Jangho Wanggopchang

In Seoul, kimchi jjigae is the hardest food to become famous for, because it's what you eat at home. Any Korean can sing praises about the kimchi their mother makes at home. So any restaurant that manages to woo a variety of guests—who all have a different idea of what good kimchi is—and have them line up every lunchtime for one type of kimchi jjigae deserves respect. The Jangho Wanggopchang kimchi jjigae recipe known to the world is as follows: “Take cabbage from Gochang, North Jeolla Province and add fermented salted shrimp, red pepper powder, minced garlic, and yellow croaker fish sauce. Let the ripened kimchi mature for a year. Then heap the fermented kimchi along with pork foreleg, leeks and onions into a nickel pot, add red pepper powder, red pepper paste, minced garlic, the juices of the kimchi, and water. Bring to a boil.” But no matter how hard anyone tries to reproduce the Jangho Wanggopchang recipe at home, it just doesn’t taste the same. It’s little short of a miracle.