It's too embarrassing to say that leftovers are not even leftovers at all, but the slops of the US military.

Actually, the team pot should not be a topic to be teased. It represents the hunger and depression all over the world after World War II. Human dignity is not worth mentioning in front of an empty belly. It's very good to get some rotten fruit bellies from American troops.

After the end of World War II, the human world didn't rejoice for a few days in the "Victory Day". The Soviet Union was in great famine, Europe was devastated by refugees, and the United States, which had repeatedly made war money, almost emptied its warehouses. MacArthur threatened Truman in Japan: either give me food for disaster relief or give me bullets to kill them all!

after the war, the Korean peninsula became the dividing line between the United States and the Soviet Union. Both sides supported the government, and the situation was tense. A few years before peace, the Korean War broke out again, killing corpses everywhere. Then South Korea entered a long period of American garrison, and began to slowly restore the ruined national economy and people's livelihood.

Unlike Japan, which suffered few military disasters, South Korea suffered several wars and was a colony of Japan during World War II, which seriously lacked an industrial base. Therefore, Japanese society can recover quickly with the support of the United States and rely on orders from the Korean War, but South Korea does not have this opportunity and blessing. Quite a few people are hungry and living a hard life.

During the long-term hardship in Korea, a kind of food called "team pot" appeared.

At first, it didn't have a name, because in plain English, it was rotten water, which was the kitchen waste dumped by the US military. Many Korean people who can't stand hunger will search for them again from the sewers or garbage dumps, and even secretly move the bucket of the US military, just to get more edible food dregs.

Don't look at this. The US military has been stationed in South Korea for a long time, and they spend a lot of money on food and drink. Bread that has expired and been thrown away, Spam lunch meat that has been thrown away, messy stews, cheese, bacon, ketchup, leftover cans, etc. are produced every day, and they are thrown out as garbage or flow into the sewer.

This is unforgivable in the eyes of hungry Koreans. The industrialized food of the US military is delicious that many poor people have never seen in their lives. Even if the spoiled water is a treasure, it has meat, vegetables, noodles and oil, which is sweet, boring and sour, how can it be thrown away!

So many Koreans began to think about the kitchen waste of the US military. If it is relevant, they dragged the waste directly from the US military camp. If it is really poor, they fished for the gutter oil in the sewer. Many people even tried their best to pull the waste and take it home by "serving" the US military. Many Korean officials are also doing this, taking the opportunity to get some kitchen waste that is not so bad.

Of course, many people actually don't make kitchen waste, but try to get it from the US military. The US military is more skilled than the Koreans, and they have been practicing it since Africa. Give some Spam lunch meat that is disgusting, or some hot dogs or butter left over from lunch, and they can get all kinds of "benefits", such as antiques, fresh vegetables, funny things, spring night's once-in-a-lifetime, or pure pity, depending on how Koreans play.

In short, hungry Koreans tried their best to "scrape oil" from the US military, which gradually formed an atmosphere and created a unique catering ecology-eating addiction, not eating uncomfortable.

Usually, Koreans will mix their American food with miscellaneous grains they can get, which is quite normal in the era when there is no oil and no salt. Anyway, most of the kitchen residues are not fortune-telling, and they have long been mixed together. So simply use the beggar's rice method and add some peppers, cabbage and miscellaneous noodles to cook it into a big pot, which not only preserves the oil and water, but also kills bacteria, and can also be eaten by the whole family.

It is precisely because this kind of food, which is close to beggar's meal, is mostly fished out from the US military camp that it began to be called "team pot". Its meaning is intuitive and easy to understand. It's just the food taken out from the garbage in the military canteen. It's nothing. Everyone is used to it.

Many years later, when many Koreans recall the hard times of being hungry, they will immediately think of the delicious "team pot", and saliva will fill their mouths in an instant. Those "hot rice" filled with lunch meat, cheese and American industrial flavors are the most beautiful memories of their youth, the smiles on their wives and children, and the "quality life" that they can't bear to look back. The ups and downs of life are all concentrated in this food that can never be forgotten.

With the social recovery and economic development in South Korea, the team pot has changed immediately. Where will anyone dig out the kitchen waste of the US military? Let's keep the wet garbage for the American army to enjoy. It's not that anyone can't afford industrial food. But people who remember the taste of the team pot still follow the memory of those tastes, reorganize the ingredients and continue the custom of the team pot.

In fact, it's not just South Korea. Because of the turmoil and hunger after World War II and the stationing of American troops, many places in the world have formed unique dietary changes. The most successful one is Spam lunch meat, which almost circled the Pacific Ocean, affecting the recipes of several races and countries. The lunch meat in the "team pot" is also an essential part. Besides lunch meat, sausage is also a very common ingredient.

The biggest feature of the Korean team pot is that it includes rice cakes, seafood, spicy cabbage and instant noodles. The first few are Korean national foods, but instant noodles were invented by Wu Baifu, the Chinese Japanese president of Nissin. Koreans are obsessed with instant noodles, calling them "Lamian Noodles", which is almost regarded as national food, and they also like to cook instant noodles. When the team pot and instant noodles are put together, there will naturally be a wonderful reaction between them.

The sour and fragrant soup base and various ingredients in the team pot are the best partners with instant noodles, especially the serious cooking attitude of Koreans towards instant noodles, which further refines their advantages and creates a generation of famous Korean food. Interestingly, both the pile of American industrial food, kimchi and instant noodles belong to their respective fields of "junk food", and the team pot will be purely carried out to the end.

In fact, some of today's team pots have more or less joined the style of Japanese sukiyaki pot. Perhaps Koreans themselves don't know what a standard team pot is. After all, the famine years were really unbearable and unimaginable to modern people.