Damyang Sunchang Gourmet Tour
In the recently aired Netflix show ‘Black and White Chef’, Michelin-star chefs presented ingenious food using traditional Korean sauces (gochujang, soybean paste, and soy sauce). People around the world are also showing increasing interest in soybean paste, the essence of Korean food taste. In December, it is certain that ‘Korea’s sauce-making culture’ will be registered as a UNESCO Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The final listing will be decided at the 19th Intangible Heritage Committee held in Paraguay from December 2 to 7. We went on a ‘K Gourmet Jangbelt Train Trip’ in search of dandan-gi experts in Damyang and Sunchang.
● Soy sauce and soybean paste made with Damyang bamboo salt
As I passed through the bamboo forest in Changpyeong-myeon, Damyang-gun, Jeollanam-do and entered a yard surrounded by pine forests, a majestic scene unfolded. This is because about 1,200 jars were spread out as if they were being inspected. Old pumpkins were placed on the veranda of the tile-roofed house, and red peppers were combined with the crock pot to create a feeling of fall.
Grandma Ki Sun-do, Korea’s Food Master No. 35 (Jinjang), opened a jar and scooped up soy sauce using a gourd. The blue sky reflected on the soy sauce as dark as ink.
“This is seed soy sauce that has been kept in the family for 10 generations. “It’s a seed soy sauce that’s been around for over 370 years.”
![‘Black and White Chef’ ‘UNESCO World Heritage Site’ A journey in search of Korea’s traditional soybean paste flavor [전승훈 기자의 아트로드]](https://dimg.donga.com/wps/NEWS/IMAGE/2024/11/22/130475876.1.jpg "‘Black and White Chef’ ‘UNESCO World Heritage Site’ A journey in search of Korea’s traditional soybean paste flavor [전승훈 기자의 아트로드]")
Master Ki has been making soybean paste for over 50 years since he married the 10th heir of the Yangjinjae clan of the Damyang Jangheung Go clan at the age of 24. Seed soy sauce
When U.S. President Donald Trump visited Korea in 2017, ’Grilled Korean beef ribs’ grilled with Master Ki’s 370-year-old soy sauce along with ‘Dokdo shrimp’ attracted attention at the state banquet held at the Blue House guesthouse. France’s AFP news agency and Britain’s Daily Mail, among others, introduced that “soy sauce that is older than that in the United States was served on the menu.” When he was invited to the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France in 2021, he brought with him soy sauce from the head family in a small jar from the year 370. It is said that UNESCO treated this seed soy sauce with such respect that it was kept in a safe.
“Usually it is made by adding salt to meju. But we add bamboo salt water to give it a deeper flavor.”
The foundation of the sauce made by the master was bamboo salt. Bamboo salt is made by cutting Damyang’s king stalks that have grown for more than three years, adding sea salt with the bittern removed, and roasting it over a pine wood fire. Soy sauce and soybean paste made with bamboo salt mixed with bedrock water pumped from 150 meters underground are not salty and have a rich taste. Charcoal has a purifying effect, red pepper prevents mold, and jujube provides a sweet taste.
Meju is made by boiling domestic soybeans during the winter solstice and fermenting them during the new year. New Year’s Day is the most delicious when you make soybean paste. Every year, when I make soy sauce, I still take a good day and start bathing again and praying. “Please take the time and effort to ensure that the flavor of the sauce does not change.”
After soaking the soybean paste and aging it at room temperature for 2-3 months, it is time to ‘cut the soybean paste’. This time, it’s time to experience sectioning. The process is to pour out the bamboo salt water that has been released well in the bottle and has turned black. If you use this soy sauce as is, it is ‘Cheongjang’ (aged within 1 year), if you boil it to deepen the color and flavor, it is ‘Jungjangjang’ (aged 1 to 3 years), and if you make it by maturing it in a jar for more than 5 years, it is ‘Jinjang’. am.
This was a question asked inadvertently by a reporter who grew up only in the city.
“You have to split the soybean paste and serve it so that the meju becomes soybean paste, and the black liquid becomes soy sauce.”
Ah, I see! I knew that soybean paste was made from meju, but this was the first time I learned that soy sauce and soybean paste were made from a single meju at the same time.
