Sundae: From Special-Occasion Dish to Beloved Winter Comfort
Creatrip Team
2 months ago
Sundae (Korean blood sausage) and its soup, sundae-guk, have evolved from a rare celebratory food into an affordable, hearty winter staple. Sundae-guk’s milky, rich broth is made by simmering pig head and leg bones for more than 10 hours, producing a deeper flavor than gomtang. Modern sundae often contains dangmyeon (glass noodles), a change that became widespread in the 1960s–70s as pork byproducts grew more available and mass production standardized fillings. That standardization boosted popularity but reduced regional variety. Yook Kyung-hee, Korea’s newest official “food master” and author of Sundae Silrok, has traveled 300+ sundae restaurants to document local varieties—such as Abai sundae and squid sundae in Sokcho, blood-heavy pi-sundae in Jeolla, Baekam sundae with beef blood in Gyeonggi, Byungcheon sundae in Chungcheong, and buckwheat-based su-ae in Jeju. Regional dipping sauces differ too (salt+pepper in Seoul area, chogochang in Jeolla, makjang in Gyeongsang). Yook is working to revive traditional recipes from old cookbooks, showing sundae’s versatility and potential as a restored traditional dish.
