CreatripTeam

In South Jeolla Province, local chicken traditions turn a whole native chicken into multi-course meals. In Haenam, ‘tongdak’ (whole chicken course) uses a 3 kg native bird served as egg appetizer, raw chicken sashimi, grilled chicken, spicy gochujang stir, boiled chicken soup (baeksuk), and finishing porridge. The original shop, Jangsu Tongdak, founded in 1975, popularized the sequence and inspired about nine nearby restaurants to offer variations. In neighboring Gangjin, ‘hoechuntang’ (revitalizing soup) blends medicinal herbs, a native chicken, and seafood; the county standardized and patented the recipe in 2013 to preserve tradition—meals require time and often advance booking. In Yeongam’s Samho-eup, a large industrial complex hosts many foreign workers and 54 multinational eateries, from Vietnamese cafes to a Uzbek halal restaurant serving lagman (Central Asian noodles), shashlik, and other dishes that increasingly attract Koreans as well.