Entirely too much food gets thrown away in South Korea - many restaurants have public announcement posters encouraging people to waste less - but this is going too far:
Seoul Metro police arrested a 62 year old man - known only as Mr. Yu - for selling budaejjigae (”army base stew”) made from the leftover food discarded by American soldiers, and a 57-year old man - known here as Mr. Kim - for selling food waste.
Yu runs a restaurant in the vicinity of the US 8th Army headquarters in Yongsan, and is suspected of buying 1,200 kg of steak and other leftovers eaten by American soldiers (at 2000 won for 600 g) from Kim, a cook at the base, since January of 1991 for use as ingredients.in his budaejjigae, of which he has sold 300 million won’s worth up till now.
Some of the spiced sausage, steak, and other food waste received by Yu tested positive for food poisoning-causing coli, the police investigation turned up.
For those unfamiliar with budaejjigae, it’s a spicy stew made with Spam, sausages, ramen noodles, and an assortment of other odds and ends. From what I’ve been told, and as the name seems to suggest, the origins of the dish can be found in Korea’s leaner years in the aftermath of the Korean War, when locals used to collect discarded food from American military installations for use in stews (warning: this is only what I’ve been told). In this case however, I think Yu was being a tad overzealous in making his budaejjigae as authentic as possible.
UPDATE: Some of the commenters have added their own understanding of the origins of budaejjigae - theirs is probably better than mine.
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The version that I was told about the origin of budaejjigae was the meat and spam cans (or tins?, kkangtong) originating from the US military.
As it was a restaurant keeper who told this, it’s not surprising that he didn’t talk about leftover foods.
Pictures from the 50s and 60s Korea:
http://www.anthropology.or.kr/.....amp;idx=50
http://www.anthropology.or.kr/.....amp;idx=56
That looks exactly like the same story that was in the paper two years ago. Where did you get that. I’ve been a subscriber to the Korean Herald for years and they often run the same stories over and over again. I’ve seen the one about North Koreans being good workers in Russian logging camps at least 7 times, exact reprint.
Shawn, I got it from YTN, via Yahoo! Korea (it’s linked in the post). The translation’s my own. I haven’t seen this in the English press yet, and I don’t expect to, because the story’s not all that serious - more like a “Strangely enough” piece over at Yahoo! USA.
Actually, the story I was always told was during the Korean war, when everybody had collaped down around the Pusan perimeter, US army started supplying the Korean army as well. The Korean soldiers, looking at the SPAM, hotdogs and hamburger they were being given, threw it in the pot with the ramien, kimchee and other odds and ends. Thus the name Army stew. First I’ve heard it was from “leftovers”.
My mother left Korea in the 1960s; budae-jjigae was a new concept to her when I told her about it in the 90s. She was repulsed, and that attitude didn’t change when she saw the real thing. Her “poor man’s stew”– and quite possibly my Dad’s favorite Korean soup– was and remains sujaebi.
Kevin
I’ve always heard budaechige (as in the article “army camp stew”) originated with leftover, stolen, or black market SPAM, hot dogs, cheese and the like from U.S. Army bases. I’m not sure how fresh the stuff was, but SPAM and hot dogs are probably good for a couple decades anyway. The 50s and early 60s were a time when even the Norks were eating better and the Southerners cut their rice with barley (which is far better used to make beer). Incidentally, there are a couple of good budaechige restaurants across the street from the USO tucked up next to Yongsan/Camp Kim, which is the area mentioned in this article. Was one of them the offending restaurant? D’OHHH! This article could be fishy, as Korean articles often are. Anyway, the stew itself isn’t going to contain bacteria as it’s boiled for a while.
The goods from U.S. bases were always considered luxurious and even in the 90s (not sure about the 00s) you could still buy SPAM gift packs for your Chuseok and New Year’s gift needs.
As a sidenote, in ‘93 a couple of times I drank soda from the dispensing machines in Seoul’s subways and always seemed to get a gut bomb afterward. I didn’t make the connection until the Korea Herald ran an article citing massive quantities of bacteria found in something like 70% of those machines (they don’t clean them often). That’s one article I believed.
Barley rice - yummy, but it gives the worst gas. Coicidentally, I still see SPAM gift packs at stores, and I believe one commenter recieved one from SK in lieu of illegal campaign contributions.
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Robert Koehler of the Marmot’s Hole has a post describing how innovative Koreans prepare low cost “Army Base Stew.” No thanks, I’m full.