Ambushed by a Korean Rice Cake

[xraytheenforcer]

Once upon a time, I picked a random, never-heard-of-before dish from the menu at the local Korean joint, and ordered it. My lunch ended up being these fat white cylinders of rice-flour paste -- think of really chewy dumplings with no filling -- smothered in spicy sauce. I was not a fan, but ate it anyway because I paid for it and I needed food. But I swore I'd never order those foul-chewy-tacky tubes again.

Today, those fuckers ambushed me at lunch AGAIN. I had forgotten their name, because Korean isn't one of those languages that I'm even remotely familiar with, but I always knew to stay away from the rice dumplings. I read the description of the dish -- rice and vegetable cakes in a spicy sauce -- and thought, "hey, sounds kinda good." Instead of a happy lunch, my enemy came riding out to meet me on a plate garnished with a purple orchid. I swear, it sneered at me. Again, I ate those hated things (this time wasn't at painful as the first) and cursed my lack of Korean.

So, as a public service to you, my friends, I give you the Korean name so you can avoid the spicy starchy death rattle: dduk. Yes, two "d's."

http://thedeliciouslife.blogspot.com/2005/08/its-not-rice-cake-dammit-dduk-bok-ki.html

Comments

[regina-of-york.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry you had a crappy lunch, but this made me lol for real:

"my enemy came riding out to meet me on a plate garnished with a purple orchid. I swear, it sneered at me."

I now have this mental image of a stare down between you and the evil, orchid bedecked lunch.



Now, treat yourself to a really nice dinner to make up for it all!

[xraytheenforcer.livejournal.com]

I'll be drinking my dinner, to ease the pain.

[arya.livejournal.com]

It is TOO rice cake. We been callin' it rice cake for centuries longer than you crazy crackaz been sellin' popped rice wafers!

When we're kids, our parents take the glutinous rice powder they use to make those rice cakes, and wet it just enough to make it a paste, add a bit of sugar and pinch it into little clumps; they give a big bowl of it to us and while we end up wearing most of it, we go nuts eating it.

[xraytheenforcer.livejournal.com]

Interesting sugar-delivery system. ;-)

I'll have to seek out the sweet ones. They can't be that different from mochi.

[alanashinean.livejournal.com]

Maybe they're better sweet?

[xraytheenforcer.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this is my question, too. Since it seems that I'm fated to eat these things, I suppose I'll have to seek out the sweet version. I might become a rice-cake messiah!

[werthead.livejournal.com]

I saw the title and immediately had a vision of Barry and Sean bursting out of a cake and attacking innocent passers-by with Korean martial arts. Distressing.

[xraytheenforcer.livejournal.com]

So, cake match instead of cage match? I like!

[2pumps.livejournal.com]

Please do not attempt to mock Cage Fighters, you are meddling with forces you can't comprehend!

[misunderstruck.livejournal.com]

LOL

[fenryng.livejournal.com]

Rhymes with "yyuk"?

[xraytheenforcer.livejournal.com]

OK, I totally LOL'd

[limecat-lotn.livejournal.com]

Dduk?

What kind of wonky spelling is that. They are rice cakes. End of story.

[xraytheenforcer.livejournal.com]

meat cakes would have been so much better, no matter how they're spelled.

[meh-of-munich.livejournal.com]

weird, I actually adore those things. Great for a hangover especially. I have had bad ones though, maybe you were unlucky.

[xraytheenforcer.livejournal.com]

I could see that. I think my disappointment might be because I was craving some other kind of texture, but got this. I figure it's my lot in life to eat dduk, so I have to learn how to like it somehow...

[terraprime.livejournal.com]

You no like dduk? I give twod=-dollah Korean fud, saki saki? ^_^

I like glutinous rice stuff, so I like this too. There's a very similar dish called Shanghainese Year Cake (loosely translated). It's made of white tubes of glutinous rice product, sauteed in a savory sauce (not spicy), and typically eaten around Chinese new year. Yum.

[xraytheenforcer.livejournal.com]

Hm. I'll have to seek this out.

[isis-newton.livejournal.com]

gutted

[xraytheenforcer.livejournal.com]

Now you know what I'm gonna make you eat when you're here next month!