mystery food
Yesterday, I went out for Korean food with my sister's family. Jang Soo Jang (on 27th and State if any of you SL folks want to check it out) is a great restaurant--low on decor and frills, but the food is delicious and authentic. In all the times I've been there, I've never seen anyone who wasn't Korean (except for us, of course). But with authenticity, you occasionally get food that is unrecognizable. Like this:
If you can tell me what this is, you will forever earn my admiration and affection (and if you already have those, you'll just have to feel satisfied with your own cleverness). The unidentifiable food (UF) was part of a soup with a bean paste broth, veggies, beef. But this? My brother-in-law used to speak Korean, so he asked the cook/waiter what it was. He pretended to know what she was saying, but he didn't know. All he got was the culinary effect it's intended to have. As you eat the spicy soup, the UF is meant to cool your mouth. And it does just that. When you bite into the spongy thing, a spurt of cool liquid fills up your mouth. And we decided it must be something from the sea, as the liquid was a bit fishy, a bit seaweedy. The only other possibility that my sister and I came up with is that it is some variety of scrotum.
Don't let this UF scare you away from Korean food--the most under-rated of Asian cuisines. Another (less intimidating) view of our meal:
Mmmm, I'm going to go eat my leftover squid right now.
If you can tell me what this is, you will forever earn my admiration and affection (and if you already have those, you'll just have to feel satisfied with your own cleverness). The unidentifiable food (UF) was part of a soup with a bean paste broth, veggies, beef. But this? My brother-in-law used to speak Korean, so he asked the cook/waiter what it was. He pretended to know what she was saying, but he didn't know. All he got was the culinary effect it's intended to have. As you eat the spicy soup, the UF is meant to cool your mouth. And it does just that. When you bite into the spongy thing, a spurt of cool liquid fills up your mouth. And we decided it must be something from the sea, as the liquid was a bit fishy, a bit seaweedy. The only other possibility that my sister and I came up with is that it is some variety of scrotum.
Don't let this UF scare you away from Korean food--the most under-rated of Asian cuisines. Another (less intimidating) view of our meal:
Mmmm, I'm going to go eat my leftover squid right now.
posted by lis at 5:29 PM
2 Comments:
Korean Seaweed Scrotum Soup--now that's a recipe you won't find on epicurious.com!
I have always been impressed with the lovely and charming service of Korean cuisine, which your picture captured perfectly (not the unidentified food pic, the other one). However, I have never loved actually eating it. It's probably another one of my many character flaws.
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