13.304 Pimpinella Brachycarpa Pasta

Cycle 13 – Item 304

5 (Sat) November 2022

Pimpinella Brachycarpa Pasta

2.5

at Shilla Stay Café

(Shilla Stay Yeoksam)

-Yeoksam, Gangnam, Seoul, Republic of Korea-

with W and IZ, maternal relatives

My cousin MS, whose wedding was featured a few years back (see 9.015 Janchi Guksu), hosted a party to celebrate the first birthday of his daughter.

I’d never stepped inside a Shilla Stay property in my life, until 6 days ago when EE was staying at the Shilla Stay Samseong (see 12.298 Dweji Galbi), then the Shilla Stay Yeoksam today.

Chamnamul (참나물) is a green vegetable.  Linnaean classification Spuriopimpinella brachycarpa, formerly Pimpinella brachycarpa.  On Wikipedia, the only references to culinary use are in the context of Korean cuisine, such as namul.  The vegetable is thin-stemmed and leafy, highly aromatic and slightly bitter, especially when raw (better to parboil to take the edge off).

Only the second time seeing the kid, following a brief appearance at the Chuseok gathering a couple months back (see 13.268 Ganjang Gejang), and the third time seeing the wife, starting with the wedding in January 2018, then Chuseok in September 2022, now this.  The reasons for this deserve a lengthy explanation, but let’s just say that nobody on this side of the family is very happy with the situation.

I appreciate the growing trend in using local vegetables in non-Korean dishes (see for example 12.123 Grilled Spear Squid).

Just “pimpinella pasta” would sound Italian.

My small collection of dishes featuring Linnaean-based names:

Which is interesting, because I would never pass up an opportunity to post on such a dish, just for the inane amusement of writing out the name, but it’s only happened 4 times in all the meals that I’ve had over the past 13 years.

Drosophila melanogaster = fruit fly.

The Far Side, by Gary Larson, was by far my favorite comic when I was in elementary school.  Second only to Calvin & Hobbes all-time.  I recently purchased the 3-volume The Complete Far Side Collection.  In my later years, I am happy to (re)discover that many of the scenes relate to food, though always in some twisted/bizarre/gruesome way.

(See also RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)

(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)

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