a love letter to korean pumpkins and kabocha squash

from new jersey to seoul, hobak-juk to costco pumpkin pie

PRELUDE

Hi everybody!

Today I’m sharing an article that’s going to be featured in an upcoming zine from Produce Parties that is now available to order! I couldn’t be more excited to share this personal short piece with you and hope you enjoy~

SMALL BITES

3 of my favorite pumpkin dishes!

🎃 korean hobak-juk

Korean pumpkin porridge usually eaten around fall. Comforting, sweet.

🎃 kabocha with crispy parmesan

Kabocha with a nice crunchy salty twist! An unexpected combo I love to throw in the oven.

🎃 pumpkin pie

I’ve been obsessed with Costco’s pumpkin pie since I was a little girl honestly.

coming up next: Kabocha Squash Risotto with Crispy Pancetta 😋

WORDS

Meals always began with a cup of savory-sweet pumpkin porridge, or hobak-juk in Korean.

I hated it.

In true eldest sibling fashion, I would simply eat it anyway. I diligently scrapped spoonful after spoonful, leaving nothing but trace amounts at the bottom of the ceramic cup. That’s how I grew to love it. My brother would simply slide his cup down the table to my father who would always enjoy the extra portion. Nice meals out with my grandparents started out this way: Christmas, Lunar New Year, family birthdays at another fancy hotel restaurant in Gangnam. My brother and I were new to Korea: Korean culture, Korean flavors, Korean language, and Korean life. We were young and subject to our parents’ desire to raise us in Korea to be close to the rest of our family. So we moved from the suburbs of New Jersey to the suburbs of Korea, just outside Seoul.

But a part of me still craved and reached for that American part of myself. The first Costco to open in Korea was a major event. The lingering smell of the warehouse's bakery, the sweetness of the air is a nostalgic cornerstone of my youth. Come November, I’d accompany my mom to Costco where I could reach my small hands into a display case of stacked, untouched pumpkin pies. It’s perhaps the only place in Korea that still makes it to this day. Unknown to the other shoppers’ more Asian palates, it was my secret treasure to pick. We’d take the white pastry box home where I’d get to nibble at it all month. The entire 12-inch pie was mine. No one else really liked pumpkin pie in my family, except the occasional slice my dad would have.

Costco pumpkin pie is as quintessential to me as picking out the last single slice of kabocha out of a bubbling pot of shabu shabu on a cold winter day, or eating steamed danhobak before school for an easy, comforting breakfast.

You know kabocha and danhobak are the same thing right?

Growing up, things were confusing. Things were hard to explain. Things didn’t really make a lot of sense. Things raised a lot of questions. Things were mixed up all the time.

Danhobak means sweet pumpkin.

Kabocha and danhobak are the same thing. Kabocha is a danhobak but in Japanese.

Kabocha squash is a pumpkin in appearance but actually a squash.

In Korean, hobak is squash. A pumpkin is a hobak.

Hobak is a zucchini. Hobak is a pumpkin. Hobak is a squash. Hobak is any gourd.

And even pumpkin pie is not pumpkin pie. Pumpkin pie is canned Dickinson squash.

In Korean and Japanese cuisine especially, the line between pumpkin and squash is blurred. What ultimately unites the rich, nutty flavors of these gourds is home.

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I would die for kabocha tbh.

Love,

Skylar xx