MealMap #59
Where does this dish come from?
Name reveals in 2 guesses
Cooked rice pressed by hand into a round lump about the size of a fist — which is exactly what the name means. Seasonings and fillings are worked through the rice: seaweed, sesame, beans, chopped vegetables, tuna or ham, sometimes with a perilla leaf wrapped around it. It turns up in packed lunch boxes, as a light meal or between-meal snack, as street food, and as a foil to spicy dishes. Easy to carry, it fed soldiers and civilians alike in wartime, and volunteers once made batches of it to supply protesters during an uprising — it remains a symbol of that city. Commercialised around 1990, it became popular as a cheap, quick food during the 1997 financial crisis.
- cooked rice
- salt
- sesame oil
- sesame seeds
- dried seaweed
- beans
- tuna
- ham
- chopped vegetables
- perilla leaves
1 / 3Photo: Chloe Lim · CC BY 2.0 · Modified