Mandu Madness

This may sound improbable, but in recent weeks I'd forgotten just how good cheap food can be. Maybe it comes from being too excited to try as many restaurants as possible in Tokyo. Maybe it comes from forgetting that most good food starts from real hunger, the kind where you are willing to throw wet paste into boiling water and hope for the best.

From this primordial pot comes the dumpling. Nearly everybody's got one. Polish pirogi, Cantonese dim sum, German spaetzle, American chicken-'n'. In Japan, they are called gyoza, a turn on the Chinese jiaozi. No matter where you are, the basics remain the same: some form of processed grain, a pot with liquid, meat filling if you're lucky, and the obvious absence of an oven.

In Korea, they are called mandu. If they are fried they become yaki-mandu, a name built on the Japanese word for grilled. You say gnocchi (Italian) or buuz (Mongolian), I say yaki mandu is fun to say and a joy to eat. A plate of a dozen usually costs about $3.50 or less from a Korean ramyen shop. Better yet, somebody on the premises makes each of these little guys by hand. Those above, filled with spicy kimchi, are awaiting their fate of steaming or frying. I like them both ways, but had them steamed a couple of nights ago.

I also had a full helping of kimbap, the ultimate Korean snack food (only according to me; sorry if I got your hopes up). It may look like sushi, but look again. It's usually filled with carrot, cucumber, fake crab meat, yellow radish, egg and spam or ham. (I've had both and can't decide which works better.) I know, you're dying to go out and get some.

But I'm telling you, there's something about the combination of this sweet, salty, chewy, and ricy roll that gets to me. I think my kimbap crush comes from the stone soup theory. On their own, each ingredient ranges from meager to you've-got-to-be-kidding-me. Together, cut thinly and bolstered by rice, each bite becomes balanced and filling.

Plus, it's pretty to look at and usually only about $2 a roll. It beats the hell out of a Big Mac any day.