INTERVIEW Korean blood sausage master urges gov't to break export barriers

Heestory Food CEO Yook Kyung-hee, founder of premium sundae restaurant franchise Sundae Silrok / Courtesy of Heestory Food

By Ko Dong-hwan

• Published Dec 23, 2025 12:01 PM KST

Heestory Food CEO says rising global demand clashes with regulatory hurdles

The government must expand its list of trading partners that allow imports of Korean processed meats to further advance the cuisine’s global reach and popularity, according to the country’s official sundae master.

Sundae is a traditional Korean sausage made by stuffing casings with a mixture of blood and other ingredients, such as rice, noodles, vegetables and meat.

Yook Kyung-hee, 63, CEO of Seoul-based Heestory Food, has spent the past 15 years promoting sundae — still widely perceived overseas as a low-nutrition street food — through Sundae Silrok, a franchise restaurant brand offering creative, health-focused interpretations of the dish.

Designated as the country’s 99th Korean Food Master by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs earlier this month for her expertise in sundae, Yook said globalizing sundae requires coordinated government support rather than relying solely on individual efforts.

She said overseas demand for her products is strong, but exports are constrained by restrictions on processed meats tied to health, disease and halal certification requirements in some markets. Yook added that such constraints can only be eased through bilateral agreements covering factors such as meat type, processing methods and certification standards.

“There is strong demand for our sundae in Europe, Indonesia and Japan, but exports remain difficult because of regulatory barriers,” Yook said in an interview with The Korea Times on Wednesday.

“The Korean government needs to address these issues so that businesses like ours can export food products more freely.”

She added, “Spanish blood sausages are widely sold across Europe and the United States, and I hope Korean sundae can one day be available worldwide.”

Sundae has myriad variations, according to Yook. While the cooking method is relatively simple — usually mixing ingredients with animal blood, stuffing them into casings such as pig or cow intestines, and then steaming or boiling the sausage — the diversity of ingredients and casings allows for an almost limitless range of flavors and colors. This versatility inspired Yook to create sundae dishes that are both nutritious and flavorful.

A key ingredient is blood, which takes on a pudding-like texture when cooked. When combined with different meats, vegetables, seafood, grains or nuts, the dishes' flavor and style changes, ranging from country and region to individual households.

Yook founded Heestory Food in 2011 and introduced Sundae Steak two years later. Stuffed with meats, vegetables and nuts, then grilled and served with a fork and knife, the radical reinterpretation showed how creativity could alter a familiar dish. A lower-calorie version, Sundae Steak Light, eliminates carbohydrates and instead uses tofu and konjac.

She also pushed the boundaries of her creativity by venturing into desserts. Sundae Chocolate combines pig blood with Valrhona chocolate, cooked inside a pig’s small intestine.

While pig intestines are the most commonly used casing in Korea, sundae can also be made using the intestines or other internal organs of cows, chickens or lambs. Hollowed vegetables, as well as gutted fish or squid, can also serve as casings.

“Sundae is a perfect example of healthy slow food — the opposite of fast food. It allows us to use every part of the animals and vegetables we produce,” Yook said.

“Similar recipes exist not only in Korea but also in Germany, Spain, Italy, France, the Czech Republic, Mongolia and Southeast Asian countries. Seeing how this shared tradition takes different forms around the world inspired me to develop diverse Korean-style sundae.”

How Sundae begins

The street-style sundae popular today emerged in the 1960s, when much of the population faced food shortages in the aftermath of the Korean War. As the government promoted pig farming to increase food supplies, large quantities of internal organs considered unsuitable for conventional meals became widely available. According to Yook, an anonymous “genius” then devised a new type of sundae by mixing starch-based glass noodles with pig blood and stuffing the mixture into pig intestines. Chewy, flavorful and affordable, it quickly became a national favorite.

Yook grew up in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, watching her parents regularly steam vegetable-filled sundae in a large cauldron and share it with neighbors. She recalled that making homemade sundae was a common custom among affluent households that raised livestock in their backyards in the city at the time.

In adulthood, driven by curiosity and a desire to push back against the homogenization of mass-produced sundae, she began tracing the dish’s roots in Korea through ancient texts. She found references in three books written during the 17th and 18th centuries of the Joseon Dynasty. To her surprise, the recipes closely resembled the sundae she had seen prepared and eaten during her youth.

“I think about what I should do as a master before this diversity of sundae is completely forgotten in this country,” Yook said. “One of my roles is to pass on recipes for different types of sundae in cleaner and healthier ways.”

Heestory Food currently operates a Japanese subsidiary and a sundae manufacturing plant in the city of Fujisawa. The facility, formerly run by a Japanese master sausage maker, now produces Yook’s sundae.

“I traveled there nine times to persuade and teach a sausage expert in his 70s my sundae recipes,” Yook said. “Because Japanese consumers do not eat blood, the sundae we produce in Japan does not use it. The sausage master praised sundae for its versatility compared with the meat-centered simplicity of sausages.”

She said the company distributes its sundae nationwide from the factory in Japan because exports from Korea remain restricted.

“In Japan, promoting foreign food can take decades,” she said. “Our Japanese business did not turn a profit last year, but I believe succeeding in Japan is as challenging — and as meaningful — as succeeding anywhere in the world.”