Cycle 4 – Item 28

2 (Sat) February 2013

Memil Mukbab

1.0

by YYH

at the cabin

-Changchon, Seowon, Hoengseong, Gangwon, Republic of Korea-

with DJ, MtG + NSJ, AHY + KIT + JH, CJH + KKH, CSW, HSE + HCY, YI + JDE, LHS + YYH

The camping crew assembled at the cabin this weekend, ostensibly to celebrate the birthdays of a couple members: KIT and HCY.

In Korean cuisine, memil (메밀) (buckwheat) is used in at least 3 ways (that I’m aware of): (i) noodles; (ii) jeon; and (iii) muk.

Mukbab (묵밥) is a Korean dish.  Consists of rice (bab) + muk (e.g., acorn (dotori) or buckwheat (memil)) + various toppings (e.g., kimchi, greens) + broth of some sort (e.g., hot or cold, fish or meat).

On this occasion, YYH made a big production of making mukbab.  She cooked the muk from scratch, using memil powder.  For toppings, she prepared sautéed ground pork, seasoned kimchi, and loads of dried laver and sesame seeds.  Being winter, she did a warm broth rendered from dried anchovies, shrimp, and seaweed.

Despite all the care and effort, however, I’m afraid that I didn’t like it.  Due to the absence of gluten in memil, the texture of memil muk is  mushy/grainy/crumbly, which I couldn’t handle, not even a little bit – is this what gluten-free pizza is like?

But the making part was interesting, perhaps inspiring me to try my hand at making other muks sometime down the road.

(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)