Cycle 14 – Item 158

 12 (Mon) June 2023

Negitoromaki

4.0

at Chun Pungwol

-Apgujeong, Gangnam, Seoul, Republic of Korea-

with W and IZ

All these years, we’ve been calling the restaurant “Pungwol” – deriving from the Chinese characters “風 = 풍 (pung) = wind” + “月 = 월 (wol) = moon,” which can mean several things but here likely “the (beauty) of nature.”  Turns out that it’s actually “Chun Pungwol” – including “春 = 춘 (chun) = spring.”  The storefront signage has always included “chun,” as I can now see upon reviewing older photos (see 7.199 Mineo & Myeongran Muchim), but it’s really small, so we hadn’t noticed.   The new paper placemats make the “春” more prominent, the same size as “風月.”

The negitoromaki here doesn’t really merit 4.0, closer to 3.0.   Too much rice, and it’s not quite as tangy as it should be.  And not enough scallion.  But the dish gets a perfect score by virtue of its being – incredibly, I don’t know of a single Japanese restaurant that offers this most iconic sushi roll on the menu.

At a different Japanese restaurant recently, I requested negitoromaki as a substitute dish at the end of a course meal, and they made it into a hand roll (see 14.123 Negitoro Temaki).

(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)

(See also BOOZE)

(See also RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)