“Korean Food Named After Dessert?” is a new and oddly appropriate blog post on my blog. Did you know that there is actually a food in Korea called “Dduk Keebab”? If not, please read this article! I would never have thought about something that sounds so weird being named after something like cake. However, it seems to make sense if you think about it for a minute. Let me know what you think in the comments below!
If I had to guess, I’m guessing the reason they took to calling this Korean delicacy “Dduk Keebab” was because of the similarity between its name and another food called “kebab”. Additionally, they couldn’t have called the food “Dduk Kebab” because there are two other words in Korean that sound similar to “Kebab”. I wonder if any of you have heard of this dish before? I never have, and it sounds really interesting!
The name came from a nickname for a certain kind of dduk (Korean cake), which is called “dduk kebab” (오탕 제복) due to its squarish shape. itself is made with sweet rice flour, wheat flour, and honey. The name of this dish also has a story behind it. shaped into squares, and the easiest way to cut it was to use a knife. However, when the dduk was being cut, it would sometimes slip off of the knife and fall onto the floor. Because Korean food is really delicious, people wanted to eat it right away, before it got cold at least. So, they figured they’d put the “dduks” that fell on the floor back onto their knife by stabbing them onto it with a fork. This method of cutting this food ended up making a “kebab-like” piece of food, so people started calling this delicacy “dduk kebab”. For the English word “sandwich”, there is the Korean word “dduk-bbang” (똥밥) which literally means “dduk-on-a-fork”. I’m guessing that it was either named after this kind of wheat flour dduk cake, or because of the fact that commercially made dduks taste like a sandwich.
I wonder how this all relates to korean desserts? I wouldn’t dare to say they are similar at all. However, there is an interesting story about Korea’s first pancake pancakes being made as well as 1st jjajangmyeon/jjajangmyeon being created. In case you are curious to know, pancakes were made in Korea during the Joseon Dynasty. In order to make them, people would take wheat flour, sugar, and eggs and mix them together without cooking it. I imagine the end result was similar to an uncooked sticky white cake! However, this is not what the final product looked like. Koreans decided to cook these pancakes on a brazier after they were created. Then, people took powdered honey from various trees (because honey was expensive) and stir fried it with soybean paste before adding pork or beef into the mixture. I imagine that the result of this concoction was a thick, sweet, salty spread that would be good on bread. What do you think? Would it taste like peanut butter or Nutella?
Let me know your ideas in the comments below. Also, I’d like to mention that the first jjajangmyeon (jjajangmyeon) was made in 1947 by an immigrant that arrived from Manchuria. In order to make this noodle dish, he took some black soybean paste mixed with starch and fried it with dried anchovies and onions. He then added seasoning made from meat stock powder and glutinous rice flour into the mixture before serving it to customers.
Did you know that there are so many interesting Korean food origins in this blog post? Please take the time to read this article and let me know what you think in the comments below. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them as well. I’ll do my best to answer them!
Thank you for reading my blog post on the name “Dduk Keebab”. Now, I’m off to eat some dduk! Let me know if you end up trying it out. Thanks again and please have a nice day!