“It is a characteristic of our culture that soy sauce and soybean paste are served together. In China and Japan, soybean paste is made separately from soybean paste, and soy sauce is made separately from soy sauce. Because it is fermented with soybeans without meju, there is only one way to make it.” (Master Ki Sun-do)
After pouring out the soy sauce, carefully scrape off the meju remaining in the bottle. You can make soybean paste by breaking the soybeans into small pieces with hands wearing plastic gloves and a wooden spoon. Label the soybean paste bottle (450g) and the soy sauce bottle (300ml) with your name and date. Experience participants take the bottle home and say that it becomes a delicious paste after maturing at room temperature for 2 to 3 months. After the experience is over, it
is time to taste food made with soybean paste and soy sauce. Boil clear soybean paste soup with soybean paste and taste the ‘soybean paste kimchi’ prepared by the master himself. Jeolla-do style kimchi contains a lot of salted fish, but kimchi made with only soy sauce and red pepper powder has a clean yet deep flavor.
Damyang’s masterpiece is its dense bamboo forest, where a refreshing breeze blows through the bamboo trees, which are green all year round. In the Samdari Bamboo Forest in Damyang, it is fall and the leaves are falling, but white flowers are blooming. This precious flower is the ‘tea flower.’ Tea trees make tea by picking new buds in the spring, and flowers bloom in the fall and early winter, from October to November.
I met tea with floating tea flowers at Myeonggahye, a tea shop in Samdari Naeda Village. I have tried drinking tea with floating plum blossoms, chrysanthemums, and lotus flowers and the scent, but this is my first time drinking tea with floating tea flowers in Damyang. In Damyang, tea trees grow naturally in a bamboo forest. It is called ‘Jukro tea (竹露茶)’ because it grows by eating bamboo leaf dew that falls from bamboo leaves. Here, you can also taste ‘Juksin Golden Tea’ made by roasting and mixing bamboo shoot skins.
On the second floor of ‘Damda’, a Damyang Samdari bamboo crafts store, you can also experience making beoseongeum rope. Master Ki Sun-do’s jar also had a white beoseon-shaped piece of
It is a folk tradition that means driving away evil spirits that interfere with the fermented food contained in the jar. The reason why the beoseon is attached upside down is because it is thought that bad germs climb up the beoseon and disappear at the end of the beoseon nose, where they can no longer rise.
●Sunchang Gochujang Folk Village
Sunchang, Jeollabuk-do is famous for its red pepper paste. Although it is not widely known as a tourist destination, it is a place where you can travel leisurely as it has many hidden places and delicious restaurants. That’s probably why it’s called ‘Slow City’.
Gangcheonsan Valley, designated as Korea’s first county park, is called the ‘Salt River of Honam’ as it is lined with strangely shaped rocks and large and small waterfalls such as Byeongpung Falls and Yongso. ‘Baby maple’, which is said to have long-lasting dark red leaves, was in full swing. It is said that the water stream flowing down from Mt. Gangcheon becomes the root that creates the Seomjin River and Yeongsan River. The pillars and railings of ’Songeum Bridge’ located in the valley are shaped like soybeans woven with rope, making you feel that this place is the home of ‘Sunchang Gochujang’.
Sunchang Go
chujang Folk Village, located at the foot of Mt. Amisan, is a village that was created in a planned manner between 1994 and 1997 by gathering together gochujang artisans scattered throughout the county. At ‘Sunchang Jangbonga’ here, we took on the challenge of making red pepper paste with food master Kang Soon-ok (No. 64, Sunchang red pepper paste).
At the experience center where soybeans were hanging, Master Kang explained one by one the ingredients needed to make red pepper paste, including soybean powder, red pepper powder, glutinous rice, salt, and grain syrup. In Sunchang, when making red pepper paste, they use ‘tteokmeju’ (meju made specifically for red pepper paste), which is round and has an open center like a donut, rather than square meju.
The experience includes not only making red pepper paste, but also making ‘red pepper paste butter’, which was introduced in the Netflix show ‘Black and White Chef’. Make your own unique butter by adding red pepper paste, honey, chives, and dried garlic pieces to 30g of butter to suit your taste. It was amazing that even though the ingredients were the same, each person who made them tasted different things. When you spread red pepper paste butter on baguette bread and eat it, it tastes like a strange mixture of East and West. This is a special sauce that foreigners will love the butter flavor, while Koreans will fall in love with the spicy yet sweet honey flavor.
After soaking the soybean paste like this, it takes time for fermentation to reach final completion. That’s why Korea’s traditional soybean paste is called a representative ‘Slow Food.’ The tool responsible for this ‘time’ is Onggi. The sauce is fermented and aged in earthenware jars until it is finally completed.
