Endangered cuisine holds out in Jinan
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“Aejeojjim” or steamed piglet, is still served at Jinangwan restaurant in Jinan, North Jeolla Province. / Courtesy of Paul Wilson
By Matthew C. Crawford
We had set off on a year-end roadtrip from Seoul to Busan and were floating ideas for lunch when I remembered reading several years ago about a rare local specialty in the small town of Jinan. Located in North Jeolla Province, the heartland of Korean cuisine, Jinan had a long tradition of serving pig fetus. The question was whether the dish was still served today.
Driving slowly down the main street of Jinan, we saw no signs of baby pig restaurants until we’d passed the long market strip with sacks of herbs and roots on display. We slowed down when we saw a sign with the outline of a pig on the first floor of a nondescript building. The restaurant, named Jinangwan, had an orange sign advertising “Designated Establishment for Traditional Indigenous Foods.”
We stepped inside and were ushered to a table by Lee Sang-bong and Kim Geum-ju, a couple who looked to be in their 70s.
Like many provincial Korean restaurants, it was a no-frills establishment. Among the few decorations was a picture of Kim on the wall across from the kitchen. In red and blue calligraphy, it marked the fact that the restaurant’s signature dish had been served for 50 years when the picture was taken ― at a county festival a quarter-century ago.
Lee brought over a stone pot and set it over a gas range on our table. Inside was white, slightly pinkish meat with fatty skin, half-submerged together with ginseng and onion in a clear broth. The skin was like jelly; the flesh was remarkably tender.
Lee said, “Dip the meat in there,” pointing to trays of tiny brine shrimp and red pepper paste with vinegar. Also among the side dishes were slices of raw garlic and green chili, which helped add a kick to the mild meat.
“We’ve been here since the time of my mother and mother-in-law ― we’re the second generation to run this restaurant,” Kim said. Her forthrightness and candor were refreshing, and it was clear that she’d lived all her life in this small town.
As we conversed, the history of steamed pig fetus began to unfold. Pigs have been raised in Korea for at least 2,000 years, and swine were a popular livestock during the Joseon period (1392-1910). But though many farmers raised pigs, few were wealthy enough to taste pork on a regular basis. Through centuries of poverty, rural Koreans have found tasty uses for sea creatures that are usually thrown back into the sea and animal parts that are thrown away by nations of picky eaters, so it’s not surprising that when a stillborn piglet was found in a litter, peasant families sometimes used it to make “aejeojjim,” meaning steamed “sad pig.”
Over time, rich merchants stumbled upon Jinan’s specialty and developed a taste for it. Aejeojjim is just one of the many Korean dishes that started out as peasant cuisine but ended up an expensive delicacy. While many folk dishes spread across the peninsula during the chaotic years of the Korean War, when refugees wandered from town to town, and during the urban migration of the ’60s and ’70s, steamed piglet remained confined to Jinan and the surrounding area.
For some mysterious reason, the pork in Jinan County is tastier than that in other parts of the country. “You might think that all pigs are the same, but the pork here stands out for a number of reasons, including the climate and the terrain,” Kim explained. Because the piglets in other parts of the country aren’t as tasty as they are in Jinan, she said, fetal pig restaurants that opened elsewhere struggled to remain in business.
Since steamed piglet can only be had in Jinan, the restaurant’s customers come from all across the country. It doesn’t come cheap, though ― a shared bowl goes for about 40,000 won. For this reason, it’s generally eaten on special occasions and served to big spenders like government officials.
What we were most interested to find out, though, was whether we’d just eaten a stillborn piglet. We hadn’t, Kim told us with a smile. “You can’t do that now,” she said. “There are laws against it, and the farmers won’t collect the dead piglets for you.” Neither will the butcher shops deal with animals that are born dead. Instead, Jinangwan uses suckling pigs. Because they haven't eaten feed, Kim explained, their meat isn’t greasy.
Kim remarked, “There used to be another steamed piglet restaurant in Jinan, but it’s gone now. It closed about two years ago. We’re the only restaurant like this in the whole country.”
Kim and Lee were both well into their retirement years. Judging by their age ― and the relative obscurity of the restaurant ― it seems like just a matter of time before the last piglet is served.