# @thekoreanvegan on Instagram

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DMq_A7qToLR
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/33171278-thekoreanvegan-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/834d76060f.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-08-05T23:30:00.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Joanne L. Molinaro, The Korean Vegan (@thekoreanvegan) — https://gondola.cc/thekoreanvegan

## Caption

This is my book, which I am so proud of. But, ngl: Seeing everything that’s been happening in the world, I can’t help but remember that my own mother was once a hungry baby. And thus in answer to the question “why is a food blogger so political?” I don’t know how food couldn’t be political for me.

Army Stew has such a fraught history attached to it. There’s a reason my mother still eschews this hearty, protein-packed dish. But as is the case with so many Korean dishes (like the iconic kimchi or kimbap), budae jjigae is a dish that, to me, symbolizes resilience, survival, and sheer will. These are all attributes I see in my mother, attributes I endeavor to emulate.

Naysayers will come at me for this plant-based version (the original was all about protein, which makes sense given how malnourished the Korean people were at that time). Or, they’ll accuse me of romanticizing one of the uglier chapters in Korea’s history. Being political is an openness to having these tough conversations, a commitment to laying down one’s ego with the objective of learning how to reclaim our collective agency. There’s a lot of stones that remain unturned in my own journey towards that purpose; but, I believe that this stew represents something powerful and true, as much as it is delicious. I made this recipe for my father last year and he was quite surprised at how much he loved it.

Thus, for all these reasons, when my editor suggested we go with this Army Stew as the cover, I wrote back, “I’d be very proud to have budae jjigae as the cover of my book.”

If you’d like the recipe to this stew and 100 more delicious dishes, or, if you want to support my work, I’d be so grateful if you checked out the link in my bio for all the different ways you can preorder a copy today.

Thanks to the compassion of that one soldier, my mother survived. And that’s the thing we must always remember: Compassion must play a role in our politics.

#thekoreanvegan #foodispolitical #armystew #koreanfood

## Stats

- **Views:** 125,448
- **Likes:** 67,325
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- **Comments:** 1,051

## Tags

foodispolitical, koreanfood, thekoreanvegan, armystew

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