Cooper Point Journal<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nAs we creep out of December and settle into the heart of January, it\u2019s simple foods that begin to sound the most appetizing. With the cold keeping a firm grasp on the PNW, our energy declines and cooking can feel especially taxing some days. So, something easy like rice and beans sounds best to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a previous installment of Feeding the Diaspora<\/em>, I referred to rice in its many forms as a cultural unifier, and I\u2019d argue that beans are an equal cross-cultural connector. Something about the combination of the two is familiar and comforting no matter what way they\u2019re cooked. <\/p>\n\n\n\nA common beans and rice combination in my household was Spanish rice and frijoles. Growing up in SE Portland, we were never short on ethnic grocery stores, including a multitude of tiendas and supermercados. A usual haunt of my family was Supermercados Mexico<\/em> on SE Division Street. Alongside our typical purchase of short ribs from the butchers (because of course the meat we use in kimchi jjigae was purchased at our local Mexican grocery) we\u2019d often pick up containers of their homemade refried beans and arroz rojo, usually to accompany the raw marinated meats bought from a Mexican food truck parked outside a convenience store just further down the street. Though not my foods culturally, they\u2019re still a familiar comfort by way of where I grew up and the people who lived there with me. While it\u2019s undeniable Portland, Oregon is an incredibly white city\u2014the current census reading 73.8% white\u2014I was lucky enough to grow up in a largely multicultural area, and naturally we picked up recipes from coworkers, neighbors, restaurants, and the internet over the years. So, if we weren\u2019t buying it from the supermercado, my mom was cooking her own Spanish rice and black refried beans. <\/p>\n\n\n\nIn the past couple of years, a childhood food of my dad\u2019s has been making a resurgence in our intergenerational memory. Reignited by an episode of the cooking show Korean Food Made Simple<\/em> with Judy Joo, my dad recounted how his mom would make a dish called japgokbap (\uc7a1\uace1\ubc25), also known as Korean multigrain rice. Japgokbap is often composed of a mixture of grains and beans such as sorghum, millet, azuki beans, black beans, kidney beans, sweet rice, brown rice, black rice, and sometimes even chickpeas. In the cookbook Dok Suni: Recipes from my Mother\u2019s Korean Kitchen<\/em>, author Jenny Kwak writes above her recipe for japgokbap \u201c[s]ixty to seventy years ago, native Koreans steamed rice with a variety of grains and beans for added nutritional value. This rice recipe is associated with pride and tradition for many Koreans. It\u2019s comfort food that warms and heals.\u201d While my family and I have yet to make japgokbap ourselves, Dad enjoys picking up a container at H Mart\u2019s deli on occasion. <\/p>\n\n\n\nAt my own apartment, I find myself parodying my mom\u2019s black refried beans, though I\u2019m sure I\u2019m at least a little off the mark. If I\u2019m feeling particularly exhausted\u2014or even just lazy\u2014I find myself going to the pantry and pulling out a can of black beans. Throwing them into my trusty non-stick pan, I cook the beans with some light olive oil, diced yellow onion, garlic powder, black pepper, salt, and sometimes butter for added richness. I mash the beans with the back of a wooden spoon as they cook, pouring in water as needed, until they\u2019re just the right consistency. While all this is happening, my rice cooker is also going, and by the time I\u2019m done with the beans my rice is ready too, and what I have is something so simple, so tasty, and so low effort. It\u2019s become a staple for me, and little else can beat the satisfaction and inexpensiveness of these two together\u2014and when you\u2019re living on a tight budget, simple and inexpensive is about all you can afford. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the end of the day, it really is the simplest dish that can bring the most satisfaction. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Natalie “Lee” Arneson Originally Printed in Winter 2022-23 Vol. 51 Issue 4 of the Cooper Point Journal As we creep out of December and settle into the heart of…<\/p>\n
Read MoreFeeding the Diaspora: It’s the Simple Things<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"geo":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodag-portfolio-w23-arneson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodag-portfolio-w23-arneson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodag-portfolio-w23-arneson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodag-portfolio-w23-arneson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodag-portfolio-w23-arneson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodag-portfolio-w23-arneson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":294,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodag-portfolio-w23-arneson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78\/revisions\/294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodag-portfolio-w23-arneson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodag-portfolio-w23-arneson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.evergreen.edu\/foodag-portfolio-w23-arneson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}