Anseong Market Gukbap: A Bowl Left Behind by a Great Market and Its Cattle Trade

Anseong's market was one of Joseon Korea's biggest, and its large cattle market made beef gukbap a local staple. Here is where the spicy market-style beef soup comes from, what toryeom means, and how to time your bowl to market day.

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Anseong, One of Joseon's Three Great Markets

In the Joseon era Anseong was one of Korea's great market towns. It sat on the way from the three southern provinces of Chungcheong, Jeolla and Gyeongsang up to Hanyang (old Seoul), so goods and people from the south poured in. That is why it was called one of 'Joseon's three great markets', though sources pair it differently: some with Daegu and Jeonju, others with Hanyang and Gaeseong. In Park Ji-won's story The Tale of Heo Saeng, Anseong market is where the hero buys up goods bound for Hanyang to corner the market. It was famed for the sheer range of goods, and its brassware (yugi) production is counted among the reasons the market flourished.

A Big Cattle Market Means Good Gukbap

Anseong's gukbap has its roots in the cattle market. Gyeonggi Province's webzine explains that Anseong farmed on a large scale and needed many cattle, so its cattle market was big. A big cattle market brought slaughterhouses, and with bones and offal plentiful, a soup-and-rice trade was bound to thrive. Gukbap was originally market-day food. The best-known story is of a family that set up a cauldron at an open-air stall in the Anseong market around 1920 and has kept serving gukbap for more than a century; on non-market days they carried meat and offal in a basin on their heads to sell far afield. Because the cuts and amount from each day's slaughter varied, the menu changed a little from day to day. Market gukbap truly lived and breathed with the market.

What Market Gukbap Actually Is

Market gukbap, also called sijang gukbap or sogogi gukbap, is rice in a beef soup made from meat and offal, with red pepper flakes stirred in for a refreshing, spicy kick. Green onion goes in generously, and the red broth sets it apart from clear gomtang. At Anseong's long-running soup houses, a broth made with many parts of the cow is sometimes called 'utang' (beef soup) as a whole. Some also serve seolleongtang or galbitang and simmer their broth for hours in an iron cauldron, so 'Anseong gukbap' can mean anything from spicy market soup to a milky-white broth.

Toryeom: The Soup House Technique

The key to understanding an old market soup house is toryeom: pouring hot broth over rice in an earthenware bowl and draining it back several times to warm the rice. The broth soaks into every grain, and the temperature ends up just right to eat at once, which suited busy traders. Today many places also offer ttaro gukbap, with rice and soup served separately, so pick whichever you prefer. At the old soup houses some customers bought broth by the ladle to take home or brought their own rice and ordered only the soup, and the cooks remembered who wanted extra chili, green onion and garlic and who wanted none. Many places will still adjust the heat if you ask when ordering.

Eating Gukbap in Anseong on Market Day

Today Anseong's five-day market is held on dates ending in 2 and 7 (the 2nd, 7th, 12th, 17th, 22nd and 27th). Stalls line the streets around Anseong Jungang Market and the main road behind the intercity bus terminal, so browsing the market and then grabbing a bowl at a nearby soup house makes a natural outing. The market lost ground after the Gyeongbu railway was routed through Pyeongtaek instead, but market days are still lively. Several long-running gukbap and seolleongtang houses stand around the market area, so you can have market gukbap even on other days. Anseong is also famous for brassware, and a look at the brassware exhibits in town adds to the feel of the place whose name lives on in the Korean phrase 'Anseong-matchum' (a perfect fit). Kkakdugi and kimchi come with every bowl.

#Anseong#Market gukbap#Anseong market#Beef soup with rice#Toryeom