It’s hard to explain how important gifts are across various Asian cultures. No guest would ever dare to cross the threshold of an Asian home on a holiday without a platter of food or a bottle of something strong, sweet or bubbly peeking out of an extravagant gold bag.
Gifts of spirits play prominently in my memories of Lunar New Year. On the first day of Seollal, or Korean Lunar New Year, I would sneak into the kitchen and inhale the aromas of tall piles of just-fried golden mandu dumplings, sesame-scented platters of japchae with spinach and carrot and giant bowls of steaming rice cake soup flecked with seaweed. Though the food varied every year, there was one constant at our Lunar New Year—the strong scent of Johnnie Walker Black wafting from glass tumblers on a low rosewood table.
Although Seollal is traditionally a family holiday, my immigrant parents were separated from their extended families, so they celebrated it with the only family they had: a tight-knit group of friends from their Korean church who loved to drink. Every Sunday, my parents’ social circle of doctors, professors and restaurant owners sat in their church pews, prim and pious, nodding their heads at the fiery preacher’s sermon reminding us Jesus died for our sins. Come 7 p.m., though, ensconced in the sanctuary of our home, they belted out Johnny Cash’s “Personal Jesus” on our karaoke machine and ate and drank like heathens, fêting their successes and drowning their failures over
This Article was originally published on Wine Enthusiast
