Eomuk, Fish cake, and Oden...

 

These days, eumuk may be the most common food found on the menu in Bucheonian beer places or bars.  The picture below was taken in an establishment called Insaeng Makju, which is on the alley behind Hyundai department store. In Korea, draft beer restaurants are usually called HOFs. The reason is that the famous Korean beer company OB created a draft beer place brand in 1986 and named it HOF. This is the case the specific brand replaced ordinary nouns.  I bet you may find out hundreds of HOFs sign, if not thousands, here and there. Fried chicken and eumuk are very popular side dishes with draft or bottled beer.

Eomuk is a Korean food usually served in a bowl with soup. It is basically fish meat processing food made by combining mashed fish flesh, starch, flour, or rice flour and hardening them into jelly like solids. According to chefs and food specialists, this type of fish cake eaten in Korea originally from Japan where people have eaten such dishes since long time ago.  Some people argue that eomuk was from Portugal in 16 C.

Yesterday, I really enjoyed eomuk with its fish and chewy taste with savory soup.  This time I ordered ice frosting draft beer and later highball for my drink. It is also interesting trend that highballs which used to be available only at izakaya style bars are also served in regular Korean restaurants more open.  Winter seems to be perfect time for having eomuk with your favorite drinks. You may also find out eumuk gimbap or Korean rolls in which fish cakes, vegetables and seasoned rice are wrapped in dried seaweed. This spicy eomuk gimbap is my best breakfast choice over weekend.

In English, eomuk is usually translated as 'fish cake', which is a food baked or fried after mixing minced fish meat with flour or starch and other ingredients. It has already existed in the United States before direct contact with East Asia. There are many Koreans who only know cake as a dessert food like birthday cake, no wonder so many people think that the translation is wrong. Of course, even so, fish cake is a general term for foods like 'fish meat dumplings' around the world, so when talking about fish cake eaten in Korea or Japan, 'Kamaboko' or 'Japanese fish cake', or just 'eomuk' by translating fish cake as it is. Nowadays, there is growing consensus, at least among food specialists, that ‘fish cake’ is appropriate translation of eomuk. 

There is also a very popular food called oden, which is Japanese food that is processed and served in a similar manner. When you order oden, however, you may realize that the pot not only has braised skews of fish cakes, but also varieties of things consisting of meat, different parts of chicken and even vegetables impaled in separate wood skewers dipped in a savory soup. Although there is no doubt that oden is originally Japanese food per se, it is very common street food here and is not difficult to see one or two scenes of people eating oden at a cart bar in cold winter days.

Personally, I have sweet and bitter memories associated with oden. One of the most favorite hangouts during my college days was the oden bar named Twodari whose franchises are still in business as was 30 years ago. Me and my best friend used to go there for sake, soju, and sometimes beer and chatted for several hours.  We had gathering with several guys in a binge drinking like event lasting almost all night. All those fragrant memories with smell of soups and cooked skews…then 2019, just before pandemic had started, I heard that my best friend, after agonizing periods of failure of business, chose forgetfulness. When I arrived in funeral house the image of oden with haze arising from hot soup did occur to me, realizing that I could not have such food with him anymore. Whenever I have such foods with drinks, it is same as summoning reminiscences of what were the best moments in my youth.