Sundae, Pig’s intestine
Have you ever eaten a pig’s intestine? Most of the readers have not tried it. I have to admit that it sounds very gross and disgusting. It is a Korean traditional food that all of the Koreans eat at least once a week. Believe me, all of them eat it at least once a week.
You might ask how did this disgusting food came from. Surprisingly, it is a Mongolian food that was usually used as combat ration. Mongolians are known as a horse-riding conqueror. Historically they conquered almost the entire Asian continent. As they were busy fighting, they were not able to carry around foods as they move around the Asian continent. For their convenience, they carried the stuffed pig’s intestines and tied them on their belt so that they can eat it whenever they are hungry. As they conquered Korea in 1303, Korea was culturally affected by Mogolian culture. Even though Korea was under Mongol’s ruling, there existed cultural exchange between Korea and Mongol. Through those cultural exchanges, the cultural foods like Sundae have in fluxed into Korean culture.
When I first tried it, I did not know it was a pig’s intestine. It is very chewy, but very soft inside. Most of the Sundae houses put noodles inside the intestine, which makes inside soft. However the ways people eat vary on the area where it is produced: the ingredients that goes inside of the Sundae, sauce, and the peel of Sundae. For example, as people from “Abai” village in northern Korea moved to “Sokcho” village located in South Korea, they used squid instead of the pig’s intestine. In Busan, they used Makjang, which is Korean traditional spicy sauce, instead of salt for sauce. Furthermore, people from “Yongin” put all kinds of vegetables inside of the pig’s intestine and ferment it for five days. However, those kinds of Sundae are a little bit expansive. The one that is cheap and exists in everywhere in Korea is Sundae stuffed with only noodles. Since it is very plain to just eat Sundae stuffed only with noodles, a lot of people eat it with “Dduk bok gi,” Korean traditional spicy rice cake. Especially, the spicy sauce of “Dduk bok gi” is mostly used for the sauce of the Sundae. As you can see, there are a lot of way to eat Sundae.
Steve Yi
Foodsion/April, 2014 41