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Okay, it’s another #KoreanFoodWednesday. So what’s for today?
This week, Gejang!
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Whatever the Gejang means… Look at them! How beautiful! mmm… Food is all about the taste, but it is also about appearance. Sometimes it feels just sorry for them to eat because it’s so gorgeous.
Okay now, let’s get into what this gorgeous food is, shall we?
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Okay, what is this food?
Gejang. Ge means “Crabs” and jang means “sorts of condiments” in Korean. So literally, it means marinated fresh crab. Gejang with soy source is older recipe and very widely spread in all of the country. Gejang with spicy condiment is another recipe, and fairly new but it’s very popular as well.
When I was little, my grandmother used to call Gejang as “Bab do duk (밥도둑)“. Bab means a bowl of rice or the dining itself. And Do duk means thief. So in basically, this bastard makes us eat a lot of rice because it’s just too delicious! Cute hu? 🙂 Ah the Korean expressions!!!
The highlight of Gejang is… mix some rice in the shell of crab. Oh, you should try it!
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How to make it?
It takes pretty long time to make. Preparation takes about 6 hours, and pouring boiled soy sauce and repeat about five times. Of course there’s a lot more than just soy sauce in the condiment but that’s different per every recipe. Sometimes people keep the recipe because it’s ‘family secret’.
Prepare crabs thats full of tomalley, soy sauce and a huge pot. Then you are ready to go!
My mum makes beautiful Gejang. And I felt what ”Bab do duk” means from when I was..like five.
Gejang with spicy condiment is easier to make. Just chop the crab and mixed with all the condiments based on red pepper sauce, a bit if soy sauce, onion, and all sorts of others. And I have to warn you, this is pretty damn hot. I’m not a fan of spicy, so I prefer soy sauce one better. On don’t get me wrong, I can handle spicy just fine just not a fan. And yes, not all Koreans crazy about spicy, just so you know. 🙂
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How much do I have to spend?
We used to make this all the time. Marinated side dishes are big part of Korean food, and Gejang was pretty special kind. But now many people are not interested in home cooking, there’s many great Gejang place around the coast. Try West sea. Many famous restaurants are there. mmm! These photos are from one of them.
It’s about 20,000 won (USD 20) per person, and it’s worth it.
