Feeding our brains and bodies well
Published 1:30 am Thursday, May 21, 2026
The last week of kindergarten is already here. My son is, of course, ready for summer break and all the freedom of unstructured days and slow mornings, but I am sad that this very special time has come and gone so quickly.
He has grown and changed so much … he truly is a different child than he was at this time last year. His reading and typing skills have developed to the point where he can search out the answers to his questions and (with help and guidance) can dive into topics that interest him.
Lately, he has been very interested in skyscrapers and engineering after reading a book from the library about the construction of the Empire State Building.
The best part of having a child is the opportunity to learn about the world all over again. As I teach him what I know and guide his individual discovery, I have a chance to learn new things right along with him, and I have the duty to correct the falsehoods I thought were facts.
It is important to me that I model the ability to admit that what I thought I knew was wrong, and to show him how to change my opinions when presented with new information. I tell him that the only part of him that will never stop growing is his brain, if you feed it well.
We feed our brains and our bodies well in this house, and learning new recipes and cooking techniques is one of my favorite ways to accomplish both. I have made this dish on the stovetop many times, but I recently saw a crockpot method demonstrated by one of my favorite food content creators and wanted to give it a try. As a mom of an almost-first-grader, I don’t have three hours to spend babysitting the stove. This meal is a favorite among Koreans (and me) and eating it is a hands-on, family style experience. Savory braised pork belly is sliced into bite sized pieces, stacked with an endless combination of side dishes, all wrapped in lettuce or wilted cabbage, to be eaten in one big bite — which, it turns out, is quite difficult to do if you happen to be missing your two front teeth.
Ingredients:
3 pounds pork belly
1 onion
2 inches ginger root, sliced thin
10 garlic cloves, sliced thin
2 tablespoons Korean soybean paste
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon instant coffee
Directions:
Scrub your pork belly with salt and rinse thoroughly.
Sprinkle the brown sugar over the pork belly and rub it in. Let the sugar-coated pork rest in the refrigerator for a couple hours or overnight.
Layer the sliced onion, ginger, and garlic in the bottom of your crockpot.
Mix the instant coffee in a little water and pour into the crock. If you don’t have instant coffee, you can use cold, strong brewed coffee. You’ll need about 2 cups for this.
Whisk the soybean paste with about a cup of water to loosen it up, then drop into the crockpot.
Place the pork belly into the crock then pour in water until it is level with the top of the pork.
Cook on low heat for 6-8 hours. The pork should be tender enough for a chopstick to slide in easily when inserted.
Remove from the crock and rest for five minutes, covered, before slicing.
Serve with lettuce for wrapping, rice, soup and side dishes. Some great options include cabbage kimchi, julienned daikon salad, seasoned bean sprouts, pickled garlic, pickled onion and, if you can find it, ssamjjang.
This is a Korean seasoning paste that is almost always served with this meal. It is salty and savory and perfect with the fatty pork belly and sour kimchi in the wrap.
