Rabokgi (offically rabokki) is a combination of ddeokbokgi (tteokbokki) and ramyeon (Jpn. ramen, but not quite the same thing). Here's my 60%-keto version.
How did this come together, and why is it only 60% keto?
After trying and liking the vegetable tofu that my building's grocery sells, it occurred to me that that tofu could be used in place of Korean ddeok (rice cakes) in making ddeokbokgi. As for the ramyeon, well, I've liked the edamame pasta I'd bought some time ago as an experiment, so it occurred to me that I also had a ramyeon analogue. The fish cakes... well, I wasn't about to make my own, so I stuck to regular odeng (also called eomuk). As for veggies, I bought a bottle of simple matkimchi, which provided all of the vegetal substance a guy could ask for—cabbage, onions, etc. The red sauce was a modest tablespoon of gochujang plus water and BochaSweet as a sweetener, and I dumped in the rest of my Lee Kum Kee chili crisp (oil plus chili flakes) to round everything out.
So—why only 60% keto? First off, if something is only 60% keto, it's not really keto at all. Second, look at the ingredients I used: processed fish cakes are carby (23% carbs); edamame pasta, despite being less carby than regular pasta, is still 10-20% net carbs; gochujang is about 50% carbs; and it didn't help that, in some of the odeng, there were little bits of regular ddeok stuck in them. All in all, this wasn't a keto solution at all, but it nevertheless cut down significantly on total potential carbs.
Still, after eating this lovely mess, I can say the pasta was a mistake—utterly irrelevant, and not very tasty in that context. If I ever make this again (and I might: the use of veggie tofu in place of ddeok proved to be a rare stroke of genius), I plan to skip the noodles. They might work better in a Korean soup—another experiment for down the line.
Lunch was, despite its flaws, pretty enjoyable. I had thought about supplementing it with two salads from downstairs, but right now, I'm very full. Maybe I'll save salads for Wednesdays.
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