Milmyeon
Milmyeon is one of Busan's main dishes, and it is made with wheat noodles and cold broth. It's a variation of naengmyeon, the North Korean dish made by buckwheat flour noodles. Milmyeon must have appeared during the Korean War, when many North Korean people fled to take refuge in Busan. These refugees used wheat flour to replace buckwheat flour, which was difficult to find in Busan at the time.
Budae jjigae
Budae jjigae, which literally means "army stew", is a mixing of typical Korean food products (vegetables, spicy soup, fishcake) and American-inspired ones (processed spam, sausages, ham and sliced cheese). During the Korean War, Korean people went through a famine, while American troops were living comfortably. In order to survive, some Korean civilians went scavenging for food at American bases.
Milmyeon
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Some other dishes symbolic of the region
According to some museums, people in Busan once ate a lot of kkulkulkkuli-juk.
Kkulkkuli-juk is considered as “gukbap”, which literally means “rice soup” in Korean: it is indeed a dish based on various ingredients, almost including rice all the time. The whole mixture was put into one and only one pot, where it was boiling at a certain temperature (average, lower or too high) depending on the living facilities by day.
This dish was born mainly because of this one reason, which was that side dishes weren’t even a possibility for the refugees. Yet, when you eat in Korea nowadays (at home or at a restaurant), it seems unthinkable to not serve side dishes beside the main dishes. Because of the extreme poverty during that time, side dishes weren’t prepared, and so its symbolism came to represent the living conditions back then, beside the soup-based dishes such as budae jjigae or kkulkkuli-juk.
“The refugees weren’t fed well. They couldn’t eat three meals a day like they do nowadays. One bowl of rice was for one family.” [...] After all, this is also considered as gukbap. “Kkulkkuli” means “pigs eating human leftovers”. At that time, it was called kkulkkuli-juk because it looked like rice eaten by pigs. [...] They put all the food you have in a pot regardless of what it is and boil it. [...] That's what kkkulkkuli-juk is. [...] Yes. Korean food should have side dishes. Refugees couldn’t do that so they put rice and soup together. They ate it all together.”
Gukbap, literally “rice soup”, is a kind of Korean dish. As the name reveals, it includes all types of dishes composed partially of rice and broth. Therefore, Budae jjigae and kkulkkuli-juk are considered as gukbap.
The reason why gukbap is a popular dish in Korea lies in the fact that it is such an easy meal to eat, and it isn’t needed to eat it with side dishes.
Pork soup, mixed with hot or cold rice, is another example of gukbap. It remains a famous dish in Busan, still nowadays.
“Foods like gukbap (soup with rice) are popular in Korea. [...] Pork soup was made and then eaten together with rice, and so regardless of the temperature of the rice (it could be eaten cold or hot). [...] This is also why pork soup became so famous in Busan.”
Nowadays, young Korean people don’t appreciate the taste of gukbap. They try it once and that’s all. It could be because gukbap is rather a very simple meal, without any side dishes. Therefore, it may seem like some “cheap meals” to most of the younger people. However, for the older generations, gukbap will always remain as delicious dishes, filled with the memory of the war and the bittersweet taste of the poor living conditions back then.
“But then young people say it doesn't taste good. They try it once in a while and say it's not tasty. [...] There are so many kinds of food that people don't eat often these days, but it still remains as delicious food for our generation.”
Budae Jjigae
