12.108

23 (Fri) April 2021

Acorn with Bright Red Vines

2.5

by me

at home

-Changgok, Sujeong, Seongnam, Gyeonggi, Republic of Korea-

with DJ and IZ

Newbery 100 Medals, 100 Meals (44) (see 100 NEWBERY M&Ms)

While reading the 100 books that have been awarded the annual Newbery Medal since 1922, I will also attempt to create one dish for every book, a dish that is directly referenced in or indirectly inspired by the events of the book.  Food plays a strong role in many of the stories; not surprising as the characters in most of the books are faced with adversity of some sort, including poverty, so they’re often very hungry and thus grateful whenever they get a bite to eat – as we all should be at every meal (i.e., give us this day our daily bread).  The dishes will be featured as posts on Give Me This Day.

Miss Hickory (1947) by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey, illustrated by Ruth Stiles Gannett.  The book is about Miss Hickory, a doll with twig limbs and a hickory nut head, who is left behind when her human family moves away and forced to survive in the woods with/against the animals of the forest until one day, bizarrely, she grafts herself onto an apple tree.

Didn’t like it.  Couldn’t see the point of the story, or what any of the characters were trying to accomplish.  Even worse, I couldn’t stop imagining the characters in my head as creepy claymation figures.

Stand-up comedian Sarah Silverman has a Netflix special in which she notes that squirrels bury their acorns and later forget where, essentially planting trees in the process.

[paraphrased in part]

Squirrel found a plump acorn, good winter food because of its rich meat.  He dug a hole, deep and close to an oak tree.  He buried his acorn and, in order to make no mistake about finding it, he placed a bright red vine beside the hole for a marker.  Then Squirrel was off again, climbing trees, waving his beautiful tail and feeling satisfied with himself.

The exercise gave Squirrel and appetite.  At the end of an hour he was hungry.  “What I need is a large meaty acorn rich in vitamins.”

So Squirrel went back to an oak tree that had a bright red vine at its roots.  He dug and dug.  He scurried from one spot to another.  He excavated here, there; hither and yon.  Alas, the woods were full of oak trees with bright red vines trailing on the ground around them.  Squirrel had again forgotten where he had buried a nut for his winter store.    

As far as I can recall, this was likely my first time making dotori muk from scratch – not exactly scratch, not from raw acorns like my grandmother used to (see generally 2.299 Dotori Muk Muchim), though I don’t know if raw acorns can be purchased these days.

It was super easy.

Then again, it looked, tasted, felt exactly like the pre-made cakes in the supermarket (see for example 12.033 Dotori Muk Muchim), so perhaps not even worth the small effort.

The purple sprouts = “bright red vines” (in case that wasn’t clear).

(See also FOODS)

(See also PLACES)