Gastro Tour in Jecheon

Gastro Tour in Jecheon — Jecheon Gastro Tour

Korea has plenty of cities famous for their food, but surprisingly few where you can take a real gastronomic tour. That is what makes the Jecheon Gastro Tour so intriguing: a journey through the city center’s hidden restaurants with a docent as your guide. Find out for yourself that food tastes even better when you know its story.

Words Pyo Youngso
Illustration Kim Eunbin
Jecheon has created an ‘urban walking food tour’ themed around its distinctive culinary culture of yaksun (medicinal) cuisine. Accompanied by a cultural and tourism docent, participants visit restaurants around Yaksun Food Street and sample a wide range of Jecheon flavors in small portions. The tour is divided into Course A (hwanggi dakgalbi, or spicy stir-fried chicken with astragalus root; yaksun beef bulgogi; makguksu, or buckwheat noodles; a sandwich and drink; and red fish cake) and Course B (green onion pork bulgogi; glutinous rice cake; white dandelion rice; specialty coffee; and red fish cake). For this article, we tried Course B. The tour takes about two hours. Course A costs 18,000 won and Course B costs 14,000 won. citytour.jecheon.go.kr

Chapssal-tteok (Glutinous Rice Cake)
AMUSE-BOUCHE

Almost no one leaves Jecheon without a box of Deongsil Bunsik’s chapssal-tteok in hand. Deongsil Bunsik (Deongsil Snack Bar) has stood on the same spot since 1965, and a long line stretches out its door all year round. In the 55 years since the shop passed from mother to son, there are signs of small repairs, such as the roof tiles and the metal door added at the entrance. Yet the facade, with time settled into every corner of its signboard and wooden window frames, is as warm and welcoming as its name.

It is 10 a.m. We rushed to start our Gastro Tour at Deongsil Bunsik, but the moment we join the line spilling out of the shop, a staff member announces that the morning’s rice cakes are sold out. From the workshop behind the store, the smell of freshly steamed glutinous rice for the afternoon batch drifts out with the steam. I am lucky enough to be handed one rice cake and take a bite. The soft, chewy texture and the gentle, natural sweetness of the red bean blend together pleasantly. Nothing about it grabs your tongue at once, but it is a classic flavor you will keep thinking about.

At Deongsil Bunsik, every step is done by hand, starting with preparing the ingredients. Both the glutinous rice and the red beans are 100 percent domestic. The staff steam the rice themselves to make the dough and boil the beans for five hours to make the filling. No preservatives are added, so the shelf life is short, and the cakes harden quickly, as glutinous rice naturally does. Even a small rule is strictly kept: no matter how many people are waiting, they never sell rice cakes that haven’t cooled to the right temperature for packing. This stubborn commitment to carrying on tradition is probably the simplest, and surest, secret behind Deongsil Bunsik’s rice cakes. Docent Jeong Boksun puts the finishing touch on the story. “Perhaps this shop has done so consistently well because, over so many years, it has wished good fortune for so many people.”

Deongsil Bunsik / 5 Doksun-ro 6-gil, Jecheon-si, Chungcheongbuk-do / 8:30 a.m. until sold out; 2:00 p.m. until sold out

Daepa Dwaeji Bulgogi (Green Onion Pork Bulgogi)
APPETIZER

Charcoal-grilled pork bulgogi in a gochujang marinade. Does anyone need more explanation to imagine the taste? Hwadeokcho Daepa Bulgogi adds green onions to bulgogi, a dish that rarely divides opinion. When eaten with fat, green onions help block the absorption of cholesterol in the body, which makes them an especially good match for meat. When heated, they release a sweetness that lifts the flavor of the dish even further.

The moment we step into the restaurant, our eyes settle on a small brick oven set up beside the entrance. The person standing in front of the fire grilling meat is owner Chae Seungyun. Since he started Hwadeokcho Daepa Bulgogi four years ago, every charcoal-grilled dish here has passed through his hands. Not only does he never hand the tongs to anyone else, he is also known for his meticulous care of the grill. For the sake of health and the environment, he uses no detergent, instead burning the grill clean with the charcoal’s leftover heat and brushing it off. The pork grilled by this charcoal veteran arrives on a stone plate laid with shredded green onions, so you can enjoy it without the trouble of grilling. Cooked over the oven’s charcoal, the pork sheds its grease and keeps its smoky flavor, making it a fine appetizer to whet the appetite. The slightly strong, spicy marinade is one of the hallmarks of Jecheon cuisine. At an average elevation of 260 meters, Jecheon is one of the coldest regions in the country, so cold that it is nicknamed ‘Jeberia’ (Jecheon plus Siberia). Spicy, piquant food developed here long ago as a way to endure the harsh winters. The bulgogi marinade includes hwanggi (astragalus root), one of Jecheon’s specialties. But there is no need to imagine a strong herbal-medicine smell. Yaksun cuisine in Jecheon simply means adding medicinal herbs to everyday food in the right measure, lending a subtle fragrance and looking after health.

