The Last Story of Mina Lee

One of Margot’s earliest memories is of customers at the swap meet. They would often hold their noses as they walked by the booth because they smelled the Korean food that Mina brought from home. For Margot, their insults “would haunt her for her life” (42), even though they didn’t bother her mother. For Margot, Korean food represents her mother’s poverty and her unwillingness to participate in American culture.

When Mina and Mrs. Baek eat together, they bond over Korean food and the comfort of its nostalgia. The descriptions of the food they eat are as lively and exuberant as anything else in Mina’s life. Korean food is one of the few objects in the novel that Mina views with complete positivity. In contrast, Mina thinks American food is “barbaric.” When she has a hamburger on the pier with Mr. Kim, she can barely figure out how to eat it because it is so messy.

Margot understands the bonding power of food. At a restaurant with Miguel, she thinks, “Nothing could bond quite connect people like food” (99). Earlier, she reveals that she equates the comfort of food with her country: “everything tasted too good, perfect, American” (16).