Cycle 17 – Item 62
Post 5,906
8 (Sun) March 2026
Chueok eui Dosirak (Lunchbox of Yore)
2.0
-Munjeong, Songpa, Seoul, Republic of Korea-
with W and IZ
Mungane Jeongyuk Sikdang is a Korean restaurant. Specializes in grilled meats, primarily beef, imported from the US. Part of a franchise chain, currently 9 locations.
After taking Louis Le Pieux to the vet (for various reasons), we went next door for dinner.
The food was okayish.
Back in the day, perhaps from the 1960s to 1970s, Korean students would bring their lunches to school in a rectangular tin box aka dosirak. The box would typically contain steamed rice topped with banchan – presumably, rich kids packed better stuff, but most Koreans were poor back then, so dosirak were simple in composition: certainly some sort of kimchi, often sautéed to reduce odor; as meat was scarce, a popular substitute was “sausage” (see generally 15.290 “Fresh Sausage” Jeon); another staple would’ve been stir-fried anchovies, which are nutritious, tasty, cheap, and impervious to spoiling, even during the hot and humid summer months; a fried egg if you were lucky. In the winter, students would pile their dosirak on the classroom furnace to heat up the food before lunchtime – as depicted at the Gunsan Modern History Museum (see generally 16.357 Snow Crab).
The restaurant’s Chueok eui Dosirak (추억의도시락) is an homage. Offered to finish off the meal. Not that great per se, but a good deal at 4,000.
In a future post, I will share my memories of eating dosirak during the 2 semesters that I attended Korean school.
(See RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)
(See GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)
(See HANSIK)
(See BOOZE)