Myeong-yi Namul (aka myeongi namul, 명이나물) is the Korean name for for pickled leaves of Korean mountain garlic. Now it’s not really garlic as far as I can tell, it’s called like this because it tastes a bit like garlic and grows mostly in the mountains.
My (so far unconfirmed research) shows that this plant is called victory onion, Alpine leek, Alpine broad-leaf allium, or Allium victorialis. Apparently the name stems from the German Siegwurz, which means “root of victory”, because it used to be worn as an amulet to protect its wearer against bad spirits. (source)
That being said—when I consumed it with my Korean barbeque, it didn’t taste anything like onions or garlic. First of all, it were the leaves we consumed, and then they were pickled, so they tasted a bit sweet and had a bit of a nice bite to them.
Gangnamkitchen has a great post that explains how to pickle these yourself.
Leave a Reply