Follow this foodie’s guide to find the best regional cuisine. Check out Food map: Eat your way around Korea | CNNGo.com By Violet Kim.
1. Seolleongtang (설렁탕), Seoul
The deep, full flavor comes from the ox bone, which is cooked in the soup for ten-odd hours. The pale, white’ish color comes from the ox-bone marrow.
Try it: Sinsun Seolnongtang (신선설농탕), 5-38 Changcheon-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul (서울특별시 서대문구 창천동 5-38); +82 2 393 0040; www.kood.co.kr
Uijeongbu Budaejjigae (의정부 부대찌개), Gyeonggi Province
Buddaejjigae, literally “Army Base stew,” dates to the Korean War, when hungry chefs had to be creative with their limited resources.
Today there’s a “buddaejjigae” street (Gyeonggi-do Uijeongbu-si Uijeongbu1-dong) in Uijeongbu with a high concentration of buddaejjigae restaurants.
Try it: Boyeong Restaurant (보영식당), 214-127 Uijeongbu 1-dong, Uijeongbu-si, Gyeonggi-do (경기도 의정부시 의정부1동 214-127); +82 31 845 0579
Pocheon Makgeolli (포천 막걸리), Gyeonggi Province
Pocheon’s claim to fame is makgeolli, a Korean rice wine, slightly sour, mostly sweet and easily identified by its creamy, off-white color.
Pocheon’s makgeolli has Pocheon’s equally famous mineral-rich water, which is what gives the makgeolli its characteristic flavor. According to “Makgeolli Tour,” by Jeong Eun-suk, Pocheon’s water is said to have affected the taste of kimchi in the villages.
Try it: Idong Makgeolli (이동막걸리); 120-8 Dopyeong-ri, Idong-myeon, Pocheon-si, Gyeonggi-do (경기도 포천시 이동면 도평리 120-8), +82 31 535 7150; www.이동막걸리.com; You can sample the makgeolli here, but for a relaxed drinking session, try take-out or pop into a nearby bar
Chuncheon Dakgalbi and Makguksu (춘천 닭갈비와 막국수), Gangwon Province
Chuncheon, Gangwon-do is known for two things: dakgalbi and makguksu.
Dakgalbi started out as a dish of grilled chicken bits in an area where chicken was cheap. Today, dakgalbi is seasoned and deboned chicken stir-fried with sliced tteok, sweet potato, perilla leaves and cabbage.
Dakgalbi is a recent invention, created in the 1960s. It’s spicy, sweet and meaty, served hot on the same table it’s cooked on.
Makguksu, on the other hand, has been around since the Koryeo Dynasty. It’s spicy, savory and wheaty, served chilled.
Makguksu is buckwheat noodles in a chilled kimchi stock, often with additional flavors in the form of sugar, mustard, sesame oil or vinegar. The noodles are topped with whatever vegetables strike the chef’s fancy.
The harmonious taste of these two dishes together is for the diner to decide, but meanwhile, the twenty-odd dakgalbi restaurants in Chuncheon’s “Dakgalbi Alley” will continue to serve them together.
Try it: Youmi Dakgalbi (유미닭갈비); 51-9 Joyang-dong, Chuncheon-si, Gangwon-do (강원도 춘천시 조양동 51-9), +82 33 244 4455; www.youmi.kr
Byeongcheon Sundae (병천순대), South Chungcheong Province
Sundae, at its most basic, is a type of blood pudding: pig or cow intestines stuffed with glass noodles, ground meat and vegetables. And congealed blood. All steamed into coils of unassuming but tasty meaty goodness, ready to be sliced and served — usually with other pork parts, like lung and heart, on the side.
In Korea, the dish has spawned regional variations — sundae stuffed into squid, sundae made exclusively with large intestine, sundae made with small intestine, sundae of multiple shades of cooked pork blood and finally Byeongcheon sundae, notable for its “especially black color,” finely ground meat and soft, juicy consistency.
Try it: Piggy’s Sundae (돼지네 순대); 166-16 Byeongcheon-ri, Byeongcheon-myeon, Dongnam-gu, Cheongan-si, Cheongcheongnam-do (충청남도 천안시 동남구 병천면 병천리 166-16), +82 41 564 1077
Jeonju Bibimbap (전주 비빔밥), North Jeolla Province
To the Korean noblemen, who were all about ceremony, bibimbap had to have looked pretty damn good on the table, its multi-colored ingredients packed neatly in a bowl.
The irony, of course, is that bibimbap tastes good only after the carefully arranged ingredients are mashed unceremoniously together.
Try it: Jongno Hall (종로회관), 60-1 Jeon-dong, Wansan-gu, Jeonju-si (전주시 완산구 전동 60-1); +82 63 288 4578; jongrofood.jjf.co.kr
Damyang Daetongbap and Tteokgalbi (담양 대통밥과 떡갈비), South Jeolla Province
Damyang is famous for its bamboo. It has a Bamboo Theme Park, Bamboo Festival, a large bamboo garden and bamboo museum.
