What is the ‘Sik Gaek Project’?
식객(食客), Sik Gaek is originally the name of a custom in ancient China. Wealthy people invited many talented people like scholars, musicians, martial arts masters and so on. The rich people made them stay in their home and fed them while supporting their practice or study. But now the name I want to use, the ‘Sik Gaek’ means ‘Eating Visitor’, it’s a kind of pun. I just borrow the direct meaning of the Chinese characters.
When I was in the army, our battalion needed more cook soldiers. My major was 81 mm mortars, but I applied to become a cook soldier, because I wanted to learn how to cook, and the commander said that it will be temporary, and I would be able to come back to my company. I judged if I became a cook soldier, I would serve for our country and learn how to cook. It seemed to have double benefits.
Unfortunately, I didn’t satisfy both intentions to serve for mother country and learn how to cook. I was a terrible cook. I was always scolded by my senior soldiers. I had many trials and errors. I sometimes got the ingredients confused for the meals. One day, I even put the red pepper paste into the sauce instead of tomato ketchup. My senior soldier put me in a head lock of wrestling skills to punish me and tease me. It was hard time for me. Setting aside the mistakes, the work was hard, restless. After making one meal, I should consider and get down to preparing for the next meal immediately. I didn’t have any free time. Although I started to learn how to cook, I was tired of such a life. My original plan was to get a certification of Korean cooking, but I was just tired.
After finishing my obligation of army, I extended my duration. I became a staff sergeant. During extended army service, I applied to training program to get a certification of Korean cook. So I was trained for 1 month, and I took an exam and passed. It was the first time for our division that a staff sergeant applied to the training program. It was possible because of my master sergeant and commander’s great hospitality, because at that time, our battalion had one of the biggest national military training programs which needed more staff sergeants, but they gave me a chance.
The training for cook was fun and useful. I learned almost everything for cooking Korean cuisine; my skills are still not excellent, though. I was surprised by varieties of Korean foods. Even there were foods which I never have met. I got much information about Korean food through the training. I practiced by myself after class, but I still felt that my skill needs to be enhanced.
To get a certification of Korean cooking, I should have to know the way of cooking over 40 Korean cuisines. It was tough to cook within time, but I managed to pass the exam. I was lucky. After coming back to my company, all soldiers were looking forward to see me. They expected my cooking. What a coincide… when I came back to my company, there was a party for our platoon. They were making ‘Kimchi Jeon’ ( Let me see… it’s kind of pizza made by Kimchi. I will explain about Kimchi later posts.) and they asked me to show my skill. I was bundle of nerves. I didn’t have confidence to do well, I was scared to make a mistake in front of my junior soldiers and disappoint them. My handle was trembling. My senior soldiers were also looking at me with expectation. I couldn’t do that although it was a piece of cake for me. I couldn’t do that because of fear… My senior soldiers felt disappointed me and snubbed. I lost my confidence…
After that, I lost interests for cooking. I was not good cook and I thought that there is no specialty of Korean cuisines anymore. I felt sickness. But an movie changed my prejudice and changed me. (1)
