My young nephews and nieces in Korea started to call me ‘Hello Emo’ ever since I married an English man.  In Korean Emo means Auntie. I came to England almost 8 years ago and I have settled in Cambridge.  

When I lived in Seoul, South Korea, my life was totally hectic, occupied in working, studying and socializing. Even though I was complaining all the time my life was fun and full.

Over the past few years I have not been able to enjoy drink outside of my house in England because simply there is no “Anju”.

Koreans never drink without having something as an accompaniment even as simple as dried squid with peanuts. We call the food, for drinking with, “Anju”.

To a Korean, “Auju” doesn’t just mean a side dish, it captures more about the human feelings of sharing, laughing and chatting with your friends, family and community. We share and offer “Anju” to each other to create a feeling of fellowship, sharing both food and drink!

The reason I am writing this blog is because I really miss this feeling of fellowship around Anju. Since I can’t share Anju with each of you  face to face, I hope I may share these recipes with you so that you may share Anju with your friends.

My second reason for writing is to improve my written English. I am a teacher of Korean, Japanese and English, so this helps me improve my English skills.

Life has become a little monotonous at the moment so rekindling my lifetime interest in cooking through this blog is very exciting for me. All my friends have enjoyed my food and encouraged me enormously.

This blog is a great opportunity for me to share and possibly make new friends and also it might provide me with an opportunity to begin a new business venture if Korean Anju becomes interesting to you guys. Perhaps I might publish a book or run cooking classes … who knows what the future holds.

So it is very, very important to me that you reading this blog help me by providing comments and feedback that will inspire and motivate me to do more and get back to my full and fun life!

Thanks,

Hello Emo