Korean pork spine bone soup (감자탕 gamja tang)

One of my most loved food from Korea. Gamja tang. My wife grew up there and she introduced me to this wonderful soup and I have never regretted giving it a try. For those you who did not read the main post on the website you can find them at the end of the blog.

Sublime flavor of the pork bone soup comes from hours of boiling the spine bones with dried radish leaves (시래기 shiraegi) and (우거지 ugeoji) which is the outer cabbage leaves. The distinct taste of the gamja tang comes from these ingredients. It is what makes gamja tang has that oomph to it. Apart from these two flavor inducer, there are two more flavor enhancers in the soup. Pork spine bone is a cut that does not have a lot of meat and takes sometimes to cook, hence it is cheaper than ribs. However, that does not deter the Koreans from whipping up a wonderful dish such as this.

Radish leaves being dried in the open

Here we have some ugeoji

Next we will introduce the other two ingredient in the soup that give it the nutty and fresh taste.

First off lets talk about Kkaeyip 깻잎 (sesame leaves). This leave comes from the wild sesame plant (perilla frutescens) which goes it a slighty minty and fresh taste. However some shops use aged/riped kimchi (묵은지) instead of perilla leaves which is also tasty and at the same time different.

Wild sesame leaves (Perilla leaves) Think of them like shiso, that will help you in understanding.

The next must have ingredient is the perilla seed powder (들깨가루 dulkkaegaru) which derives from the seed of the perilla plant. This gives the dish a nutty flavor and a thick consistency. Most of the time they are also sprinkled on top of the dish as an edible garnish.

Perilla powder (들깨가루)

Last but not least, gamja tang should have some gamja (감자 potato) right? Haha. This small little fellow might not look like anything but it can round off a well cooked gamja tang give it another level of texture but providing a different mouth feel to the otherwise soft and well cooked ingredients.

Enough of talking about ingredients, let's talk about restaurant that sells good gamja tang. I will recommend a few of them, do pay them a visit if you visit Gwangju (Jeolla-do).

1. First off is sun woori gamja tang. This is a restaurant that serves gamja tang that is flavorful yet pretty clean. A place that I frequent.

순우리 감자탕 Sun woori gamja tang

828-2 Wolgye-dong, Gwangsan-gu, Kwangju, South Korea

2. This is a restaurant that serves gamja tang that is flavorful yet pretty clean. A place that I frequent.

Second recommendation is 첨단돌솥감자탕 파지감자탕 cheomdan dolsot gamja tang paji gamga tang (Cheomdan hot-stone gamja tang and spring onion kimchi gamja tang)

Cheomdan dolsot gamja tang (첨단돌솥감자탕)

They have a few branches around in Gwangju, west side, north side, south side of the city. You won't miss it.

This restaurant speciality is the 파지감자탕 paji gamja tang. Paji is the seasoned Korean spring onion. It goes the soup a more earthy and layered taste. The kicker is, you can have their 돌솥밥 (dolsot bap) along with your soup. Dolsot bap is the rice that is cooked a la minute at your table. They do provide a few more variation such as the 묵은지 감자탕 (aged kimchi verion) and 우거지 (cabbage leave version) too. You will keep coming back for more to try them all out.

파지감자탕 (paji gamja tang)

돌솥밥 (Dolsot bap)

3. This one is hearsay with not much information though. Heard that 왕뼈해장국 (wangbyul haejang guk) is good. Byulhaejang guk is basically a gamja tang but served in a single person portion unlike the original which is in a big pot for sharing.해장 haejang means sobering up in Korean terms. Byul (뼈) means bone so, as you can see, it means that it is a bone of bone soup for your hangover. After a good night of drinking they love to sober up with something hot, steamy, soupy and delicious, hence 뼈해장국 is one of them.

Anyways, for those interested, the address is below.

1211-7 Chipyeong-dong, Seo-gu, Kwangju, South Korea

Eating a pork spine bone soup (gamga tang) does not end only at the soup. When you have leftovers from eating, you can request them to do a 볶음밥 (fried rice) bokkeum bap for you. Some of the usual ingredients they will use are such as, sesame oil, seasoned laver (seaweed) and kimchi. Some places with even use fish roe which further accentuate contrast of taste from the pork bones.

감자탕 볶음밥 gamja tang bokkeum bap (pork spine bone soup fried rice)

That's all for now. Too much writing and too little eating. Let's go! Do not miss out this regional favourite soup/dish when you visit Gwangju. See you next time or maybe see you in one of these gamga tang restaurant next time? 안녕히 계세요 ~

*For those of you who did not came in to the blog from my website and did not managed to read my introduction, here it is:

"First is the representative of Gwangju, Gamja tang.  It has a few meanings actually. The most common thinking is because gamja tang has gamja (which is potato 감자) therefore it is gamja tang. However, the other more authentic and historical saying is that, a long long time ago in Korea, pork spine bone is know as 감자뼈 (gamja bbyeo) and hence the name is 감자탕. The pork spine bone is no longer know as gamja bbyeo and instead if you want to purchase them in Korea, you have to to tell them to give you deung bbyeo (등뼈), which also mean back bone.

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