Flickr Find: Korean Soup Pots

Like Sara Kate said in a recent Kitchn email, soup is universal. It's an essential element of nearly every world cuisine, and we love learning more about how people eat soup in their own culture. Here's a shot from the streets of Korea: gukbap soup pots that simmer 24-7!

The photographer says that this soup shop is open 24 hours a day, and that these traditional Korean soup pots never stop cooking! They serve gukbap, soup and rice.

(Images: Flickr member unsure shot licensed for use under Creative Commons)

Comments (3)

The photo on the top also says that you can order for take out and a bowl of soup costs KWR 2,500 ($1.78 converted at today's spot exchange rate). You have to remember that the portion is generally extremely generous when it comes to soup in Korea and you'll literally dunk a bowl of steamed rice into it and eat them together like porridge!

BTW, those cast iron pots were also used to make rice in the way back (before families become smaller in size), which formed wonderful crunchy rice crust on the bottom of the pot!

posted by J-Dubz on February 13th 2009 at 10:57am
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true j-dubz!
my Korean friend and I went out to a Korean restaurant and she told me in her family they would all fight over who gets the crunchy rice crust!

posted by witchbaby on February 13th 2009 at 11:35am
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My mom was kind enough to recently bequeath me a cast iron hot pot for tofu, kimchee and fermented soy soups and stews. Should work well for other culture's recipes too. And rice cooked inside is indeed a treat...pour in a little water and drink/eat it up for a delicious rice based "soup".

FYI: those of you interested in the cuisine and history of Korean cooking might find Michael J. Pettid's book "Korean Cuisine: An Illustrated History" as fascinating as I did (I'm an American born Korean who grew into his love of his own culinary heritage)

posted by gregory on February 13th 2009 at 4:37pm
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