Juk, Juk and more Juk

Juk is to Korea as chicken noodle soup is to the United States. Juk is the answer to all ailments here in Korea. Have a stuffy nose, eat juk. Feel like you're coming down with the flu, eat juk. Your stomach is upset, eat juk. I admit it is a soothing bowl of goodness, though I stay strong to my sleeve of saltines, 7-Up and buttered toast when really feeling under the weather.

The juk restaurant we went to was called "Juk Story". It's a chain that's pretty easy to find around Seoul. On the wall they had these inspirational words to say about juk. To best describe juk it's a thick rice porridge. It often has different types of seafood in it as well as vegetables, meat and occasionally cheese (Kwang cringed when I ordered juk with cheese). 

Here is Kwang's juk. He ordered the oyster and mushroom juk. Every order comes with little side dishes of regular kimchi, white kimchi, marinated shredded beef, and a red chili paste root vegetable concoction.

 

Here's a close up of the juk. On top they put ground sesame seeds and finely chopped dried seaweed. You then stir it all together. 

 

Here's my chicken and cheese juk. I usually don't find juk that flavorful, but this type was incredibly delicious. There were big chucks of broccoli in with the rice and shredded chicken. This is sort of the non-traditional flavor adapted for Korea's changing taste. I thoroughly enjoyed it.