10.242
4 (Wed) September 2019
Bulgogi Ddeokbokki
3.5
by me
at home
-Dasmariñas Village, Makati, Manila, Philippines-
with the Family
The Ggori Story – an allegory of self-reliance and self-pity in a pot of oxtail stock.
- Part 1 (10.240 Suyuk)
- Part 2 (10.241 Muu Guk)
I’m still sick and still having to cook for everyone.
More stuff that W had ordered from the Ajumma Network for herself – ddeok (rice cakes) and bulgogi – and left me to cook it, even while I’m deathly ill.
Come to think of it, W is quite paranoid about the kids catching illness, so she wouldn’t let them eat anything that I had cooked if she thought that it could be infected, say, from the phlegmy coughing, which makes me realize that she hasn’t even noticed that I’ve been sick.
Anyway, I combined the rice cakes and bulgogi to make a kind of ddeokbokki (see for example 7.225 Bulgogi Deokbokki). Even better, I used some of the oxtail stock to render a thicker/richer sauce and added vegetables (green beans, enoki mushrooms, carrots) for more nutrients and character. When the rice cakes were gone, the boys demanded steamed rice top sop up the remaining sauce – when kids ask for extra helpings of rice, it means that they like what’s on the table.
Again, a great victory that made me feel like a loser.
I had no idea rice cakes contained flour…I had always thought they were made from glutinous rice, like mochi
Korean rice cakes are typically made with regular short-grain rice. We also use glutinous rice for some types of mochi-like specialty rice cakes.
The rice cakes for ddeokbokki sold by street food carts are sometimes mixed with flour, presumably as a cost-saving measure. The resulting texture is more firm, which I think works better as a vehicle for all that sauce.