I visited the Sunchang Pottery Experience Center and learned how to make pottery from potter Kwon Woon-ju, a local luxury craftsman in Korea. It’s time to put clay on the potter’s wheel and make a bowl. After completing the experience, the resulting bowl is baked and sent home by courier. I tried potter’s wheel while watching a demonstration by potter Kwon. I’ve made small cups before, but I’ve never tried making a large jar. I tried to make a jar with a bulging belly and a narrow mouth, but I ended up with something that resembled a flower pot with a bumpy handprint. In any case, I was satisfied with the creation of my own bowl, the only one in the world.
The biggest advantage of an earthenware jar that is fired once at a high temperature of 1,200 degrees Celsius is its ‘breathability.’ Onggi is a vessel that does not allow water to pass through, but allows air to pass through. That is why it is said that earthenware jars ‘breathe.’ Porcelain is made from highly pure kaolin and fired twice in a high-temperature kiln, so there are almost no gaps. On the other hand, pottery is made from clay that contains many blemishes. So, during the baking process, fine pores are created due to the organic substances contained in the soil. These tiny pores do not separate the inside and outside of the jar, but allow communication. Thanks to these pottery, fermented foods were able to develop in Korea.
Master Ki Sun-do of Damyang and master Kang Soon-ok of Sunchang are also scheduled to attend the UNESCO World Heritage listing meeting to be held in Paraguay on the 2nd of next month. To commemorate Korea’s soybean paste-making culture being listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the Korean Food Promotion Agency, and KORAIL Tourism Development jointly created the ’K-Gourmet Soup Belt Train Travel’ product. Experience making traditional soybeans with Damyang’s Goryeo traditional food master Ki Sun-do, experience making Beoseongeum rope and bamboo tea at Samdari Naeda Village in Damyang, making red pepper paste with master Kang Sun-ok, a Sunchang jangbon master, and experience with teacher Woon-joo Kwon, a celadon skill holder of Sunchang’s intangible cultural heritage. It is a gourmet trip where you can experience pottery.
●Restaurant = In Sunchang, the ‘Sunchang Samhap’, developed by Michelin star chef Hyunsoo Yoo using three sauces: red pepper paste, soy sauce, and soybean paste, is a hot topic. Samhap is a food made with boiled pork belly and skate wrapped in aged kimchi. ‘Sunchang Samhap’ consists of ‘Seomjin River Gochujang Fried Eel’ seasoned with sweet and spicy red pepper paste, ‘Sunchang Seed Soy Sauce Kimchi’ pickled in aged soy sauce, and ‘Sunchang Cheonggukjang Boiled Pork’ topped with savory Cheonggukjang sauce. Because it is an inland region, it is interesting that Seomjin River eel was used instead of skate. However, the main characters are the three traditional sauces generously spread on the ingredients. Sunchang red pepper paste makes the greasy fried eel spicy and sweet, and the Cheonggukjang sauce on top of the boiled pork feels luxurious. When you eat it with aged kimchi made with decades-old famous soy sauce, all the food finally comes together.
What are the key components of traditional Korean culinary arts showcased in the Ure tour?
Ure. This special tour provides participants with a deep dive into the traditional Korean culinary arts, showcasing the rich cultural heritage associated with soybean paste, red pepper paste, and pottery.
During the tour, visitors will have the opportunity to learn firsthand from esteemed masters in their craft. Participants will engage in hands-on experiences, such as making fermented soybean paste using traditional methods, crafting unique red pepper paste, and shaping clay into beautiful pottery. Each of these activities is not just about the end product; it’s about understanding the stories, techniques, and the philosophy behind why these foods and crafts are central to Korean culture.
In addition to the culinary experiences, the heritage and craftsmanship behind earthenware pots also play a significant role in fermentation processes. The breathable nature of the Onggi allows for the development of flavors in a way that modern containers do not, making it an essential element in traditional Korean cooking. The tour promotes not just the finished products but also highlights the importance of preserving traditional techniques and celebrating the flavors that have defined Korean cuisine for generations.
With UNESCO’s recognition, these experiences not only honor Korea’s culinary history but also help foster a greater appreciation for the traditions that are integral to its identity. As participants enjoy these activities, they are also contributing to the preservation of these essential aspects of Korean culture for future generations to experience and enjoy.