Cottage Cheese Breakfast

Home. We flew back Sunday, June 12. I am writing this Monday night from the Capitol Hill condo with the familiar ringing jet-lag in my ears. The last three days in Busan included a weekend with Jihoon and Bora down from Seoul — they arrived Friday night, stayed at Jisoo's, and the apartment was full and loud and full of music (Jihoon played guitar after dinner; Bora has a surprisingly good singing voice). Jihoon is twenty-four, and he is as gentle and silly as his letters had suggested. He hugged me at the door and said, in English, "Sister. Finally. Finally." Bora is a lovely, soft-voiced woman who bakes and has opinions about books and asked me extremely specific questions about Seattle independent bookstores.

The whole family was in the apartment Saturday afternoon — Jisoo and Jun-ho; Eunji and Min-gyu; Jihoon and Bora; me and James. Eight people in a Busan apartment built for two, crowded around a folding table Jun-ho had set up for the occasion. Jisoo cooked for us all — doenjang jjigae, galbijjim (braised short ribs), three kinds of banchan, rice, fresh kimchi. I do not know how she did it. Her kitchen is small. She was at the stove for three hours. When we all sat down, she sat last, and she looked at all of us, and she cried quietly, and she said, in Korean, "This is what I wanted. This is the whole table. Everyone is here." We all ate. We all ate a lot. It was the best meal of my life. I know that sounds inflationary. It is not.

I said goodbye on Sunday morning at the apartment. I did not go to the airport with Jisoo; she has a fear of airport goodbyes, and I respected it. She stood at her door as James and I left in a taxi. She was crying. I was crying. She waved. I waved. Eunji was beside her. Jun-ho was beside her. They were all there as the taxi pulled away, and they were standing there, I have to imagine, long after the taxi was out of sight.

The flight home was long. I slept some. James slept more. We landed Sunday night Pacific time. David picked us up at Sea-Tac. Karen was asleep in the passenger seat, she had come along to see me get off the plane. She woke up when I opened the door. She said, "Stephanie. You're home." I hugged her carefully over her seat belt. I said, "Hi Mom." She said, "Jisoo was good to you?" I said, "Yes." Karen said, "Good." She squeezed my hand. She said, "Tell me everything tomorrow." I nodded. David drove us to Capitol Hill. He helped us haul the bags up. He hugged me at the door. He said, "Welcome back, Steph." I said, "Thank you, Dad." He said, "Your mother and I are proud of you." I cried. Again. I am running out of tears. Eventually.

I slept twelve hours. I woke up Monday and made rice. Just rice, in the cooker, with a fried egg and soy sauce and some of Jisoo's gift kimchi that I had carefully packed home in vacuum-sealed jars. I ate it standing at the counter. I thought: I am home and I am home.

Work: I go back Thursday. I am taking three more days of PTO to let my body reintegrate. I do not want to go back. I will go back anyway. The clock on my Q4 departure is now running faster.

The recipe this week is gyeran bap — rice with egg and soy and sesame oil and kimchi. The simplest meal in my kitchen. The meal I made my first morning home from Busan. The meal that says: you are where you live. You have another kitchen now too. Both. Both. Both.

I know I said I made rice and egg that first morning — and I did — but the second morning, still jet-lagged, still listening to the Capitol Hill street noise and half-expecting Busan traffic instead, I opened the fridge and made this: cottage cheese, a little honey, whatever fruit was left from before we flew out. No heat required. No decisions. Jisoo’s kitchen taught me that the simplest food is the most honest food, and this is my version of that lesson for the mornings when your body is here but your heart is still somewhere over the Pacific.

Prep Time: 5 minutes | Cook Time: 0 minutes | Total Time: 5 minutes | Servings: 1

Ingredients

1 cup full-fat or low-fat cottage cheese
1/2 cup fresh berries (blueberries, sliced strawberries, or raspberries)
1 tablespoon honey or pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons granola (optional, for crunch)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
Pinch of flaky sea salt

Instructions

Scoop the base. Spoon the cottage cheese into a shallow bowl, spreading it slightly so there’s surface area for toppings.
Add fruit. Scatter the fresh berries evenly over the cottage cheese.
Sweeten. Drizzle the honey or maple syrup over the top. If using vanilla extract, stir it into the honey first before drizzling.
Finish and season. Add the granola if using, then finish with a small pinch of flaky sea salt — it sharpens the sweetness and makes the whole bowl taste more intentional.
Serve immediately. Eat it standing at the counter if you need to. That is allowed.

Nutrition (per serving)

Cottage Cheese Breakfast — The First Simple Thing I Made When I Got Home