Hae Jang Gook

The sky was real gloomy today. The temperature has dipped a little, due to the almost 48 hours of continuous rain over the weekend. Anyway, I had hae jang gook for lunch today. Actually, I've been having this for lunch for the last couple of days. Guess it's the flavour of the week.

Hae jang gook is sometimes nicknamed "hangover soup". Guess its a great kick-starter after a night of heavy soju-ing drinking. My only exposure to hae jang gook previously was a spicy pork bones soup. But this particular variant of hae jang gook is called kong na mool hae jang gook. Kong na mool is bean sprout, yes? But this bean sprout is of the larger variety, and not the typical teeny weeny bean sprouts most are familiar with.

This place, in Bundang-gu, is really popular.



It's usually very very crowded during lunch time. I had a late lunch today (2.45pm) and found no problem getting a place.



As with most Korean food, it came piping hot. Notice the bubbling soup? Hottttt!! You get rice in seafood-stock soup, large beansprouts, topped with kimchi, a sprinkle of sesame seed, chili powder, spring onion leaves and an egg.



You can eat it as it is. But the real kicker is when you mix the condiments that comes with it. That's kimchi, sliced green chilis, dried salted seaweed, heavily salted beef strips (in some brown sauce) & salt-fermented shrimps. Where's the salt? Hehehe .....



The salted shrimp thingy is similar to "cencaluk", a salted preserved shrimp condiment found in Malaysia.



So mix everything in and ta-da, it's ready to eat. Real yummy ..... more so on a cold wintery day.



Cost KRW5,000. FatMan says "Highly recommended".