Hwadeokcho Daepa Bulgogi / 3 Doksun-ro 11-gil, Jecheon-si, Chungcheongbuk-do / 11:30 a.m.–12:00 a.m.

“In 2016, Jecheon first launched the Yakchaerak brand, themed around the city’s yaksun cuisine. The name means ‘eating vegetables that work as medicine brings joy.’ We also created Yaksun Food Street in the Jungang-dong area. The Gastro Tour was planned to reorganize the existing food street and to promote Jecheon’s gastronomy more effectively. Recently, we have selected around 30 of Jecheon’s best restaurants and are promoting them together.”
— Lee Jeonghui, Gastronomy Marketing Team Leader, Jecheon City

Hayan Mindeulle-bap (White Dandelion Rice)
MAIN

For the Gastro Tour, the meal is set as one portion to be shared by two people, yet the table is filled to the brim. There is a pot of rice and doenjang-jjigae (soybean paste stew), plus about ten side dishes, including a seasoning sauce. With a spread this generous, you start to worry whether anything is left for the restaurant. Madang Galbi’s white dandelion rice is today’s main dish. I have never eaten dandelion before, and white dandelion is even less familiar. Growing only at altitudes above 400 meters, white dandelion is a native medicinal herb said to be good for the liver and to strengthen the stomach. At Madang Galbi, run by a couple born and raised in Jecheon, the water in which dandelion roots have been boiled is used to cook the rice. White dandelion leaves grown in Baegun-myeon, Jecheon, are laid over the rice and topped with heaps of potato, sweet potato, shiitake mushrooms, ginkgo nuts, jujubes and assorted beans before the pot is set to cook. And the taste of the white dandelion in the rice? The bittersweet aroma that fills your mouth is similar to gondre (thistle) rice.

The rice is good, but the real value of this place shines in the side dishes, which change daily with the ingredients. The lineup is ordinary, with jangajji (pickles), kimchi and the like, yet you can taste the touch of the owner, long known in Jecheon for her cooking, in each and every dish. The doenjang-jjigae and seasoning sauce, made with homemade paste, are also standouts. Perhaps because of the heartfelt flavor, reminiscent of a mother’s cooking, it is hard to set down your chopsticks until the plates are empty, no matter how full you are. After you slurp down the nurungji (scorched-rice tea), made by pouring water into the rice pot, you may feel you have been treated to a rare home-cooked meal and find yourself saying thank you.

Madang Galbi / 11 Sungmun-ro 10-gil, Jecheon-si, Chungcheongbuk-do / 11:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m.

“Since the Joseon era, Jecheon has been one of Korea’s three great herbal medicine markets, along with Daegu and Jeonju. Herbal ingredients gathered in Gyeongsangbuk-do, Chungcheongbuk-do and the mountainous areas of Gangwon-do, such as Sobaeksan and Chiaksan, came together in Jecheon. They were then carried along the Namhan River to Hanyang. As a result, medicinal herbs were a common ingredient in Jecheon, and they naturally blended into the local cuisine and developed into yaksun food. The Jecheon Gastro Tour was born out of this background.”
— Jeong Boksun, Cultural and Tourism Docent

After running through three stops since early morning, it is just the right moment for coffee. Course B of the Gastro Tour includes a cup at the roasting café Gwangye-ui Mihak (The Aesthetics of Relationships), but it is preparing to move to a new location, so we head to Sand Time, which is part of Course A. It is an old sandwich shop where many Jecheon locals proudly call themselves regulars, thanks to its great value, whatever their age or gender. Located across from the Jecheon Senior Welfare Center, it is also said to serve as a community living room for older residents. As if to prove it, visitors from out of town are greeted by a scene in which everyone from middle and high school students in uniform to grandparents shares one space. Today’s course includes only coffee, so I idly sip mine while eyeing the sandwich menu, until a slice of jam-spread toast, brought out as a complimentary side, wins me over.

Gwangye-ui Mihak, originally part of Course B, is one of Jecheon’s roasting cafés. It was started by a young Jecheon native who spent seven years traveling around the country in search of coffee, teaching himself the craft, and then came home. Near Sand Time, the small shop has little more than two tables, a roasting machine and books about coffee. Word spread about its specialty coffee at low prices, and it is now preparing to move to a roomier space. It will reportedly open in a converted old inn in the city center, so there is good reason to look forward to it.

Gwangye-ui Mihak / 14 Sungmun-ro 16-gil, Jecheon-si, Chungcheongbuk-do

Sand Time / 64 Doksun-ro, Jecheon-si, Chungcheongbuk-do / 10:00 a.m.–10:00 p.m.

Coffee and a stroll: Cross the street from Sand Time and you will see stairs leading up to Ahubong Peak. It is one of the seven peaks known as Chilseongbong, arranged in Jecheon in the shape of the Big Dipper. Jungang Park, with its pavilion and resting areas, is a nice place to pause and look out over the city.

