Kongnamul Gukbap Comes in Two Versions at the Same Restaurant. Nobody Explains the Difference to You.

The first time I went to Hyundai-ok, the menu asked me a question I could not answer. Nambu style or boiled style. Same soup. Same price. The staff was waiting. I picked boiled style because it sounded normal.

It took me a few more visits to understand what I had skipped.

Kongnamul gukbap is bean sprout soup with rice inside. Bean sprouts, broth, rice, a little seasoning. That is the whole dish. Around 9,000 won. Hyundai-ok is a franchise that started as one small shop in Jeonju, and now it is in most cities in Korea.

Jeonju owns this soup

In Korea, many foods belong to a city. Kongnamul gukbap belongs to Jeonju. People take trains to Jeonju just to eat bean sprout soup, which sounds strange until you do it.

The old way of making it comes from Nambu Market, a traditional market in Jeonju. The soup shops there opened before sunrise, for the market workers. The style that came out of that market is the one Hyundai-ok calls Nambu style.

The two versions

Boiled style is what you imagine. Everything goes into a clay pot, the pot goes on the fire, and it arrives at your table still bubbling. You cannot touch it for five minutes. An egg is cracked inside and cooks in the soup.

Nambu style is the old market way. The rice is already in the bowl. They pour hot broth over it, drain it, and pour again, several times. This is called toryeom. The soup arrives warm, not boiling. You can start eating the moment it lands on the table.

And the egg does not go in the soup. It comes on the side, in its own small bowl. That is the sueran.

What to do with the sueran

Sueran is a poached egg, half cooked, sitting alone in a little bowl. Many first-timers do not know what to do with it. Some people pour it into the soup. You can. But then there was no reason to serve it separately.

The usual way is this. Put one or two spoons of soup broth into the egg bowl. Crumble the roasted seaweed on top. Mix it a little and eat it first, like a small starter. It is soft and warm and it wakes your stomach up before the soup.

How to eat the soup well

Season it with the salted shrimp on the table, not with salt. Start with less than you think. There is already a lot of garlic in it. At Hyundai-ok you can add chopped squid, which I recommend. Put a piece of kimchi on the spoon with the rice. At the end, lift the bowl and drink the broth. Nobody will look at you.

When Koreans eat this

Mostly the morning after drinking. Kongnamul gukbap is one of the official hangover soups of Korea. Bean sprouts have something called asparagine, which is supposed to help your liver. I do not know if the science is strong. The belief is strong.

That is why many kongnamul gukbap places open early or never close. At 7 a.m. the customers are quiet people eating alone. Everyone knows why everyone is there.

Now I only order Nambu style. Boiled style is for people with time. Nambu style is for people with a hangover.