1.090

5 (Mon) April 2010

Daegu Jiri Tang

3.0

by me

at home

-Oksu (Joongang Heights Apts), Seongdong, Seoul, Korea-

with the Family

Korean fish stews fall into 1 of 2 main groups. The first is maeun tang (매운탕), the more popular form, which features a spicy broth. The other form is jiri tang (지리탕), which is essentially the same thing as the former but without the hot spices. Not to say that maeun tang is easy to make, but any deficiencies in the soup’s broth can be masked to a certain extent by the powerful taste of gochujang (고추장), a red chili pepper paste, and/or gochugaru (고추가루), a red chili pepper powder, both of which are essential seasonings. By contrast, jiri tang has nothing but the fish and vegetables to flavor the broth, a much tricker task.

Because DJ can’t handle heavy spices just yet – he’s not yet 3 – I’ve been making jiri tang lately. I have yet to master the broth, which I strongly suspect requires MSG to get it to taste like restaurant offerings, but at least the fish and vegetables and tofu in my home-made version are good.

Daegu = cod.