= Gwamegi from Pohang as migaki nishin (dried herring) =
— Nishin soba (dried Pacific herring in soba)
Due to natural abundance of lush seaweed creating a favorable habitat around the port city of Pohang on the east coast of Korea that protrudes slightly into the East Sea, Pacific herring fish were caught abundantly.
Historical description from the 16th century describe preservation methods for long term storage.
Meiji Japan found Pohang a convenient location to concentrate production of 과메기 gwamegi to export to Japan. As with mentaiko taken from Korean 명란젓 myeongnanjeot, Japanese were in high demand for Korean gwamegi, forcing Koreans to produce it for them on their terms as “migaki nishin” dried herring. Pohang has preserved the old colonial Japanese buildings that oversaw exploitation operations extracting fish resources from Koreans used as laborers at Pohang as a central supply port hub for Japan.
Ancient Koreans living along the coast discovered a method of preserving fish by using the frosty winter winds that blow across the East Sea. After cleaning and left to hang on racks, the windswept fish is both frozen and dried at night, then thawed in the day, repeatedly in an ancient freeze drying method that also involves slow fermentation. Through painstaking rotating the racks constantly, the gwamegi becomes a very unique Korean delicacy.
Hundreds of years even before Meiji Japan, since the preservation method was perfected long ago and it does not spoil, gwamegi originally served Korean villagers and fishermen in the past as hidden emergency provisions stashed for when Japanese “dwarf” pirate robbers invaded coastal villages or stole fish catch from Korean fisherman left stranded at sea in ancient times. Regrettably, the Japanese were reduced to pirate raids across the East Sea to steal food and resources from Korean villagers, their situation was that deplorable.
- “It rarely becomes stale and can be stored for a long time so fishermen favor it. It was also a good food supply for them when they lost their ship due to invasion and robbing by Japanese pirates”.
[Food] Gwamegi (과메기, Half-dried herring and saury)
http://www.peacebreeze.net/2021/01/food … g-and.html
Gwamegi has been a very familiar and friendly food for fishermen of the east coast of the Korean peninsular for a long time (since the 16th century) because of its taste and affordable ingredient.
Its main ingredient is herring or saury (mackerel pike) which is very cheap and easy to catch. When fishermen found out about its recipe a long time ago, they made it with herring. However, when the temperature of the East Sea became affected by climate change since the 1960s, they used saury as a substitute for herring. These days herring gwamegi is being produced again because climate change has continued to impact the East Sea.
When fish is fully half-dried, its bone and skin are removed. It has a really savory, somewhat fishy taste with seaweed, kelp, laver, garlic, spicy green chili, chogochujang (red chili paste with vinegar) and ssamjang (mixture of red chili paste and bean paste).
It rarely becomes stale and can be stored for a long time so fishermen favor it. It was also a good food supply for them when they lost their ship due to invasion and robbing by Japanese pirates.
Today, this is one of the best side dishes for soju
People usually favor herring gwamegi over saury gwamegi because herring tastes lighter, cleaner and more plain than saury. Gwamegi is a seasonal dish that you only can eat during the winter, which gives a chewy and firm texture filled with DHA, EPA and vitamin E
Today Guryongpo of Pohang is the main production area, famous for gwamegi. Don’t forget to visit Guryongpo for gwamegi if you have any chance to visit Pohang
Guryongpo Japanese House Street
Pohang-si, South Korea
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/guryongpo-japanese-house-street
Legend has it that, during the reign of King Jinheung of Silla, the county magistrate of today’s Guryongpo witnessed an extraordinary sight: ten dragons soared skyward as a sudden storm raged, and a bolt of lightning hit one of them, causing it to fall into the sea. This somehow calmed the storm and the county was later named Guryongpo, meaning Nine Dragons’ Beach.
Located on the near-easternmost point of Korea facing the Sea of Japan, this eup (town) became home to Japanese immigrants around 1906. Most of them were fishermen from the village of Oda in Kagawa, who were seeking new fishing grounds as the Seto Inland Sea grew fraught with rivalries between locals. For them, Guryongpo was quite an ideal location, since it was so abundant in fish that boats would topple over under the weight of massive hauls.
By the 1930’s, 10,000 Japanese people had moved to Guryongpo-eup, creating a moderate-sized Japantown around the houses of Togawa Yasaburo and Hashimoto Zengichi. Hashimoto’s former house has been renovated and stands today as the Guryongpo Modern History Museum.
The town’s flourishment, however, was not all fun and games (especially in retrospect). Its heyday came right after the Empire of Japan’s occupation of Korea in 1910, which heavily exploited its people. Although the colonial rule itself ended along with World War II, its repercussions persist to this day.
Hansik of the Day | Arirang
(At about 8 min 30 sec mark)
