Story of Beans: Why They're the Third Most Popular Food in Korea

There are reasons why Koreans eat tofu after being released from prison. First, tofu is a high-protein, low-calorie, and easy-to-digest food that can help prisoners recover from malnutrition caused by poor prison food. It's white, which symbolizes purity, innocence, and a fresh start. By eating something white, the ex-convict resolves to live a crime-free life going forward. Moreover, tofu is made of beans, which have different tastes depending on how they are cooked. This represents the idea of changing one's habits and personality for the better. Tofu is also soft and bland, which contrasts with the hard and spicy food that prisoners usually crave. This signifies the ex-convict's willingness to endure hardship and avoid temptation. These are some of the possible explanations for this custom, which dates back to the Joseon dynasty (1392-1910). Still, it isn't a mandatory or universal practice, and some people may choose not to eat tofu or eat something else instead.

18th-century scholar Yi Ik said, "If beans didn't grow in our country, it would have been hard for poor people to survive." (“만약 우리나라에 콩이 나지 않았다면 가난한 사람들이 살아가기 힘들었을 것이다”). As such, beans (콩), which have been a staple crop and a cheap source of protein for us for a long time, are now receiving worldwide attention as a gourmet ingredient and a superfood.

The old nickname for beans is 'beef from the field'. The United Nations designated 2016 as the "Year of Pulses" to emphasize the importance of beans and peas as a nutritious grain for a sustainable future. Beans are the optimal crop to solve the food and environmental problems of humanity, as they are drought-resistant and have low dependence on chemical fertilizers.

The origin of soybeans is known to be Manchuria and Primorsky Krai. They are the old territories of Gojoseon and Goguryeo. Between Primorsky Krai and the Korean Peninsula flows the Tumen River. The meaning of the Tumen River is a river full of soybeans. When the soybean harvest was over in the fall, boats with sacks of soybeans were filled in the river, and there is a theory that the name of the river originated from this, showing that our soybean cultivation history is long and we have consumed soybeans in various ways for a long time. According to recent statistics, the annual soybean consumption per capita in Korea is 8kg, next to rice and wheat.

Doenjang and gochujang, the fermented sauces that are the basis of Korean cuisine, are made with soybeans as the main ingredient.

Soy sauce and doenjang (간장과 된장)

Soybeans (baektae) are more special food ingredients in Korean than in Northeast Asia. Thanks to the sauce (醬) culture. Our traditional cuisine is based on 3 fermented sauces: doenjang (fermented soybean paste), soy sauce, and gochujang. Among them, soy sauce and doenjang are born by adding sun, wind, and time to soybeans, salt, and straw bags.

To make meju, the main ingredient of soy sauce and doenjang, you soak soybeans in water for a day in late autumn when frost falls, then steam them in a steamer and cool them. The freshly steamed yellow beans that are steaming are a savory and fragrant delicacy that children can only eat once a year on the day of making meju. The cooled beans are mashed in a mortar and made into round or square meju according to the method handed down from house to house.

The intensity of mashing and making meju depends on the touch of a person with a lot of experience. If you mash it too finely or make it too dense, the air won't pass and the inside of the meju will rot.

Superfood tower (a tower of superfoods from beans) from top to bottom: red beans on shaved ice make red bean shaved ice (patbingsu); mung beans to make mung bean pancakes (bindaeteok); soybeans are ingredients for tofu and fermented bean cakes (meju), the main ingredient for soy sauce; black beans to make braised beans (gongjaban), a side dish with rice; kidney beans to mix with rice and cook into bean rice.

In our cuisine, apart from the exact measurement, the expression 'hand taste' (sonmat) is often used, perhaps because the success or failure of making meju, the basis of all cooking, depends on the hand taste. You have to make good meju to make good sauce, and the food tastes good if the sauce tastes good. Furthermore, there is an old saying that if the sauce tastes good, the mind is good and the fortune comes.

