Travel

Korean Eel Barbecue: Why You Need to Try Jangeo Gui in Korea

We definitely spoilt ourselves this day. After our little grocery shopping adventure (which you can click here to read about if you haven’t already) we stopped for some jangeo gui (eel barbecue) in Jinju—yup, I said eel. If you’re looking for must-try foods for your trip to Korea, add this to your list immediately!

Restaurant Info

Why More Foreigners Should Try Eel in Korea

For some reason eel barbecue is one of the less commonly tried Korean foods among foreigners here. Maybe it’s too weird for some people or maybe, like me, most don’t even know it’s a thing. Whatever your reasons might be, I beg of you put aside your reservations and try it at least once, it’s just that good.

Korean Barbecue Side Dishes and Trying Silkworm Pupae

Like any barbecue restaurant in Korea, the banchan (side dishes) make the meal. My essential banchan for eel would be ginger, gochujang (red pepper paste) and perilla leaves. The fun part is trying out different combinations to see what tastes best to you.

At this particular restaurant beondegi (silkworm pupae) are part of the banchan. Listen, if you live in Korea you’ve got to try them at least once—most likely after a few drinks—just to say you have. They don’t necessarily taste bad, it’s more the texture and the fact that it’s a bug that’s off-putting.

How to Cook and Eat Korean Eel Barbecue

Cooking the meat can be another one of the slightly disconcerting parts for some foreigners. The tail end in particular will flap around a little once introduced to heat🙈, but you can just not cook it—personally, I don’t because there’s less meat and it’s too boney.

As for cooking the rest of the eel, you wanna place it flesh side down and leave it until there’s a nice golden char. Once you flip it over the skin will tighten and cause the pieces to coil so get most of the cooking done before flipping. You’ll know it’s cooked when the flesh turns white and is no longer translucent. There are bones but they’re very fine and can easily be eaten without ruining the meal.

Korean Eel Soup After Barbecue

I guess you could classify the eel pieces as your ‘starter’ and the jangeo-tang (eel soup) as your ‘entrée’ because you absolutely must try the soup next. Jangeo-tang is easily one of my top five favourite meals. It’s light, comforting, has a distinct perilla flavour and tastes best with rice.

I hope I’ve managed to convince you to try a dish that may seem a little strange but is utterly delicious. You may even come across some barbecued eel street foods, don’t hesitate to give those a taste too, they’re a classic Korean street food.