Budae-jjigae () is a type of spicy jjigae (Korean stew) from South Korea that is made with a variety of ingredients, often canned or processed. Common ingredients include ham, sausage, Spam, baked beans, kimchi, instant noodles, gochujang, and American cheese. The dish is now a popular anju (accompaniment to alcoholic drinks) and a comfort food cooked in a large pot shared by a group of people. It also goes by the English names army stew, army base stew, and spicy sausage stew.
The dish has its origins in a predecessor often called kkulkkuri-juk () that was created around the time of the Korean War, when South Korea was experiencing significant poverty. A prominent ingredient of the dish, Spam, was only made legally available for sale in 1987, around the time that South Korea democratized.
Although the dish came from conditions of poverty, it has remained consistently popular, even during and after South Korea's rapid economic growth. Its low cost, flexibility, and simplicity have been praised. In South Korea, there are many restaurants that specialize in . Gyeonggi Province's city of Uijeongbu, which claims to have first made the dish, has a "" with a high concentration of specialty restaurants. Chains like Nolboo have operated over a thousand locations in the country.
Name The word () refers to military camps. The suffix -jjigae () refers to a type of stew that has a thicker consistency than guk (soup) and has more ingredients. Its name is sometimes translated as "army base stew", "army stew", "spicy sausage stew", or "sausage stew".
Description Budae-jjigae is made with a wide variety of ingredients. The soup base can be plain water, although most prefer to make it with a fish, meat, or bone-based broth such as (). Common ingredients include ham, sausage, lunch meats (e.g. Spam), baked beans, kimchi (fermented vegetables), instant ramen noodles, spicy flavoring packs that come with the ramen, cellophane noodles, gochujang (pepper paste), Vienna sausages, bacon, tofu, pork, ground beef, mandu (dumplings), macaroni, tteok (rice cakes), American cheese, mozzarella, minari (water celery), scallions, chili peppers, garlic, corn, zucchini, mushrooms, and other in-season vegetables. Spam or similar lunch meats are often described as a central part of the dish.
Preparation
The dish is based on a stock or soup base, which can be either vegan or made with animal products. Seasoning paste is also used and usually contains and other flavorants such as soy sauce and sugar. Chopped ingredients and noodles are then added to the stock, with variability on whether the noodles are added before or after the liquid comes to a boil. The dish is often enjoyed communally, with multiple people sharing a pot. In restaurants, the dish comes with a set of base ingredients; more can be added for additional charge. The low cost of the ingredients, flexibility of the recipe, and ease of preparation have been praised.
Variants
Ingredients for the dish are sold and exported from South Korea to other countries in kits. Various restaurants create their own versions of the dish with unorthodox ingredients. For example, it was reported in 2022 that a restaurant in Apgujeong used tomato soup as a base. Another restaurant in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province that was opened in 1973 has a ("military base meat") stir-fry that has been described as " without soup".
A variant of the dish is named after a U.S. President. A form of developed in Yongsan District, Seoul is called Johnson- (), after Lyndon B. Johnson, who is said to have enjoyed the dish during his 1966 visit to South Korea. The restaurant Johnson ate the dish at, Bada Sikdang (), still serves Johnson- as its signature dish. In Johnson-, kimchi is replaced with plain napa cabbage leaves, and ramen noodles are not added. Cheese is included by default, rather than being a requested addition (as is the case in some restaurants). In addition, while many restaurants cook the dish at the table, Johnson- is served already cooked.
There are Uijeongbu and Songtan styles of the dish. The Uijeongbu style uses barley-based gochujang, and has been described as having a thicker and spicier broth. The Songtan style prominently features napa cabbage.
Some opt to exclude or substitute some of its salty, preserved, or perceived low-quality ingredients. Vegan varieties of the dish exist.
History Background
The 20th century was turbulent for the Korean peninsula. In 1945, Korea was liberated from its status as a colony of the Empire of Japan. Koreans had been exploited; for example, from 1939 to 1945, around 700,000–800,000 Koreans were moved to Japan to work in slavery-like conditions. The situation was made worse due to the collapse of the economy that had been run by imperial Japan, and the subsequent division of Korea between the Soviet Civil Administration in the North and the United States Army Military Government in the South. The difficulties did not stop; around 10% of the population died during the Korean War, which greatly disrupted the economy and society. By the end of the war, South Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world. Around that time, many Koreans depended on international aid for survival.
Many foreign products were not legally available to South Koreans, and some were made artificially expensive due to tariffs even up until 1987. During a crackdown on black market trading under the Park Chung Hee administration, smuggling food like Spam was a crime punishable by death. To circumvent this, goods were smuggled off bases. Canned goods were particularly prized for their long shelf life. Black markets called "Yankee markets" () formed that specialized in the trade of these goods. Some of these markets still exist today, including one in Incheon, although they are now regular markets.
