I bought a bunch of spinach. Washing the soil off the spinach revealed a deep green color. The spinach that absorbed water was stiff. I shook it gently and spread it on a bamboo colander.

The water drops slowly fell. Listening to it, I was immersed in thought. What should I cook? With some mussels leftover, I could boil Doenjang Jjigae (soup made with Doenjang). Or, if I season the spinach with soy sauce, it will present the taste of spinach in a natural way. Or, I could cook Jang-Tteok with Gochujang (red pepper paste), which has a spicy and rich flavor. After spending quite a time, in the end, I just cooked them all.

Korean people usually cook Jang-Tteok with quite fragrant vegetables in summer. Cooking it with spinach in autumn, I found it interesting in a different way. The smell was the same as what I had before, but the sweetness from spinach matched well with the savory taste of Jang (either Gochujang or Doenjang).

In contrast to Korea, it’s dry in summer in France, and it’s humid in autumn and winter. It’s cloudy and rains often. It rained all night until noon. When I was cooking Jang-Tteok, the dough sizzled with the oil on the pan. And I thought it was the sound of rain and went to the window to see the outside.