Ppalgan Odeng (Red Fish Cake)
DESSERT

At some point, ‘red fish cake’ began to follow the name Jecheon like a related search term. The Jecheon International Music & Film Festival, now in its 16th year, played a big part in turning this local street food into a nationwide favorite. Visitors from across the country who came for the festival tasted the red fish cake sold near the theater, and it began to be known as one of Jecheon’s signature foods.

Red eomuk (fish cake) also traces its roots to Jecheon’s traditional food culture, in which people endured winter with spicy, bold flavors. It’s the familiar square fish cake, skewered, simmered in a gochujang-based sauce until the liquid reduces, and topped with chopped scallions. At the Hot & Spicy Food Festival, which Jecheon held for the first time last winter, red eomuk took its place alongside spicy braised pork ribs, hot bulgogi, and fire-chicken dishes. The festival even staged a Red Eomuk Food Fight, a contest to see who could eat it fastest.

Today, you can try red eomuk at about 15 places in Jecheon, seven of them in the downtown area where the traditional markets cluster. Our destination today is Oegatjip (Maternal Grandparents’ House), right in the middle of Naeto Traditional Market. The market first took shape in the 1970s and is still full of life, and the crowd in front of Oegatjip is livelier than most. Once you push through the people around the fish cake pot and find a spot, the owner fishes out a skewer, ladles seasoned broth over it once, sprinkles on scallions, and hands it over. The moderately spicy sauce deepens the savory flavor of the fish cake, making it oddly addictive. (Of course, this sauce also contains hwanggi, or milkvetch root!) It’s easy to see why Jecheon locals head here first when they return from time away. Besides red eomuk, you can try plain fish cake, which locals call mul-eomuk, along with an assortment of fried snacks, including fried fish cake.

Oegatjip / 7 Pungyang-ro 17-gil, Jecheon, Chungcheongbuk-do / 9:00–19:00

A Peek at Course A:

Sangdong Makguksu – Famous for its noodle broth, which is boiled separately with licorice root, cinnamon, and fruit, and is every bit as celebrated as the noodles. Bibim makguksu (spicy buckwheat noodles) is the standard order, and the broth comes alongside. 11-1 Pungyang-ro 9-gil, Jecheon, Chungcheongbuk-do.

Daejanggeum Sikdang – A restaurant that lives up to its name with generous spreads and richly flavored dishes. The gastro tour includes beef bulgogi with an outstanding broth. 10 Pungyang-ro 11-gil, Jecheon, Chungcheongbuk-do

Gyodong Minhwa Village

An old neighborhood in front of Jecheon Hyanggyo (a traditional Confucian school) is taking on colorful hues and reinventing itself as an artists’ village. It began when a minhwa (Korean folk painting) artist from a workshop and a youth club called Kkumjangi collaborated to paint murals on worn-out walls. Now artists working in ceramics, printmaking, minhwa, and crafts are settling in one by one and running their own studios. The paintings along the narrow alleys reflect each household’s tastes, and they’re even more fun once you know the stories behind them.

Address: 18 Yongducheon-ro 20-gil, Jecheon, Chungcheongbuk-do

Website:    jecheonfolk.modoo.at

Samhan Green Path Bicycle Experience Center

Last June, a free bicycle rental station opened along Samhan Green Path, one of the urban walking trails Jecheon residents love. With just an ID, anyone can borrow a bike for one hour. The round-trip bike path, about 2 kilometers long, runs alongside the Uirimji Fields, an eco-friendly farming district, and you can stop along the way to take in the scenery. The bicycle experience center is scheduled to operate through November 30.

Hours: 10:00–19:00

Address: 398-1 Changjeon-dong, Jecheon, Chungcheongbuk-do.

Annyeong, Chaek (Hello, Book)

Midang-ri sits just slightly outside downtown. Annyeong, Chaek, run by owner Lee Gyeongsin, is a neighborhood bookstore that opened in the hope of giving Jecheon locals the feeling of being on a trip. Step into the small white building and you’ll find books spanning a range of ages and subjects, along with paper goods and other small items, charmingly displayed. In partnership with Jecheon City Library, the shop also offers a lending service for new releases.

Address: 21 Yongdu-daero 36-gil, Jecheon, Chungcheongbuk-do

Instagram:    salut_books

Dalbit Jeongwon (Moonlight Garden)

As part of a project to revitalize the old city center, an artificial waterway and waterfall have appeared in the heart of downtown Jecheon. The area, closed to cars and developed as a “Street of Culture” more than a decade ago, has been upgraded into an urban retreat. Along the channel, which carries water drawn from the Jucheon River in Yeongwol, are a variety of aquatic plants, interactive lighting, and LED screens. True to the name Moonlight Garden, colorful lights come on after sunset, adding even more to see.

Address: Jungang-ro 1-ga, Jecheon, Chungcheongbuk-do