Damyang daetongbap is rice cooked into the fragrant segment of a bamboo stalk. It’s often cooked with chestnuts, jujubes, pine nuts or other nuts, grains and berries.
The bamboo segment comes from thick, fully formed bamboo more than three years old. Because much of the fragrance of the daetongbap comes from the natural bamboo oils of the bowl, the bamboo is only used once.
Damyang also has tteokgalbi, ground galbi seasoned and shaped into a patty. Tteokgalbi has several advantages over galbi: it’s much softer, while retaining enough chewiness to feel like meat.
Try it: Deokinkwan (덕인관), 408-5 Baekdong-ri, Damyang-eup, Damyang-gun, Jeollanam-do (전라남도 담양군 담양읍 백동리 408-5); +82 61 381 7881; www.deokinkwan.com
Jeonbokjuk (전복죽), Jeju Island
Jeonbokjuk is a rice-based porridge made with chewy abalone and sesame oil, and one of the tributes that Jeju Island residents historically presented to the king.
Try it: Ojo Haenyeoui jip (오조 해녀의 집), 3 Ojo-ri, Seungsan-eup, Seogwipo-si, Jeju-do (제주특별자치도 서귀포시 성산읍 오조리 3); +82 64 784 0893
Masan Agujjim (마산 아구찜), South Gyeongsang Province
Before the blackmouth angler, or the agu’s, meteoric rise to main-dish status at meals as the “meat of the sea,” it was considered ugly and unfit to eat.
Now, agu is the main ingredient in agujjim, a dish of braised blackmouth angler on a bed of bean sprouts and minari (dropwort), saturated in a marinade of chilli pepper powder (gochugaru), soy sauce and garlic.
This glorious, fiery (in color and taste) seafood favorite is eaten all over Korea.
According to “About Korea’s Representative Foods” (대한민국 대표 음식 이야기), agujjim was born in in the 1950s in Masan, Gyeongsangnam-do, in a bar in Odong-dong, Masan, when a poor fisherman brought this lowly fish to the cook who ran the bar and asked her to cook it.
Try it: Granny Gugang’s Agujjim (구강할매아구찜), 185 Odong-dong, Happo-gu, Masan, Changwon-si, Gyeongsangnam-do (경상남도 창원시 마산 합포구 오동동 185); +82 55 246 0492
Eonyang Bulgogi (언양 불고기), Ulsan
Bulgogi, literally “fire meat,” is thinly sliced beef grilled in a distinctive marinade of sugar and soy sauce, sometimes pear juice and usually onions.
Ulsan, Korea’s seventh-largest city, is an industrial center. Yet some of the nation’s best bulgogi can be found there: Eonyang bulgogi.
Hailing from a district known for its many butcher shops, Eonyang bulgogi is not just another regional take, it’s a region-specific brand.
Noted for the freshness of the meat (all meat is served within 24 hours of butchering, and comes only from cows who have calved fewer than three times), Eonyang bulgogi is cooked in a specific way: with white coals, made by patting dirt over reddened coals preheated in a charcoal kiln.
The best part is that this meticulously prepared dish, somehow a product of oil-rig-ridden Ulsan rather than yang-ban-ridden Jeonju, really caught fire only after it was “discovered” in the 1960s by construction workers who were in Ulsan to build the highway.
Try it: Eonyang Traditional Bulgogi (언양 전통 불고기), 167-6 Seobu-ri, Eonyang-eup, Ulju-gun, Ulsan-si (울산시 울주군 언양읍 서부리 167-6); +82 52 262 0940; www.jeontongbulgogi.com
Yeongduk Daegejjim (영덕 대게찜), North Gyeongsang Province
Daegae is the Korean word for “snow crab,” a delectable crab with a thin shell and very long legs — legs which apparently resembled bamboo to some our ancestors, because the “dae” in daegae means “bamboo.”
Yeongdeok Daegejjim isn’t so much a dish — after all, it’s simply steamed snow crab .
According to “About Korea’s Representative Foods”, there was once a king who loved his steamed crab so much that he got it all over his face in his enthusiasm. His concerned servants, thinking such behavior unseemly for a king, banned daegaejjim. But the king, haunted by the taste, commanded that it be brought forth to him again.
Today, Yeongdeok celebrates its snow crab with a festival. Highlights are exactly what might be expected from a festival celebrating delicious seafood: sampling delicious seafood.
Try it: Any of the restaurants on Ganggu Harbor (강구항), such as Myeongga Daegae (명가 대게), 408 Ganggu-ri, Ganggu-myeon, Yeongduk-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do (경상북도 영덕군 강구면 강구리 408번지); +82 54 734-5525
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