> [!NOTE]+ Meta > Author:: Denny Baring > Reference:: Paris End Substack > Date:: 2025 > Tags:: #warp > WeftLinks:: [[Aesthetic value of craft]] > Claim:: [[Claim - Handmade is beautiful]] > [!SUMMARY] Summary > Handmade food contains the unique biome of the maker ### Highlights > When people talk about Korean cooking—especially fermenting—they often talk about the taste of the hand: 손맛 (son-mat). This word captures the myriad of affecting factors that shape the outcomes of manually-produced foods, with unique and complex taste caused in part by the immeasurable biome existing solely on the hand of the maker. It also seems to me to be an apt metaphor for what makes the whole DIY scene so generative: these places are the product of people just going for it on their own; they are handmade, local and ephemeral, interacting with their unique historical environments, like a ferment, which makes them stand apart from the homogenising forces of corporatisation and global culture production.