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Cthulhu Soup One of the most unique cross-cultural culinary experiences I've ever had was going with my friend Jeff to the little back-corner restaurant of one of our local Korean markets. (Wheaton, Maryland has a high concentration of Asian folks in the population, which means that any Asian food you come across - especially in a place like that - is likely to have an authenticity you won't necessarily find at your small-town Great Wall or Panda Garden or similar.) There's a Korean dish called jap pong that, if you get it done right, will give you some idea of how much American versions of Eastern cuisines have been prettied up for the benefit of our delicate sensibilities. It's a spicy seafood-noodle soup served in a huge bowl, out of which float up all manner of things that seem to be mostly arms and eyes and alien parts - whole shrimp, rings of tiny squid tentacles, mussels in the shell. The slightly unsettling cosmic-horror feeling of a first encounter with a dish that looks back at you led us to dub it with the name we now know it by - Cthulhu Soup. Even better, it comes with sides of tasty garnishes, including a sort of spicy pepper-relish and a little dish of dried miniature sardines - heads and all. ("They're not as crunchy after you soak them in the soup for a while," I remarked.) It's definitely not a meal for the faint of heart - even I couldn't bring myself to not shell the shrimp before I ate them - but I recommend it if you can stomach it. Korean food often has a nice balance of hot and sweet which the seafood sets off well, and the noodles have a good, chewy texture that will be a unique experience to anyone whose pasta history is limited to spaghetti and lo mein. Stir it up with the chopsticks from time to time to reinfuse it with any spicy pepper (and creatures) that have floated to the bottom. Enjoy. Iä! Jap pong fhtagn! |