Yuk Gae Jang is a very traditional soup that has been around since the Joseon Dynasty. There is a lot of history behind this soup and is most commonly eaten at funerals. There are a few reasons behind this. Since funerals are a long process in Korea, they needed a food that would last a long time without going bad. The gochugaru 고춧가루 or chili pepper flakes and the salt would keep the meat and the soup from spoiling. They also used tougher cuts of meat because it would boil for such a long time that they would become tender by the time the soup was ready to be served. Another reason is because the bright redness of the broth would scare the evil spirits away. I guess warding off evil spirits isn’t too bad of a thing while eating your food.
They have 2 options here: Either get a bigger bowl of noodles or get rice and a small bowl of noodles.
This soup is most commonly eaten with rice. This is also the way that I grew up eating it as my mother made it for me this way. It is a comfort food for me because I used to eat this soup pretty often as my father loved eating it. Later did I find out that you can add noodles to it. That changed my world as I’ve never eaten it with noodles. It is more common to eat with noodles if you came from the city of Daegu, down south. That’s what I love about this restaurant. You don’t really have to choose. You can just have them give you both! Either you get a big bowl of noodles or get a bowl of rice and smaller bowl of noodles. (And the small bowl of noodles isn’t so small.)
It is a small restaurant with only a few tables inside. This is a locals spot. Whenever I come here, there are typically just a bunch of single old men that want to just enjoy a delicious, spicy bowl of soup and be on their way. There are only 3 options on the board. The top two being the spicy version and the 3rd option in a smaller font being the non-spicy version of noodles. This is a great spot for lunch. It isn’t the easiest to find because it tucked away in the back, but I promise you won’t be disappointed.
This is the address in English: 50 Baekbeom-ro 90-gil, Munbae-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul
Korean Address: 서울 용산구 백범로90길 50
Google Maps: https://www.google.co.kr/maps/place/%EB%AC%B8%EB%B0%B0%EB%8F%99%EC%9C%A1%EC%B9%BC+%EB%B3%B8%EC%A0%90/@37.5365856,126.9681205,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x357ca216ad21b633:0xa4854f0cc1b09378!8m2!3d37.5365856!4d126.9703092?hl=en&authuser=0
Naver Maps : https://map.naver.com/v5/search/%EB%AC%B8%EB%B0%B0%EB%8F%99%20%EC%9C%A1%EC%B9%BC/place/11717878?placeSearchOption=fromNxList=true%26noredirect=1%26entry=pll&c=14130464.3515393,4514504.6553220,13,0,0,0,dh&placePath=%2Fhome%3Fentry=pll
