Tonight’s Dinner Is Bouncy
Miso rice cakes with spinach and peas, sesame-brown butter udon and cheesy baked gnocchi are chewy, springy suppers.
On a rainy Saturday last month, I sat down in a salon chair and made peace with the fact that I’d be there some six-plus hours. Such is the reality of a brunette desperate to have a bit of blonde fun.
Finally, it was time for the blowout. I always ask for big, voluminous hair, yet it never comes out quite how I like. My stylist and I talked at length about exactly what I was going for. It wasn’t just body; it was bounce. I wanted hair with some spring to it, with verve, with texture, with a little reverb. I wanted hair like a Korean rice cake.
Allow me to stretch for that reach: Korean rice cakes (tteok) are the pinnacle of bounce, with a chewiness that only briefly resists you before it graciously gives.
In the kitchen, it doesn’t get much bouncier or springier than Eleanore Park’s new recipe for miso rice cakes with spinach and peas, with its chewy tteok and abundance of quick-cooking, in-season produce. It is vitality in a skillet. “This is my new favorite recipe,” wrote a reader. “The flavor is so balanced and multidimensional: the sweetness of the peas, the umami of the miso and soy, the bright fresh flavors of the herbs.”
