Page 16 • The ReMarker • March 9, 2018 • Life
THE INSIDE SCOOP 30 minutes with... Mujin Kwun
Becoming a sensation through his Instagram account, junior Mujin Kwun draws on his talents by making and decorating his own, homemade ice cream to share with the community.
A gallery of ice cream art > Mango sorbet
> Mint with brownie
> Chocolate peanut butter PREPARING THE ICE CREAM Mixing cream together, junior Mujin Kwun preps all the ingredients for the ice cream recipe he’s making.
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unior Mujin Kwun reaches into the fridge at his house and grabs a pint of dark chocolate raspberry ice cream. He scoops the last bit of his last pint of ice cream into a bowl. A truly bitter-sweet moment. He’s finally conquered every flavor the store had to offer. From “S’mores” to “Butter Brickle,” — he’s had them all. Now, it’s up to him to make his own flavors. ··· Last November, Kwun decided to experiment with his own ice cream flavors. Ranging from peanut butter with a strawberry jam swirl to sweet potato casserole with maple pecan, none of Kwun’s ice cream flavors are the same. “I’ve always liked ice cream,” Kwun said, “but I don’t like eating the same ice cream twice, so I went to the store and tried different kinds of ice cream. One day, I ran out of ice cream to eat. It was a very low point, and I didn’t know what to do. In my misery, I decided to just make my own ice cream flavors.” What separates Kwun’s ice cream from the average ice cream store’s is the flexibility Kwun has when making ice cream completely from scratch. A well-crafted ice cream, Kwun believes, must be creamy,
flavorful and most importantly: thick. “Most stores have to use a pre-made mix because they don’t want to deal with what they can’t afford, buying a pasteurizer and getting all the licenses that they need,” Kwun said. “So they buy the pre-made mix, and you can’t really do much with that.” Although the standard recipe for ice cream consists of milk, cream, sugar and egg yolks, Kwun has his own special way of doing it, which he believes contributes to its unique texture and taste. Creating a new flavor almost every week,
Kwun allows himself to find new favorites, quenching his growing obsession for more and more abstract flavors. “Peanut butter with chocolate flakes and honeycomb ice cream [are my favorite homemade] flavors,” Kwun said, “and there are still more flavors to come. Kwun has experimented with all kinds of different flavors and techniques. At one point, he even tried making sorbet, which requires more fruit and does not consist of milk or cream. Safe to say, it did not go as planned. “[The sorbet] didn’t freeze, and it was just liquid,” Kwun said. “Then I just froze it, and then it just became ice.” Kwun also considered expanding his
homemade ice cream into a business. However, he is a bit apprehensive due to the high cost it takes to produce it. “I’m not sure [whether to sell ice cream or not],” Kwun said. “Getting the permits and facilities necessary to sell ice cream is expensive.” Inspired by shops he followed on Instagram and traveled around the U.S. to try, like Salt & Straw, Ample Hills Creamery and Smitten Ice Cream, Kwun updates his own Instagram with his latest creations, with drawn-in faces on the ingredients and a cookies-and-cream flavored ice cream that resembles the surface of the moon. “I make ice cream whenever I feel like it,” Kwun said. “You’ll know when I make ice cream if you follow me on Instagram, which you should do—@Mujinkwun.” Although the average person may eat ice cream for a pastime, Kwun considers ice cream beyond a pastime. It’s a part of who he is. “From making ice cream, I learned that ice cream is yummy, ice cream is an art and ice cream is about succeeding and failing, and I learned how to make ice cream,” Kwun said. “To me, ice cream means warmth. I don’t feel comfortable going to bed without downing a pint or two of high quality ice cream.”
• Story Tianming Xie, Sahit Dendekuri Photos Adnan Khan
The Bottom Line The Washington D.C. Trip
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Jayden Musco, seventh-grader
The situation: For the first
time, 25 seventh and eighth-graders, accompanied by seventh grade humanities instructor Meagan Frazier, eighth grade humanities instructor Timothy Mank and History and Social Sciences Department chair David Fisher, will take a trip to Washington D.C. March 8-14. The one-week tour includes visiting the National Mall, the site of the Battle of Gettysburg and several historically significant monuments.
It’s America. You have to know where you came from.
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I’m looking forward to seeing the memorials, museums, the White House and history.
Keats Leffel, seventh-grader
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We’re going to Washington D.C. because both the seventh and eighth grade humanities courses focus on American history, so we’re hoping to see all of the sites that we talk about in class.
Meagan Frazier, seventh
grade humanities instructor
> Apple pie
> Raspberry rose sorbet
> Cookies and cream
Source: Courtesy Mujin Kwun