The Koreans Favorite Part: Nooroongji
Recipe submitted by: Korean Food
Recipe filed under: Dolsot Bibimbap, Korean Dishes, Traditional Food
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It is without a doubt that the dolsot bibimbap is a popular Korean food both on the domestic and international level. Surprisingly though, it seems that what the Koreans enjoy about the dolsot bibimbap slightly differs from what everyone else enjoys about it.
As if the saying “the best for the last” is really true. The part that the Koreans enjoy the most is at the very bottom of the sizzling hot dish. It is pronounced as “nooroongji” in Korean.
A nooroongji is basically rice that has become hard due a long exposure to the extremely hot surfaces of the dolsot. Therefore, only the rice that is in direct contact with hot dish can “turn in” to what is known by Koreans as nooroongji. Some people might think, “Okay, what’s so good about a hardened rice?” There are a few reasons why the Koreans like it so much.
The first is, as it should be with dishes, the taste. The nooroongji has quite a different taste than the rest of the rice in the dolsot bibimbap. Because it has been hardened, the rice is quite crunchy, making the chewing more enjoyable along with the taste. Also, as nooroongjis are first steamed between the rest of the rice above it and the hot dish beneath it, a lot of the “juice” of dolsot bibimbap soaks inside the rice. Consequently, when the rice becomes dry and hard again (now called a nooroongji), it now has the taste of dolsot bibimbap inside the rice. So, when you chew on the nooroongji you can taste the scent of the whole bibimbap in a unique way.
Part of scraping the nooroongjis is fun too. As nooroongjis are first steamed and then hardened, they tend to stick onto the dolsot. Therefore, it is quite hard to scrap the nooroongjis. Koreans use spoons to scrap the nooroongjis, which often the children enjoy doing (although they’re not that good at it!).
The dolsot bibimbap is certainly a delicious dish. While many people are aware of its overall taste and look, it has a lot of unique parts to it which unfortunately many outsiders are not aware of. Nooroongji is one of them: popular among Koreans, but unfortunately not that widely known. Next time you get yourself a dolsot bibimbap, don’t forget to try the nooroongji’s before the waitress takes the dish away! You certainly will enjoy it!
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Nooroongi is one of my very favorite dishes from my childhood. It’s not limited to the scrapings from the bottom of dolsot bibimbap. It’s basically the hard scrapings off the bottom of ANY burnt rice dish, and is most commonly made from the burnt bottoms of just plain boiled rice itself.
Back in the day before rice cookers, when rice was cooked over a flame or on a stovetop, rice would often burn onto the bottom of the pan, especially if left unattended and forgotten. If you did manage to burn your rice, no biggie–in fact, it was a treat. I used to ASK my mom to burn the rice! lol
Water is added to the burnt rice and the rice is re-boiled. The boiling water loosens the burnt-on rice from the bottom, and the rice is scraped up during boiling to create a sort of thick starchy soup. The resulting taste is a nutty flavor akin to chestnuts, perhaps (as long as the burns are REALLY black…that batch of rice would be no good). This is TRUE nooroongi. In fact, nowadays, instant nooroongi–translated as “scorched rice”–is now available in stores. Just like cup-a-soup bowls in which you add hot water and fold over the lid again, so it is with instant nooroongi: they provide the scorched rice, and you boil it with your hot water. FANTASTIC!!!!