The carefully made meju is hung in a straw bag in a bright and well-ventilated place after being laid out in a warm room for a few days to activate the microorganisms. Before spring comes, dry meju is put in a jar with salt and water and aged. The liquid of the well-fermented contents for a few months is soy sauce, and the residue is doenjang.

The tradition of housewives making sauce every year in the way described above has almost disappeared, and now most people buy it. The sauces sold range from famous local families who pickle them in their own way to factory products produced by large food companies. The choice depends on the consumer's values and economic power. 

Easy tofu dishes (손쉬운 두부 요리)

One thing that can't be left out of the soybean story is tofu. Tofu is a solid obtained by coagulating soy milk, which is obtained by boiling and filtering ground soybeans, with inorganic salts. You can cut it with a knife and eat it with seasoned soy sauce, or put it in various stews. 

Tofu fried in a hot pan with sesame oil, perilla oil, or cooking oil and sprinkled with salt is a great rice side dish. One of the things that I tasted that was unusual and delicious was tofu fried in sansho oil. The bitter taste of sansho matched well with the mild taste of tofu. You can taste it at tofu specialty restaurants in Wonju, Gangwon-do, or Jecheon, Chungbuk.

If you're looking for a delicious tofu restaurant in Seoul, I recommend Hwangguem Kongbat in Ahyeon-dong, Mapo-gu. It's a place where they cook with tofu made from domestic soybeans on the same day, and it is one of the tofu restaurants that gourmets praise. Tofu buchim and tofu mushroom hot pot are excellent. The cool makgeolli brewed in this restaurant is a good accompaniment to the food.

Our soybean story goes from soy sauce and doenjang to rice, side dishes, and desserts. The reason why the annual soybean consumption is the third highest after rice and wheat is here. 

From bean rice to red bean shaved ice (콩밥에서 팥빙수까지)

Black beans, which are harvested after the first frost in autumn (seori) and called seoritae, are superfoods rich in anthocyanins, antioxidants. The skin is black but the flesh is bright green. Nowadays, seoritae are said to be more nutritious than soybean, so some people make tofu with seoritae instead of soybean. 

If you soak seoritae and cook them with rice, you get bean rice with a faint purple hue and a glossy texture. Boiled seoritae seasoned with sesame oil and oligosaccharide and stir-fried in soy sauce with plenty of sesame seeds is one of our favorite side dishes.

The taste of injeolmi depends on the savory and sweet bean powder.

One of our traditional rice cakes (tteok) that is still popular today is injeolmi. It's made by soaking good glutinous rice, steaming it, pounding it with a rice cake hammer, and making it into a well-stretched dough, then cutting it into appropriate sizes and coating it with powder. 

The most important thing when making injeolmi is the powder (konggomul). If you spread steamed beans on a tray and dry them until they are fluffy, then lightly roast them in a pan and grind them, then add salt and sugar to taste, you get a delicious bean powder that maximizes the savory taste of beans. Of course, nowadays, it's rare to make injeolmi at home, and every morning, freshly made savory injeolmi are sold as health food at rice cake shops.

Red bean porridge (danpatjuk) is a representative winter delicacy that can be enjoyed at traditional tea houses in Insa-dong, Seoul's representative tourist attraction. In summer, this menu is replaced by refreshing red bean shaved ice (patbingsu). 

Both are sweet desserts made with red beans. Nakwon-dong, which can be reached by walking along the alley from Insa-dong, is a place where the most famous rice cake shops in Seoul are gathered, where you can taste various rice cakes made with different kinds of beans, as well as injeolmi.

As you can see, our bean story goes from soy sauce and doenjang to bean rice, side dishes, and desserts. The reason why the annual bean consumption is the third highest after rice and wheat, the staple foods, is here.

Thickly sliced fresh tofu with stir-fried kimchi is popular as a snack for drinking.

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(Source / 김진영 (Kim Jin-young, 金臻榮) ’여행자의 식탁(Traveler’s Kitchen)’ 대표 -  'Traveler's Kitchen' representative)