Cycle 3 – Item 255

16 (Sun) September 2012

Gochu Jangajji

4.0

by Aunt T

at home

-Oksu, Seongdong, Seoul, Republic of Korea-

with W and DJ

Jangajji (장아찌) is a type of Korean pickle.  It involves slow-braising a given vegetable, such as a chili pepper (“gochu”), in a mix of soy sauce and sugar.  When done right, the resulting pickle is a perfect balance of salty-sweet-sour-spicy.  It’s one of those banchan that goes with anythingcan be eaten with just a plain bowl of steamed rice, nothing else required.

My Aunt T makes the most amazing jangajji with the chilies grown on the farm that she owns/operates with her husband.  The farm is located in Yangpyeong.  The chilies are grown organically (though they haven’t bothered yet to go through the procedural hoops necessary to obtain organic certification for the produce).  Personally, I’m not a huge fan of jangajji in general, but hers compels me to eat at least 2 bowls of rice.  She makes and packages and ships the pickles on her own by custom order.  In the run-up to Chuseok, we buy boxes of the stuff and give them to friends as gifts.

(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)

(See also RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)