Chungmu Gimbap (Tongyeong Rice Rolls)

Chungmu gimbap takes its name from Chungmu, the name Tongyeong carried as a city before its 1995 merger. The rolls contain nothing but rice; the flavor comes from what sits beside them. Both national encyclopedias regard it as a dish of the years after liberation in 1945 and record two oral accounts. In one, fishermen who could not stop for regular meals took gimbap to sea, but in summer the filled rolls spoiled, so they began rolling the rice plain and packing radish kimchi separately. In the other, vendors sold it to passengers at the old Tongyeong ferry terminal, a hub for boats to the islands and to Busan, which earned it the nickname baenmeori gimbap, "ship's-bow gimbap." The common thread is keeping rice and banchan apart so the meal would last without refrigeration.

The side dishes changed with the local catch. The folk encyclopedia, citing the national agricultural institute's dictionary of traditional local foods and the official city history, says that early vendors threaded webfoot octopus, small squid and mussels from nearby anchovy grounds onto bamboo skewers and sold them with the rice and radish — hence the alternative name kkochi gimbap, skewer gimbap. Cuttlefish, plentiful around Tongyeong in the 1970s, later became the standard seafood. It was laborers' food, cheap and heaping, with more side dish than rice; another nickname is halmae gimbap, grandma's gimbap.

The dish became nationally known after it was entered in the food contest at Gukpung 81, a large state-organized culture festival held on Seoul's Yeouido Plaza in 1981, and reported in the press. Today a street of dozens of chungmu gimbap shops runs along the Tongyeong waterfront, and the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture observes that the dish has drifted upmarket: smaller portions, higher prices. For filled rolls, see gimbap; for the city, see Tongyeong.

• Lean seafood: squid supplies protein, selenium and vitamin B12 with very little fat.
• Radish: Korean radish adds vitamin C, folate and crunch; the rolls themselves are plain rice and laver. See vegetables and namul.
• Low in fat: with no frying and only a little sesame oil, the meal is light in fat.

• Tongyeong standard: six-cut sheets of laver around plain rice, with seasoned squid or cuttlefish, radish kimchi and, often, fish cake; a cup of radish-greens soup comes alongside.
• Kkochi gimbap (early style): webfoot octopus, small squid and mussels seasoned and threaded on bamboo skewers, as the folk encyclopedia describes the first vendors' version.
• Radish side: small cubes like kkakdugi or larger, chunkier seokbakji, salted and dressed with jeotgal and chili.
• Substitutions: baby octopus (nakji), small squid or fish cake in place of squid, as the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture notes.