Tastes Like War: A Memoir

Cho’s memoir shows that nourishment is not as simple as getting enough calories and vitamins. Instead, nourishment is a physical and emotional experience, achieved when the eater enjoys their food and feels that their preferences and background are taken into consideration. This is the case with Koonja at the two times in her life when she is starving: the first being during the Korean War and the poverty of its aftermath, and the second being when she refuses to eat as a result of her schizophrenia. Cho portrays these two instances of starvation as linked through Koonja’s comment that the powdered milk her son gives her to ensure she gets enough protein, “tastes like war” (19). The occupying American army also provided powdered milk to Koreans starved of rice, believing that powdered milk was a cheap and efficient food. However, the occupied Korean civilians experienced the food offering as a form of colonialist aggression when they suffered from diarrhea. Throughout her memoir, Cho connects the notion of nourishment with cultural consideration and suggests that a thoughtfully prepared meal is a kind of care.