For Koreans, chueotang (ground loach in hot bean paste soup) is special food.
In the past, we didn't have enough food.
So we used to catch loach in the soil to make a soup.
Loach is very nutritious; plentiful protein, calcium, and minerals.
Its cooking style varies in different localities.
In Honam district, they put perilla powder and in Yeongnam district, they put Agastache rugosa.
Nam's Seorak Chueotang Restaurant has 'Han Mo Deum' brand, of which main menu is sundaeguk for those who can't eat chueotang.
Sundaeguk is more popular in Gyeonggi.
People in Yeongnam more like boiled rice served in soup with pork.
A lot of ingredients are in sundaeguk: sundae, liver, and head meat.
It has more lean meat, compared to Yeongnam's soup.
Many employees like this sundaeguk as much as they like seolleongtang (stock soup of bone and stew meat) because it is warm.
Kimchi is important when you eat this soup since it determines soup's taste (Koreans usually eat soup with kimchi).
Before you put rice into soup, you have to season it to suit your taste with pickled shrimp or salt.
Pickled shrimp is better because it is good for neutralize the fat.
Half a teaspoon of pickled shrimp is enough since fermented fish is very salty.
And then add some red pepper powder.
Again, half a teaspoon. It is spicy and little salty.
Other than this, you can add garlic, hot chili peppers, or chopped Welsh onion if you want.
Lastly, put some perilla powder.
It is good for health. But if you add it too much, it will make your soup dried. Half a spoon of it would be fine.
Sprinkling pepper reduces pork's smell.
One-eighth of teaspoon is enough.
All these spices must be little.
Too much spices might harm the original taste.
Putting rice into soup is better since the rice makes the dish more thick.
Sundae in Sundaeguk is very hot, so do not eat them right away.
Pick sundae out of the pot and cool it off. If you worry about the fat of the meat, you can order only sundae except the meat.
But as you know, it is better to have it with meat.
Sundaeguk's price varies in different localities but mostly it costs from 6000 won to 8000 won.
A good sundaeguk is less smelly and has thick soup.
Most of the restaurants use sundae from factory.
Sundae's recipe is almost same, so it is okay.
If you put perilla powder, drinking all the soup is a good way to eat all those powders.
But if you season it salty, don't drink that all.
Both chueotang and sundaeguk is very good here.
Especially sundaeguk is the best menu at lunch.
Just be careful when you season it with salted fish.
This restaurant also sells chueotang in can. Nurungji snack (crust of overcooked rice-snack) and tofu snack are also available.
Locatioin : (Namganae Seorak Chueotang) Songnae-dong 385-3, Sosa-gu, Bucheon-si, Gyeonggi-do. Tel. : 82-32-662-9992
