(This venue is closed.) "Like squirrels eat," she said, pantomiming with two hands to her lips.
Circling through this Korean market, my first impression of the congealed brown substance above (shown after I'd removed the plastic lid) was pig's blood, but it seemed too pale. Unrefrigerated, too. A squint at the label (below; click for a better look), and an inquiring look at the counterwoman, confirmed that "acorn" meant acorn. Good thing I wasn't shopping in the store I visited days later; I'd never have asked about a container of "jellied starch."
Acorns are very astringent, as I learned to my chagrin in junior outdoorsman days. Once the nuts are leached of their tannins, however, the resulting dotori mook (also dotori muk; $2.99 per pound; $4) is very bland, even in combination with scallions, garlic, and sesame seeds, and without a detectable flavor of its own. The counterwoman graciously comped me on a small tub of some chili-pepper condiment, which I greedily swabbed up with sliced-off cubes of acorn jelly.
Jahn Chi Jahn Chi
138-26 Northern Blvd. (Union-Bowne Sts.), Flushing, Queens
718-461-3030
