World Games Updates

Hyunsoo Cho, 17, came to the rescue of the Special Olympics Korea speed skating team with home-cooked Korean meals.

A Treat for Korean Tastebuds

When the Special Olympics Korea speed skaters ate sandwiches served for lunch at Idaho Ice World, it was the first time they had tasted American food. They were grateful for the new and exotic experience, but once was enough.

Boise native Hyunsoo Cho, 17, the Korean interpreter for the speed skating venue, decided to take action to make the delegation feel right at home. She contacted her father, the Vice President of the Idaho Korean Association, and he mobilized the large Korean population in the state. Kitchens began heating up throughout Boise as Korean families came to the rescue, preparing traditional meals.

Now the Korean delegations – at all the venues where they are competing at the 2009 World Games – gleefully anticipate their noontime meal, consisting of white rice, beef, fish paste, and two dishes that have been on the Korean menu for 3,000 years: Kimchi – a vegetable dish made of ginger, onions and a lettuce-like vegetable soaked in hot peppers and left to decompose for three days, and Danmuji – pickled radish slices. Crockpots abound at the venues, plugged in wherever there is an electrical outlet.

Cho maintains that while she enjoys traditional Korean food, “Jack-in-the-Box is where it’s at. After all, I am a teenager, and I love my burgers and fries.”