Jangeo-gui (Grilled Eel)

Eating eel is older than the modern grill, but Korea took a long time to warm to it. A Cultural Heritage Administration feature on Gochang's pungcheon eel says eel was long avoided for its snake-like look, that Joseon-era writings and early-twentieth-century records note it was little eaten, and that eel meat was first taken up in Busan and Ulsan in the late 1930s by workers dealing with the leftover flesh after skins were taken for leather. By the 1950s grilled eel was a popular street-stall food near Busan's Jagalchi Market. The same article places the rise of grilled pungcheon eel in the 1970s, when restaurants near Seonunsa Temple began serving it, with national fame as a stamina food by the 1990s.

The name pungcheon is not a place. The same source explains that it refers to the brackish stretch of the river near Seonunsan, in Gochang, where river and tidewater meet, and the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture describes the eel as one of the area's three specialties, grilled over charcoal and traditionally enjoyed with bokbunja wine. The encyclopedia also notes concern about overfishing of the young eels once the area was made a provincial park, and the heritage article says truly wild pungcheon eels are now scarce, so many are farmed in fresh water and finished in seawater for several months.

Eel has an older medicinal reputation too. The encyclopedia's entry on the Japanese eel records that the Jasan eobo praised it as sweet and good for the body and recommended eel porridge for long-lasting diarrhea; that is a historical claim, not a modern recommendation. Korean eel farming began in 1966 in Gimhae. For the season in which eel is eaten, see boknal and summer foods and the ingredient entry for jangeo.

• High in vitamin A: the Korean Food Composition Table lists about 1,050 µg of vitamin A per 100 g of raw Japanese eel, along with calcium and thiamin.
• A rich, fatty fish: raw eel carries roughly 17 g of fat per 100 g in the same table, which makes it satisfying in small portions.
• Traditional stamina food: eel's reputation as a summer restorative is cultural; research on specific health claims is limited.

• Gochang pungcheon-jangeo: the heritage article describes fillets grilled on a wire rack, then brushed with a sauce built from soy sauce, gochujang, sugar, syrup, ginger juice, garlic, cinnamon and rice wine and grilled again; the bones and head are simmered to make the sauce's broth.
• Busan street-stall style: grilled eel took hold at street stalls near Jagalchi Market in the 1950s, according to the same source.
• Farmed versus wild: because wild pungcheon eel is scarce, farm-raised eel kept in seawater for about six months is sold to recapture the wild flavor.