Sorry for the absence of late. Our lives have become crazy with the addition of an exchange student, school starting, and me temporarily returning to work. All good things, but still keeping us very busy. Anyway, back to the topic–muk (묵).
Our exchange student is from South Korea so we’ve recently been out a couple of times to our local Korean restaurants. And our son has developed a love of a certain banchan that looks like gelatin. I think we’d asked what it was once, but had forgotten so our exchange student reminded us. It’s muk!
There are several different types of muk each made from a different type of powder, but our son loves nokdumuk (녹두묵), which is clear and made with mung bean powder then seasoned with soy sauce and sesame oil.
Last night we were eating with friends at our favorite Korean restaurant and asked how muk is made since our son loves it so much. Well, it’s made from mung bean starch powder (label might say “green bean”) and apparently takes a lot of stirring to make. When I said that we’d just come to the restaurant for it, our friend (the owner) gave me some to take home. So our family will get to enjoy it without the work. 🙂
If you’re interested Maangchi has a tutorial on making this banchan. Maybe one day I’ll have to give it a try. www.maangchi.com/recipe/cheongpomuk-muchim
The Korean Way 
Wow, mook! I haven’t had this is ages. Folks are usually so surprised when they’re served acorn mook. My friends never believed that any part of an acorn was edible.