Yangpa (onion)

The onion (Allium cepa) is thought to have originated in western Asia, spreading through the Middle East to Egypt and the Mediterranean, then across Europe. Its Korean name, yangpa, simply means "Western pa" (scallion), and it reached Korea only at the end of the Joseon period. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture suggests it came from the United States or Japan.

Changnyeong in Gyeongsangnam-do calls itself the birthplace of Korean onion growing. According to local history, onions arriving from Japan were trial-planted at a horticultural station at Ttukseom in Seoul in 1908, and the following year Seong Chan-yeong of Seok-ri, Daeji-myeon, began the first farm cultivation in Changnyeong. Seed long had to be imported at great cost until a local horticulture teacher produced domestic seed in 1946. In the 1950s Seong's grandson, Seong Jae-gyeong, promoted the crop to neighbors as a far more lucrative winter crop than barley, planted in rice paddies after the harvest. By 1970 Changnyeong produced over a third of the nation's onions.

Today the largest growing area is the southwest. In Muan County, South Jeolla, onions grown in red clay soils near the coast are a signature product; in 2022 the county farmed about 2,000 hectares of onions, close to two-fifths of the province's onion fields. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture notes the regional pattern: Jeolla onions are mostly grown in dry fields, while in the Gyeongsang provinces they are often a second crop in rice paddies. Onions are sown in late summer, transplanted in autumn and harvested in early summer once the tops fall over.

In Korean cooking, onion is the quiet sweetener in bulgogi, jeyuk-bokkeum, japchae and countless braises and soups, and it is fried with chunjang in jajangmyeon. Raw slices with ssamjang accompany grilled meat, and soy-pickled yangpa-jangajji is a staple banchan.

• Low-calorie flavor base: Per the Korean Food Composition Table, onion is low in calories and fat and provides some vitamin C, potassium and vitamin B6, plus fiber.
• Traditional beliefs: Korean references repeat long-held claims that onion helps prevent hardening of the arteries and high blood pressure and eases fatigue. These are traditional and preliminary ideas, not established effects of eating onion.
• Pickles add salt and sugar: Yangpa-jangajji and other onion pickles are brined in soy sauce, vinegar and sugar, so they contribute sodium and sugar even though the onion itself has almost none.
• Digestive comfort: Some people find raw onion hard to digest or a trigger for heartburn; cooking it often makes it gentler.