By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff Reporter
Li Alena is a 30-year-old Russian who works at Cafe Geuraeseo of Organization Yori in the Haja Center building in Yeongdeungpo.
Like other married immigrants working at the company, Li first joined a cooking class as a student and then became an employee in February.
Li married her Korean husband in Russia in 2002 and then moved to Korea. Her daughter also attends a daycare center offered by Organization Yori.
Li can make a range of coffee and tea and even created apricot juice and a plum smoothie, which are variations of Russian drinks.
She also bakes Russian breads and cookies from time to time. Her breads are becoming more and more popular among the customers at Cafe Geuraeseo.
"People ask me when they can have the bread again. Some customers place special baking orders," said Li, who wants to offer a wide variety of items such as Russian jam, yogurt and other kinds of bread.
There are five migrant women currently working at Organization Yori - two from Vietnam, one from Indonesia, one from the Philippines and one from Russia.
"Migrant women usually form their community through welfare centers or multicultural centers. We first recruited our students there," said Lee Yeon-mi of Organization Yori. "They have their own communities and spread word about us."
Organization Yori provides opportunities for migrant women to apply their culture and tradition to dishes under the motto of "Cooking enjoyment, honesty and learning."
"Married immigrants working here have time to cook traditional food from their mother country," Lee said. "Sometimes, they call home or read books to find the right recipe. It is a free and open time and menus come out of fun brainstorming."
For example, one Indonesian dessert named "Dadar Gulung" is included in the catering menu. It is a sweet dessert made with coconut and pandan, an Indonesian plant.