Dry and Squishy : A taste of Korean appetizers

Mmm…..pupae and dried fish. A few weeks ago Jess and I had the opportunity to sample some classic Korean culinary dishes (ah, alliteration) at a local Suji restaurant.

Most Korean meals usually start off with several different bowls of simple appetizers. Some of the appetizers that you regularly see include pickled radishes, kimchi, corn and mayonnaise salad, dry crunchy popcorn-like thingies and tiny flat fishy pancakes. These bowls of food are free of charge and served as soon as you sit down. Depending upon which snack you receive these can either whet your appetite for the main entrée or be pushed sadly next to the napkin holder and ashtray.

This particular restaurant we visited served stewed silkworm pupae and dried sardines as its appetizers. A little history here....from the first week of living in Korea we had heard about the silkworm pupae (called bundigie I believe) stew. We had seen the pots of pupae simmering among the other kettles and frying pans of the street food vendors. “Korean children love bundigie,” we were told time and time again, but to date, we had yet to give this dish a proper tasting. The pupae had finally found us.

We both ate four pupae and washed them down with three dried sardines (along with several Hite beers and a bottle of soju). Hmm, taste? How to describe it? The silkworm had a squishy mealy feel, mildly gritty like eating a juicy prune. Its taste wasn’t horrible, but not particular scrumptious either, earthy and dirty with a hint of woody flavor. The sardines were crunchy and fishy beyond belief. Granted, I know I am a little biased here not being a huge seafood fan, but even Jessushi agreed that they tasted like swamp fish. Dried cardboardy swamp fish.

We think we'll stick with the bulgogi and tyeokbokki for now....although there is a live baby octopus soup that might need some sampling.