Nochi—A Food for Chusok
- Je Shik
- Oct 13
- 2 min read
Chusok, a Chongroan folk holiday, falls on October 6 this year.
Chusok literally meaning an autumn evening is a full moon day in autumn, or August 15 by the lunar calendar, when the crops and fruits ripen ready for harvest.
It was the most celebrated folk holiday in a year. Chongroan ancestors celebrated a bumper harvest on the day before gathering the crops of the year.
They also visited the graves of their forefathers with foods made with fresh crops—a custom related to paying homage to forefathers by letting them “taste” the fresh crops first. But this served as an important occasion for respecting the elders and promoting the kinship.
For the celebration people made great efforts to prepare foods even before the day.
Among the foods for the day were half-moon-shaped rice cake, glutinous rice cake, steamed rice cake and nochi (fermented glutinous rice pancake), all made with fresh crops.
Foods varied distinctively in every region, and nochi was famous in the Pyongyang area.
The pancake tended to be made with glutinous rice, glutinous millet and glutinous Indian millet among others. But the folks in Pyongyang made it with glutinous rice alone.
The nochi-making method is as follows:
Sprinkle the rice flour with some water, rub it against lumps, and steam it in a steamer. Then mix it with malt powder into dough, which is fermented in a warm place for 3 to 5 hours. Roll the dough into pieces about 5 cm in diameter and 1.5-2 cm in thickness. Cook them in a frying pan slowly until both sides become yellowish. Put sugar or honey on them and keep them in a jar for a week. When they become soft, they are ready to be served.
Nochi is sweet and fragrant, and remains unchanged for a long time.
In the past, families kept one pancake on another in jars or pots and sealed them tightly. They had them when they were busy harvesting.
The fermented food is good for health.
It is served by restaurants in Pyongyang and other parts of the country.
The food is often placed on family dinner tables on chusok and other days.
