Kang Doenjang(strong soybean paste stew)

'Salty soybean paste stew smell spread all over the kitchen. Kang Doenjang was served on the table all winter. It was boiled again every day by pouring a little more water and adding soybean paste, and by the time spring came, it had a deep flavor that even the most skilled cooks could not imitate.' This is a paragraph from Jeong Ji-a's short story 'Landscape'. 

It is obvious that my husband will like it if I cook Kang Doenjang on a rainy and cold day like today.  I got up and went into the kitchen. Pouring water into the ttukbaegi and I looked around the house. I wondered, what if the salty Strong soybean paste smell? I opened all the windows and turned on the ceiling fan. I looked up how to make it on YouTube. There should be zucchini and hot peppers. I don't have one. If I look any further, I might leave the kitchen blaming the missing ingredients. I remembered my father's say. 

"When you're traveling in Korea and you're not sure what to eat at a restaurant you don't know, order the soybean stew. Even for restaurants that can't cook well, soybean paste stew is worth eating."

I put in bitter soybean paste and anchovies, which are the color of mudflats that my friend sent me from Seoul, and chopped onions and potatoes. I added more soybean paste because I remember the word that the author said, 'Kang Doenjang like a spice' . It's salty. It's a soybean paste stew with less water. The table with lettuce and old kimchi with the kang doenjang is like the table in the novel of the mountain valley. My husband, who had white hair and thick wrinkles, and I faced the table. We are an elderly couple who fit in well with the country table.

"Oh, it's delicious. How did you make such a mistake?"

"I just added  soybean paste and whatever was in the fridge and boiled until the soup was less watery. If we eat it with barley rice, it would be perfect."

"It's the best meal I've had in a while."

“It’s a short story I read before cooking dinner. A senile mother who is 97 years old and her son who is about 60 years old live in a house that is falling down halfway up the mountain. Many siblings all left home. It is a story where the youngest man boils and eats the strong soybean paste that her mother has cooked all her life. I also wanted to boil it at the point where it says that adding more water every day and boiling it again will give it a deeper taste. It is salty. Don't eat too much. If there's any left, I want to add more water and soybean paste and boil it until the weather warms up, but I can't do it anymore because of the smell." 

Every time my husband scoops up and eats it, he wrinkles his face. 

I can't forget the scene in the novel where an elderly mother who lives with memories of eating barley rice with her children and Kang Doenjang and a man who has never had a woman in his 60s sit on a floor and look at a road to the town.