A Night Under the Moon

I met with some Harvard people at a makguli (fermented rice alcoholic drink popular in Korea) bar called Moon Jar.

Because none of us had dinner, we ordered lots of food with the drink.

Although a traditional meal of toppoki is sautéed in spicy, red chili sauce, this goongjoong toppoki was made with soy sauce. It had huge mushroom, beef, bell peppers, and onions, as well as, of course, long pieces of tri-colored rice cake.

The yellow, green, and white rice cakes all had the same flavors. It was chewy enough, but too thin to really grasp the texture. The sauce was a bit salty, but it went well with makguli.

Next came the Korean pancake made with mung bean and minced pork meat. It had a beautifully crispy outside from the pan-frying process, and warm, rich flavors from the mung bean.

The pancake was placed kind of far from me so I had a tiny bite, which was no big deal since it had pork meat anyways.

The pot of boiled kimchi with pork meat. Why do Koreans like pork so much? There were mushroom, scallions, and pieces of rice cake in there as well, though it may be too hard to see from the redness.

It looked very spicy, so I didn’t have any.

The smoked duck and pork on a stone. Both types of meat were very fatty. The little piece of duck I had tasted like smoked sausage.

No comment on the pork.

Fried chicken on a chili sauce. Didn’t eat.

Chicken on a grill with bell pepper, onion, and cheese in sweet and sour sauce. The first piece of chicken I had tasted quite good, but the consequent pieces were all too fatty. I also had to maneuver around the cheese!