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.

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