Land of Milk and Honey

Years later, diners will still remember that summer in the mountain restaurant, when they were pleased with the food but were deceived about the chef’s identity.

The narrator’s employer gives her photos of Eun-Young and more white clothes. The current residents of the mountain community haven’t met the real Eun-Young, so differences in appearance won’t be noticed—plus, racist expectations will help the narrator disappear. The narrator’s ethnicity has often been misidentified; now, she and Aida are the only “Asian residents” of the mountain (96).

At the narrator’s first Sunday dinner as Eun-Young, when she hesitates before praying, her employer takes her back into the kitchen and hits the wall beside her. When she explains that she isn’t sure how to act, he pulls her shawl lower and tells her that she must seduce the guests. When he reluctantly touches her breast, she feels nothing, and he withdraws his hand. As she walks back into the dining room, she understands her role as a sexual and religious object.

Her employer studies the pleasure that comes from food and drink, demanding menu items that cause diners to recall their pasts. For instance, a pork dish from a German investor’s childhood makes the German man cry and hold the narrator’s hand, telling her stories about his grandmother, who used to make the same food.