Kkulkkuri-juk
A predecessor to the dish is often called (), although it may have additionally gone by "UN Stew" (as in "United Nations"; ). Its ingredients and method of cooking were more inconsistent than its successor's. One variant of the dish is attested to in the Pusan Perimeter. It was made with butter, canned pineapples, cabbages, onions, American cheese, and the occasional piece of meat (these rare pieces of scrap meat were often described as ). The Busan variant of the dish also led to the development of dwaeji gukbap, a pork-based rice dish.
The dish used American sausages, which tend to be greasier and saltier than Korean ones. Modern is instead made with milder ingredients, and seasoning is added to the soup. It also lacked instant ramen, as ramen had not yet reached Korea by then. Coincidentally, Jeon Jung-yun () cited the poor quality of as an inspiration for why he created the first domestic instant ramen brand Samyang Ramen. Jeon says he deliberately set ramen's price as low as possible, in order to make it accessible to people who would otherwise eat .
A number of people have recalled that, while the dish was highly sought after and enjoyed when consumed, its actual quality was poor in hindsight, especially because it was sometimes made with food scraps picked out of garbage from the military bases. One significant and common issue was the presence of inedible objects. The ends of cigarettes, toothpicks, and tissues could be found in the mix. In 2010, Lee Si-yeon recalled an incident from his boyhood, when he worked at Camp Henry:
Despite the low quality of the dish, many Koreans still could not afford it. According to Jeon, a bowl cost around 5 won in 1963 (). The dish persisted until the mid-1960s, when the economic situation somewhat improved.
Development of budae-jjigae Since its development, has remained consistently popular in South Korea. However, it is not known with certainty where the dish first arose; a number of restaurants and cities claim to be the origin. It even possibly arose independently in multiple places due to shared circumstances across South Korea.
According to sociolinguist Yang Minho, the dish was first made in the northern part of South Korea and later propagated south, following the early trajectory of the Korean War. Possible places of origin include the regions of Uijeongbu, Pyeongtaek, Munsan, and Dongducheon.
One person who claimed to be the original inventor was Heo Gi-Suk (), a North Korean defector. Heo worked at a fishcake stand in Uijeongbu, and occasionally encountered people who asked her to cook meats they had acquired from the nearby military base. She began by simply stirfrying the meats, but eventually turned the dish into a stew containing kimchi, lard, and wild sesame oil. Heo eventually opened a restaurant in 1960 called Odeng Sikdang (), which nominally served fishcakes, but was popular for serving . This drew the ire of the customs office, which confiscated her ingredients and charged her fines on a number of occasions. The restaurant reportedly had long lines , despite multiple competitors close by. Heo died in 2014, but the restaurant was still open .
An article in the Encyclopedia of Korean Folk Culture claims that the dish was popular among factory workers in the 1960s and 1970s. However, according to one writer for the JoongAng Ilbo in 2016, the dish was not common in restaurants in the late 1960s. Another writer that published an article for the Cultural Heritage Administration in 2018 claimed that the dish did not reach national popularity until the 1970s.
In 1963, instant ramen entered the South Korean market, and eventually made its way into . Over time, anchovy broth (flavored with and kimchi) began to be used as the base of the soup, a practice that has since persisted in some variations of .
Recent history After the June Democratic Struggle of 1987, South Korea finally democratized after decades of dictatorships. In addition, by then the economy was significantly improved in the wake of the South Korean economic miracle. Spam was legalized in that year, after a Korean company purchased the rights to make it locally. According to an article by Hahna Yoon in the BBC, it is around this time that the dish's status changed from survival food to comfort food. That same year, Nolboo (), a restaurant franchise specializing in the dish, opened. , it operated around 1,000 locations across the country.
In recent years, modern variations such as budae-bokkeum as well as fusion flavors incorporating cream, rosé sauce, or malatang spices have emerged. The dish has also been adapted into home meal replacement and meal-kit products for home consumption.
Spread
The dish now has some international popularity. In a 2015 episode of Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, Bourdain described the dish to journalist Anderson Cooper as "a classic example of necessity being the mother of deliciousness". Bourdain later featured the dish in his 2016 book Appetites: A Cookbook:
According to a 2016 survey conducted by the Korea Tourism Organization of 200,000 Chinese tourists to South Korea, was most often ranked as their favorite dish that they ate in the country. In 2019, the Michelin Guide included the dish on a list of "Must-Eat Dishes in South Korea".
A number of restaurants in the United States have served the dish. This includes the Portland, Oregon, restaurant Han Oak, and the New York City restaurant Danji. The dish is served in some restaurants in Beijing, China; and Tokyo, Japan.
Budae-jjigae was brought by restaurateurs to North Korea in 2017 and became a popular dish there. In 2024, North Korea banned the sale of budae-jjigae, along with tteok-bokki, from sale in restaurants, because the dishes are of South Korean origin.
Cultural legacy