| “ |
You take the moon, and you take the sun |
” | |
| —Mung's line in the intro | |||
Mung Daal is the owner and head chef of Mung Daal's Catering Company, and the deuteragonist of the series.
Personality[]
Mung is typically kind and friendly, and has exhibited a good amount of patience for his apprentice and his outlandish antics. He can, however, be quite stern if that patience reaches its limit.
He takes a great amount of pride in his skills as a chef, though his attitude will often teeter between humble and boastful. He does not take well to his cooking skills being challenged, which often causes him to make rash decisions leading to his own stumbles.
Despite being married, he takes great delight in impressing other women, and likes to claim he is a "ladies' man", a statement that frequently, and humorously, blows up in his face. He is prone to demonstrating his ability to do "squats" to impress women. Despite his womanizing ways, in the end Mung always maintains his loyalty to Truffles.
He is immensely proud of his mustache, and will comment about it if the opportunity to do so arises. He also appears to be very persnickety about properly caring for and maintaining it- even to the point that he would not dive into the ocean to rescue Chowder, for fear that his "mustache might get wet".
Appearance[]
Mung Daal has blue skin, a large nose, white hair in a small tuft atop his head, bushy eyebrows and a long mustache that curves upward. In his prime, Mung had blue-colored hair, and wore his hair in a bouffant style. As a child, Mung had no mustache, and his skin was colored turquoise rather than blue.
Mung Daal usually wears an outfit consisting of a professional chef's coat, a red and green plaid-patterned kilt, brown shoes and tall black socks. He also appears to wear thick glasses, which he is utterly blind without. In his prime, Mung wore a white long-sleeved vest and red bowtie in addition to his kilt, socks ,and brown shoes. As a child, he wore a patterned orange Ushanka hat with a yellow shirt and orange kilt, along with brown shoes. Mung did not wear glasses as a child, suggesting his sight weakened over time.
History[]
Mung was raised by Lo Mein, his previous cooking master. Like his own apprentice, Mung was said to have loved all kinds of food during his apprenticeship, and was well on his way to becoming a professional chef. This suffered a major derailing when Lo Mein introduced Mung to the concept of "ladies", causing the young Mung to instantly become obsessed with women and diminishing his focus on cooking. This would lead to the infamous Wonton Bombs incident, where Mung's lady obsession lead him to cook a dish so incorrectly that it leads to both his master and an entire audience of women becoming horribly sick. The incident prompted Lo Mein to declare Mung "a failure for life". Despite this, Mung's education in cooking would continue.
At some point prior to becoming a professional chef, Mung courted and married a pixie named Truffles. Some time later, Mung would go on to receive his certificate in cooking, and became one of Marzipan's city's most celebrated chefs. By the start of the series, Mung and Truffles have been married for 450 years, has developed an intense, bitter rivalry with fellow master chef Endive, and has taken on the young Chowder as his apprentice.
Appearances[]
- Mung has appeared in every episode of Chowder, except for "The Apprentice Scouts."
Relationships[]
Chowder[]
Despite having no children, Mung Daal has apparently assumed the role of fatherhood for his apprentice, taking care of Chowder as a parent would, and allowing him to live in-house. Although Mung does his best to care for his young ward, he is often exasperated at Chowder's enthusiasm, carelessness and otherwise oblivious nature towards cooking, which often strains their relationship.
Truffles[]
| “ |
I can't see through walls, woman! |
” | |
| —Mung to Truffles after she shouts about an order by a customer. | |||
Stereotypical of elderly couples, Mung and Truffles bicker very frequently and occasionally have disagreements that manifest in confrontation, but they also appear to love one another- even if said love happens to be expressed in bizarre ways.
Shnitzel[]
| “ |
Honey, you gotta pay Shnitzel! |
” | |
| —Mung to Truffles about paying Shnitzel actual money. | |||
Schnitzel is a hired helper of the catering company, and though he frequently complains about his work, he does appear to care for Mung, Truffles and Chowder, and often uses his immense strength to get them out of trouble. Mung , in turn, considers Shnitzel to be his best friend, although this often results in him being involuntarily dragged into Mung and Chowder's antics.
Gazpacho[]
| “ |
Congratulations, maybe next time, you'll try for two? |
” | |
| —Mung to Gazpacho about his exercise routine. | |||
Gazpacho is Mung's friend, and also the supplier of the ingredients he uses for preparing dishes. At times, Mung can become annoyed by Gazpacho's behavior and inability to escape the suffocating grasp of his mother, but will always pull through for his friend in the end.
Ms. Endive[]
| “ |
Ooh! Good idea, this will teach her to act like she's better than me! |
” | |
| —Mung is told by Shnitzel to taunt Endive, and gleefully does so. | |||
Ms. Endive is Mung's rival, and the two share an unreasonable animosity towards one another, frequently looking to prove their superiority. Despite their constant scuffles, Mung is not above treating Endive with respect when she's down on her luck, showing the two can be courteous when necessary.
Lo Mein[]
Lo Mein is Mung's previous cooking master, and given the amount of distance Mung has put between himself and his master, their relationship is a volatile one. Frequently expressing disdain and insensitivity for his former apprentice, Lo Mein does not seem to have a high opinion of Mung or his cooking capabilities.
Trivia[]
- He is named after both Mung beans, and "Moong Dal", a South Asian dish that is prepared using primarily Mung beans.
- Mung was originally meant to have an Indian accent since in real life, Mung beans are an Indian delicacy, but Cartoon Network would deem it too racist. Instead, Mung speaks with an authentic British accent, which his voice actor Dwight Schultz based off of Frank Morgan in The Wizard of Oz (1939).
- C.H. Greenblatt had originally planned on Mung to have a huge "Spoon", but changed his mind.
- As reference to this in Sleep Eater, while Mung was guarding the fridge with Schnitzel, Mung could not decide if he wanted to have the Fork of Power or the Spoon of Power, so he kept switching with Schnitzel.
- The end of his nose is similar to a Mung Bean.
- It's unclear whether or not he's human.
Gallery[]
