Tasty rolls but try to avoid the lines

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Tasty rolls but try to avoid the lines

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Mijin’s Buckwheat rolls By Cho Jae-eun

It’s sad to say, but as a devoted food-lover, I have sacrificed more to satisfy food cravings than I have trying to pursue other endeavors, whether it’s short-term love interests or major academic accomplishments. In my senior year at university I almost missed a midterm for a contemporary poetry class because I lost track of time while eating naengmyeon (Korean cold noodles) at one of my favorite restaurants.
Over the years, however, maybe I have grown up a bit. One thing I hardly ever do these days is wait in line to get into a popular eatery. It’s one thing to eat tteokbokgi (red-pepper rice cakes) at a crowded stand, shoulder to shoulder with the person next to you, but it is quite another to wait in line 30 minutes to get a small table at a well-known tteokbokgi booth in Sinchon just to indulge in the 2,000-won snack. And as an experienced hand, the Sinchon tteokbokgi wasn’t worth the wait ― it’s just slightly chewier tteok (rice cake).
So when I saw the long line in front of Mijin, a restaurant near Kyobo Books in Gwanghwamun specializing in buckwheat noodles, I just shook my head. But because my companion and I had walked for quite a while in the blistering heat, I concluded that standing still would be more pleasant than trying to find another place.
We ordered cold buckwheat noodles (5,000 won, $5.40) and a buckwheat roll (5,000 won).
It’s true that buckwheat doesn’t have a strong aroma or flavor to detect in the first place, but the noodles still had nothing more to offer than any other restaurant specializing in buckwheat. The cold broth it came with was too sweet for my taste and again, plain. The julienned green onions (which you add to the broth) and grated radish were stuffed into a large plastic container all wilted and tragic-looking on each table.
The rolls were well done. The cooked buckwheat wrapping was quite pleasant, with a delicate nutty flavor and an appropriate texture without being too starchy or chewy. The filling, a mixture of ground pork and tofu with vegetables, was clean-cut, not too heavy.
Overall, however, Mijin was too ordinary for its 30-minute line, kind of like that generic girl in school whom the boys fancied but the girls secretly disliked.

Mijin is located in Gwanghwamun, northern Seoul. The nearest subway is Gwanghwamun Station, Line No. 5, exit 1. For more information, call (02) 730-6198.


By Cho Jae-eun Staff Writer [jainnie@joongang.co.kr]
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