The Power of Eels

I really like my mother in law. She is an incredibly sweet and generous lady. She has four children, four children in law, and by some time in April she will have six grand children. She is a real McGuiver with Korean food. She can make many many things. Her best dish is eel soup.

Koreans believe that different foods can give you power. They infamously believe that roast dog, or dog soup has the power to turn anybody into a Casanova. A lot of old people suck down the pungent ginseng candies, which smell a bit like strong celery, to give them stamina.

Another one of these energy foods is eel.

Last Sunday, my wife and the families of two brothers in law went to Haeinsa temple. My wife stayed back with a sister in law and played with the kids as the rest of us climbed up Mt. Gaya.
Mt. Gaya isn't the most challenging of mountains. There is a bout three kilometers of gradual escalation, then some steep hills, then about four hundred meters of steep rocks. It took about two hours to go up.

One of my wife's brothers used to be a gymnast. He went to a sports high school and to this day is in pretty good shape. As we climbed Mt. Gaya, I tried to keep pace with him, but had an asthma attack half way up the mountain. I was hoping that I would vomit, but I just stood still and coughed like a person with emphysema for about five minutes. When I get like that, the rest of my body gets tired as well, but I sucked it up and made it up the mountain a little bit further, and then my brother in law suggested that we take a rest and wait for the other brother in law and his wife. Anyway, I had a spell where I felt my energy drain on that day, but after I caught my breath we made it to the top.

When we got back home, we found that my mother in law made her specialty for everybody. It was all packed in large Tupperwear containers ready for us to take home. I have to say that mother in law's eel soup tastes great. It doesn't taste fishy at all. It just has a deep soupy flavor and has a body of bean paste blanched cabbage and some spices. I really can't explain the flavor because it has Jaepee in it. Jaepee is a spice that is used in Gyeongsangdo and Jeollado. I really don't know what it is in English, I can just describe it as being kind of minty and peppery at the same time.

On Monday I cooked up a four grain rice medly with white rice, brown rice, barley, and Korean black beans in the rice cooker. And when the wife got home we threw some eel soup on the stove and burned some up, tasted great. Later I went to Kumdo and felt powerful.

Today I did the same thing, except after Kumdo I went to the river side for some push ups, sit ups, and Taekwondo forms. After doing fifty sit ups and twenty push ups I did some white belt forms. I usually do these all wuss style when I'm by the river side because I want to warm up, but today I could have kicked and punched through the Berlin wall. Next, another fifty sit ups and twenty push ups, then the yellow belt forms. Same. Next another fifty sit ups and twenty push ups, the Pinyin forms and Bassai dae.

I'm starting to believe in the power of eel. Eel in many countries has traditionally been recognized as an energy food. British people thinks so, Japanese people think so, and check out what legendary boxer, Jack Johnson had to say about eel (According to wikipedia):

Johnson was pompous about his affection for white women, and imperious about his physical prowess, both in and out of the ring. Asked the secret of his staying power by a reporter who had watched a succession of women parade into, and out of, the champion's hotel room, Johnson supposedly said "Eat jellied eels and think distant thoughts".^[9]

So come to Jinju. Try the Namgang grilled eel, then do something like climb a mountain. Feel za power.