Food is Medicine
Since ancient times, the Korean people have maintained a belief that food and medicine have the same origin, and hence perform the same function, following the adage that “food is the best medicine.” We wholeheartedly believe that health and illness alike come from the food people consume, as well as how they eat it. This idea has played a crucial role in the development of traditional Korean medicine, whose basic principle is that we should use medicine only after food has failed. Korean meals originally consisted of cooked rice, soup, and three to five small dishes largely made up of vegetables. Today’s set meal tends to be much more luxurious with tons of new dishes, meat and fish included, although the three basic dishes, including rice, soup, and kimchi, still remain.
My family and I always have good health because of the food we eat every day. It’s not because we eat Korean food—it’s because we eat with balance. We eat meat, fish, vegetables, and even hamburger sometimes, but we do not overeat. I’ve been a professional cook for 10 years and always wanted to make people eat healthy. So my mom and I decided to open up a restaurant that has mission to make people eat healthy. I truly believe that food is the medicine.
What Does DAMI mean?
We wanted to make our restaurant a place where friends and family come together and have meals and drinks and share jung, which does not exist in English words. Jung means “love between friends and family, and even strangers sometimes.” It is likely friendship, but it is more about giving and sharing things. So we looked for the Korean words that have the same meaning.
We thought dami means sharing this jung with people, but after we made up our minds to name our restaurant, we realized it meant something else. The meaning was actually pronounced die in Korean! When I found that out, I said to my mom, “Mom! Dami doesn’t have the same meaning as jung! It is die…it is death! We can’t name our restaurant Die.” We thought about changing our restaurant name but the way of saying dami was so good so we decided to make our restaurant name Dami anyway.