Dine Like an Expert: Korean Soups & Stews
Ajumama chef Laura Lee gives us an overview of sundubu jjigae, budae jjigae, miyeok guk and other comforting soups and stews.
On the December day we met chef Laura Lee for lunch recently, salt covered the roads and it was 18 degrees out—defintely soup and sweater weather.
We decided to meet up with Laura, owner of the excellent Korean street food truck Ajumama, to better understand something at the heart of Korean cuisine: its soups and stews.
Korean cuisine has been gaining in popularity in Columbus in recent years—just try counting all of the Korean fried chicken and all-you-can-eat Korean barbecue spots that have opened recently. However, the wide variety of interesting and complex soups in Korean cuisine should not be overlooked.
We met for lunch at So Gong Dong, or SGD for short, which is a popular chain specializing in sundubu, a spicy tofu soup. According to chef Laura, this is how restaurants in Korea usually roll: They specialize in one thing, like sundubu jjigae, rather than the broad, boil-the-ocean menus that are more common to Columbus. (That said, SGD also offers Korean barbecue.)
Below is a quick guide to enjoying this vital piece of Korean cuisine, which is perfect for an Ohio winter—though Laura notes that Koreans eat hot bowls of soup no matter the temperature or time of year.
What’s in a Name?
There are four different classes of Korean soups and stews to remember: jjigae, jeongol, guk and tang. When reading a menu, note that these classes are appended to the end of a dish name, for example miyeok guk (a seaweed soup) and kimchi jjigae (spicy kimchi stew).
Jjigae and jeongol are quickly cooked stews often (though not always) meant to be shared family-style. Korean stews can be a little counterintuitive to American cooks. “It’s not what we think of, usually a [long-simmering] stew or something that’s been braised a super long time. It's just thicker and heartier, but they're usually pretty quick,” Laura says.
Meanwhile, guk and tang are similar types of soups that are more brothy than the stews, though they are typically cooked for longer periods of time. A soup with the suffix -guk tends to have a thinner broth than a soup ending in -tang.
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Seven Korean Soups and Stews to Know
Kimchi Jjigae
Probably the most common Korean stew you’ll find anywhere is spicy kimchi jjigae, whose main ingredient is the fermented cabbage staple known as kimchi—and the funkier the better. The stew gets its considerable heat from gochugaru (Korean chili powder) and/or gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste), which are vital to making kimchi.
“It’s a pantry soup. It's like, ‘I found old kimchi at the back of the fridge, and I've got a can of tuna. And I'm a poor college student,’ ’’ Laura says. “That's kind of like their 10-cent ramen, because every [Korean] college student has kimchi from his mother.” Outside the dorm, this bright red stew should arrive at the table piping hot, with rice served on the side.
Pro-Tip: If you have some roasted barley tea (boricha) leftover after your meal, pour it into the stone pot containing rice (known as a dolsot) and mix it with the scorched rice to create a kind of healthy porridge.
Doenjang Jjigae
The ingredient at the heart of this savory but mild stew is fermented soybean paste (doenjang), with other ingredients like potatoes, veggies, tofu and meat serving as supporting actors. This popular Korean stew is a good entry point for those who don’t love a lot of heat. “Doenjang, it’s not like miso, you know. It's got more of that fermented funky kick,” Laura says.
Mandu Guk
Another excellent entry point into Korean soups, mandu guk is comforting and mild—an ideal soup for those who don’t do spicy. This soup features dumplings (mandu) in beef or anchovy broth. Add rice cakes to the soup and it becomes tteok mandu guk, traditionally eaten on New Year’s Day.
Miyeok Guk
This very mild, nutrient-rich seaweed soup (employing an anchovy, seafood or beef broth) is traditionally served to women after they give birth. Miyeok guk is also commonly eaten on birthdays to honor one’s mother.
Reading Rec: Miyeok guk features prominently in Michelle Zauner’s wonderful memoir “Crying in H Mart,” which will leave you both craving Korean food and crying into your soup.
Sundubu Jjigae
“Sundubu jjigae is, at its essence, about the sundubu—the tofu,” Laura says. It features a super-soft and silky tofu, rather than the more firm tofu cubes that you may be familiar with. “When you get [sundubu] at the market, it comes in these tubes. It doesn't even hold a block,” she says.
Sundubu jjigae is usually served with seafood, but some restaurants like SGD let you choose soup add-ons such as beef, pork, veggies, dumplings and more. You can have rice with your stew or opt for ramen noodles or kalguksu (Korean knife-cut noodles).
Pro-Tip: Your server will bring over a raw egg for you to crack into your sundubu jjigae. Laura recommends adding the egg as soon as the soup arrives, when it’s piping hot. (Speaking from experience, be sure to gently slide the egg into the soup so that it doesn’t plop and spray red broth all over your companions:)
Budae Jjigae
Also called “army stew,” this Korean and American mashup has its origins in the hard times of the Korean War and a predecessor soup called kkulkkuri juk. “It's usually like a big, shared hot pot, and it's a derivative of kimchi Jjigae. It came out of people finding stuff in the trash or getting stuff at the [military] base and putting it in soup,” Laura says. Budae jjigae is basically kimchi jjigae with a carnival of ingredients thrown in such as sliced hot dogs, Spam, tofu, Vienna sausages, ramen noodles and more. The stew often comes topped with a slice of Kraft American cheese for good measure. It goes great with beer.
Jeongol
You’ll often find this communal dish under the “Hot Pot” section of a menu. Jeongol is less soupy than guk and often less salty than jjigae, plus the broth in jeongol is poured over the ingredients rather than being cooked together like in jjigae. Traditionally, jeongol was Korean royal court cuisine, while jjigae was considered a dish for the commoners.
Where to Find Good Korean Soups in Columbus
We recommend So Gong Dong Tofu & Korean BBQ (2950 Hayden Road), especially for its sundubu jjigae and tteok mandu guk. (Try to save room for a quick visit to neighboring Tulip Cafe for Turkish desserts.)
Min Ga Korean Restaurant (800 Bethel Road) has a broad Korean menu that includes japchae, bulgogi, Korean BBQ, grilled fish and much more. Min Ga also offers around 30 stews and soups, including budae jjigae, seafood jeongol and gamja tang, a hearty pork neck and potato stew that you don’t often find in Columbus, Laura says.
One of our go-to KBBQ spots, Don Pocha (4710 Reed Road), also boasts a solid soup menu, including seolleong tang, a long-simmering ox bone soup with clear noodles, as well as kalbi tang with short ribs, radish and sweet potato noodles in beef broth. Jjamppong, a spicy Chinese-Korean noodle soup, is a popular lunch order.