned from Korea — think of some of its takes on Korean delicacies.

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