Chuseok Jeon (Dongtaejeon, Pasanjeok)

Chuseok is Korean Thanksgiving. During Chuseok, Koreans families head back to their hometowns in Korea. It creates a mini-exodus every year – especially in Seoul. The major highways get extremely congested – creating traffic nightmares. Trust me, I get stuck in 5+ hours traffic congestions, almost every year. Everyone is an rush to rendezvous with their extended families and spent time together as one.

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During Chuseok, families will typically hold a memorial service for their ancestors. This has been done for thousands of years in Korea (and is not tied to religion, belief, etc.) It is a sign of reverence and a way to honor those who have come before you. One part of this ceremony is setting up a large table with specially prepared foods (shown below). Note the positioning of each food. Typically, rice and soup are placed in the north. Fruits and vegetables are placed south of the table. And in the west or middle, meat dishes are served. This changes by region. For example, in my family, we place food by each horizontal row (i.e. the first horizontal row is reserved for rice and soup, last row for fruits and vegetables.)

Thus, a large part of Chuseok is preparing food as a family. At my grandmother’s place, I am usually put in charge of the Chuseok jeon (Korean pancakes). This year, I wanted to share our family recipe with you (our neighbors!). That way, I can also do a practice round before the actual holiday. My grandma tells me every year that it could look “prettier”. Sigh – somethings never change 😉

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