Kimchi Fried Rice

It all started with a plate of Kimchi Fried Rice. Kimchi Fried Rice is a popular South Korean dish made with kimchi, rice and optional ingredients such as meat and vegetables.

As I was eating my favorite comfort food at home, which I do at least three times a week, a thought suddenly provoked me. What would people who have never tasted Kimchi Fried Rice think of this cuisine?

I wanted to share food and I had a specific group of people in mind: the homeless, who live day-to-day scraping up enough cash to feed themselves.

The project then took off with a simple idea: to feed the homeless a home cooked, traditional Korean dish. But I soon realized that Kimchi Fried Rice played a far more significant role than I had imagined.

Kimchi Fried Rice was an icebreaker – a key that unlocked the diaries of the homeless, revealing stories of their pasts, presents and futures. I began to engage in lengthy conversations with them and got to know them as individuals.

This page is a collection of my encounters and dialogues with the homeless over a plate of Kimchi Fried Rice and is dedicated entirely to them.

Something so simple as Kimchi Fried Rice changed my entire perspective. The homeless, who wear the same clothes in the same street corner repeating the same phrases, who I indifferently brush past everyday, became magnified into unique individuals with stories, memories and visions to share.