June 24 2010
We ate bu-dae-ji-gae today for lunch. What is this you might ask? The name is translated as "Army Camp Stew" and is Korean junk food. It is derived from American food but would be nearly unrecognizable to my average countryman. Basically the best way to describe it is to say take the canned goods on your shelves and dump the pork and beans, SPAM and any other sausages or luncheon type meats that you might have all into a large shallow pan with water. Place in some ramyun (ramen) noodles, minced garlic or onions if you like, Kraft singles are also common. Add the obligatory go-chu-jong (red pepper paste) and boil.
It was the early 1950s while America was consumed with poodle skirts and soda fountains the Korean peninsula had had its war be fought from Pusan in the far south to Pyong-yang, the current capital of North Korea. Each side in this conflict had pushed the front back and forth all across this ancient land. Consequently many many people were uprooted from their homes. These people were hungry. They pillaged a sure source of food, the American Army Camps. There they found Spam and Pork and Beans and other such food items. However they could not just stroll up to the cam and ask for food and they often had to rummage through the garbage to find the leftovers. They were wary of this but were really hungry, so they boiled the new, gross, food they had scrounged with extra pepper flakes to hopefully make it safe to eat. They might have some noodles or wild plans to throw in this stew as well. Thus this dish was born.
This is how my wife tells the story, another version is here...
http://web.archive.org/web/20060113025356/http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/culture/200412/kt2004123016521111720.htm
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