Buckwheat

Memil (also momil) is common buckwheat, Fagopyrum esculentum. Despite its name it is not a cereal grass but a fast-growing annual of the knotweed family, with reddish hollow stems, heart-shaped leaves and clusters of small white or pinkish flowers. It is thought to come from the cool temperate north of East Asia — the Lake Baikal, Manchuria and Amur region — and Korean records first mention it in the medical text Hyangyak gugeupbang.

Buckwheat tolerates drought, cold and thin soil, and it can go from sowing to harvest in a short season. That made it a classic famine-relief crop, listed as such in the Sejong-era Gugwang byeokgokbang, and a mainstay of high, cool, rocky farmland. Summer buckwheat is sown in May; the more common autumn crop is sown in July and harvested in October.

Those mountain regions — Gangwon, and historically Hamgyeong and Pyeongan in the north — built their noodle traditions on it. Naengmyeon, buckwheat noodles in chilled broth or dongchimi brine, is a northern specialty, and Gangwon has its own makguksu. Bongpyeong in Pyeongchang is the setting of Lee Hyo-seok's 1936 short story When the Buckwheat Flowers Bloom, and each September the Hyoseok Cultural Festival there celebrates the white fields and serves buckwheat noodles, pancakes and muk.

Memil-muk is made by grinding soaked buckwheat, straining it, and cooking the settled starch into a soft jelly. It is comparatively recent in the written record, appearing in early 20th-century cookbooks, and was long a humble winter night snack sold by street vendors, dressed with chopped kimchi. Buckwheat is also made into dumpling wrappers, pancakes, and — on Jeju — noodles and hand-torn dough soup.

• More protein and minerals than rice: Per the Korean Food Composition Table, buckwheat has about twice the protein of white rice and is notably rich in magnesium and potassium.
• Rutin, traditionally prized: Buckwheat leaves and flowers are a source of the flavonoid rutin, and Korean sources long linked it to circulation; research on health effects in people is ongoing.
• A serious allergen: Buckwheat allergy can cause hives, asthma and life-threatening anaphylaxis, from eating it or breathing in flour, and is a recognized problem in Korea, Japan and northern China. Strict avoidance is the main treatment. Korea requires buckwheat to be declared on food labels.
• Gluten-free grain, but check the noodles: Buckwheat itself is a gluten-free pseudocereal, but many buckwheat noodles also contain wheat flour or other starches, so people with celiac disease should read labels.