부대찌개, army stew

Today I'm going to blog about 부대찌개, Korea's famous "army stew."

During the Korean War, times were tough. Think of all the carnage of the American Civil War, but taking place in a place the size of a medium-size state (like Indiana). I mean, it was awful. People were starving.

The US army had (and still has) a very big army base in a place called 의정부 (Uijeongbu), just north of Seoul (and today lying inside the greater Seoul Metropolitan area). You may have heard of it because it's where M*A*S*H took place. The UN soldiers had plenty of canned meat. The people of 의정부 would get their hands on some spam or hot dogs and prepare it in a very Korean way. They would add water to it and simmer with whatever else they had: ramen noodles, kimchi, other vegetables, and/or spicy chili paste. They called it "army base stew." 찌개 is stew and 부대 means army base. This Korean dish, made out of leftover army rations ad created out of desperation, gained in popularity after the war.

This is a picture of the 부대찌개 served near our place in Dongtan.

부대찌개

It's good and affordable. Plus they have this sweet tree all covered in lights in the restaurant.

Sweet tree.	If you want to try 부대찌개 in 동탄, I recommend this place. It's really good.

View Budae Jjigae in Dongtan in a larger map

Eating intestines

Dongtan has more restaurants specializing in intestines than I have ever seen. No other place in Korea is this obsessed with organ meat. In this blog post you will learn how to identify which restaurants will serve you intestines. You can then avoid them, or try it. I recommend avoiding it.

Tl;dr: If you see a restaurant that says it specialize in 곱창, do not eat there. Unless you want intestines.

곱창 = intestines

But here's the tricky bit: 양, while technically meaning sheep, pretty much also means intestines. My husband and I love mutton. I recognized the word 양 and I told him we could have mutton. The restaurant was full of happy Koreans. We tend to think a full restaurant is a good restaurant. Spoiler alert: We were wrong.

So I order some 양 and they bring us this side dish:

Tripe and liver. Served cold and disgusting.

We had no idea. I mean, I figured the red bloody stuff was liver. I tried it. I didn't gag or anything, but I only had one. We didn't know what the grey stuff on the left was. I guessed shark's skin. It's actually tripe. Basically, the second or third stomach of a cow or sheep. It's one of the parts they probably grind up for that $1.99 ground beef manager's special. I didn't eat the tripe. It felt like it would take a lot of chewing.

They also served us 번데기, silkworm larvae. The Mr. ate almost the whole bowl, so it must have been good. Korean children like to eat them as an after-school snack. I ate one. I thought the taste was musty, like eating a cobweb.


So we weren't happy with the side dishes, but, we thought, no one can screw up mutton. Then they brought out the mutton.

It's mutton, but it's not the right part.

I couldn't even understand what part of the sheep it was. It certainly wasn't the delicious part the Irish put in stews, or the soft beefy part the Brazilians roast. We ate it, even though what looked like fat was exploding out of the pieces of meat on the grill.

So a piece of 양곱창 is complicated. I didn't know it, but it's the intestines cut into bite-sized pieces. Cholesterol spills out of in white puffs. After it cooks for a REALLY long time (you do NOT want to eat undercooked poop tubes), you dip it into some of the sauces on the table. To be honest, the cholesterol is delectable. But it dissolves on your tongue quickly, and you're left with the organ itself. It's chewy, and if they didn't clean it thoroughly enough, EEEWWW UGH I don't even want to think about it. 

The Mr. didn't like the 곱창 as much as I did, and I could only sort of tolerate it. We paid, were unhappy with our meal, and vowed to never eat at that restaurant again. Additionally, we agreed not to order 양 in Korea. I still didn't know what I should have known ...

 A few days later we were trying to find a restaurant. Because the Mr. works so late, our choices of restaurants are somewhat limited. We found an open restaurant. I did NOT order 양. I would never. I mean, tripe, people. We were tired and hungry. I just ordered their specialty.

And OH MY GOD THEY BROUGHT US INTESTINES.

I had not ordered 양. In fact, there were pictures of cows all over the restaurant. I had stupidly ordered  소곱창,  cow intestines. 

So the moral of the story is:  곱창 means intestines. Don't order that.

Obviously I'm too squeamish to get into 곱창, but a number of bloggers and several of my adult students tell me they love it. Other people say that because it is expensive, people eat it just to be extravagant. Apparently having the smell of 곱창 on your clothes is a sign of affluence. If you are adventurous, go ahead, try it. But don't say I didn't warn you.


All restaurants in Dongtan serving 곱창: No stars. For shame.

Places to drink in Dongtan: Munchen Ice Pub ★★★★

Many late-night establishments (like Boss BBQ) insist that patrons order food with their alcohol. But sometimes you don't want grease to dilute the healing magic of fermented sub-nutrition. That's when you need to go to a place where you can just drink. That's why I have this series: Places to Drink in Dongtan.

This series is specifically targeted to the sloppy, drinking masses. You know who you are.

The first place I would like to recommend to you is Munchen Ice Pub. Its name is good for practicing reading Korean. Actually, I would probably not have figured out that 뮌헨 is Munchen if it weren't printed on the windows. But ice has three syllables. That's easy.

뮌헨        아이스    펍

Munchen   Ice           Pub

Munchen Ice Pub

Munchen Ice Pub has one thing that raises it above the other drinking establishments: pints made out of ice that you can then throw at a target. Yes, that's right. Drinking is finally a real sport.

So this is a pint made out of ice.

Ice pint filled with rice beer

Now, I am aware that beer served ice cold disguises the flavor, but when it comes to Korean lager made out of rice, that's probably for the best.

So you drink your cold beer. Then, you stand behind a line drawn on the floor, and throw your ice mug at a target.

Like so.

The Mr. throwing his ice stein at the target

If you hit the target, you get a prize. Prizes range from 30,000 ₩ to a free beer. It's fun. It's just a splash at carnival games. Plus, it's hard. I've been there three times and I've yet to see anyone hit it.

If you do choose to eat at Munchen Ice Pub, you should know that the food is edible, but not memorable. Everything is, indeed, food, but it's overpriced and not very delicious. I recommend eating elsewhere.

The seafood noodle dish, inspired by Japanese cuisine, is good, but it's greasy. The Mr. and I liked it.

Seafood noodle dish at Munchen Ice Pub

But we also tried a salad which was not good. The salad is fried chicken and fruit on a bed of iceberg lettuce, drowned in sweet dressing. The dressing is completely unnecessary on the fruit. They should put the dressing on the lettuce and serve the fruit unmolested on the side.


Salad

So, do not eat at Munchen Ice Pub. Drink there, throw your pint at the wall, and have a merry time.

Munchen Ice Pub drinking: ★★★★
Munchen Ice Pub food: ★★

New job!

I have begun my new job as a teacher trainer for Seoul public schools, and I love it. I'm at the Seoul Education Training Institute, which is near Sadang and Bangbae stations in southern Seoul. I have a beautiful, big apartment and a very nice desk in the administration building. We're currently teaching a Travel English course to school administrators planning a business trip to Singapore. Today I'm teaching them English for the airplane. I made them a little boarding pass. Also, I just finished editing a teenage paranormal romance novel called Soul Thief. I'm excited for its release! You can buy it on Kindle, or pre-order a hardcover. I hope to continue posting about the Korean language and living in Dongtan soon. Thanks for reading, and thanks for your patience! -Linguist Ashley