Everything You Need to Know About Cooking with Blood
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When I first was introduced to it, sometime in the early 2000s, I actually found it just a little gross since every bowl came with two or big pieces of congealed blood in the soup. I usually just set those aside and ate on, but I always found it a bit off putting.
There's been an interesting transition in Korean food though over the last decade or so, I've found it harder and harder to find Haejangguk with the blood anymore. I remember it being in pretty much every bowl I ordered, and now I'm shocked if I find the blood in 1 out of 20 different restaurants.
As Koreans as a culture start to really interface with outsiders, it seems like these old home-style ways of making foods are starting to fall out of fashion, and "nicer", more mass produced, more consistent foods are taking over.
I find it kind of sad personally, I spent a lot of time acquiring a taste for lots of Korean food and it was hard won. But as I learned to like it, the complexity and heartiness of the cuisine really started appealing to me.
The modern stuff you get in the supermarket cafeteria? Not so much.
My in-laws (Korean) are all talking about how hard it is to get kids to eat the kinds of foods they grew up with: salty, spicy, fermented (and generally pretty nutritious), and instead their kids are dead set on eating what they call "American foods" like hamburgers and pizza. Their parents complain about having to tone down certain strong flavors and ingredients in order to get their kids to eat the food at all.
I don't think it's quite as bad as they say, but I and my extended family in Korea have all noticed a rising wave of both obese kids in Korea, and much taller kids than any previous generation.
For people of my wife's generation, I'm usually near the top of the height range for any random selection of people (I'm 5'9"). For those same people's kids, by the time they're in high school, they're usually a few cm taller than all of us. I can really only think of a couple kids who didn't at least reach my height, but at least half their parents are shorter than me.
Because I've managed to cultivate a taste for the more old fashioned flavors, people are frequently pretty surprised at what I'll eat. I've even sat by sheepishly while a mother severely scolded her son for not eating traditional Korean food as well as this foreigner. People say I eat Korean food like an old ajusshi if that makes any sense to you.
As the default hangover cure, I've had lots of this soup both here in the U.S., but mostly in Korea. You can still find it made the old way, usually in pretty spare looking old restaurants from back in the 70s or 80s. Newer places never seem to have it with the blood.
It's also delicious.
Honestly if iron wasn't toxic beyond a certain level, and if it wasn't generally inadvisable to eat an unvaried diet, I would probably substitute most of my meals for black pudding and scrambled eggs... in toasted bagels. Perfection.
[0] http://www.amazon.com/Odd-Bits-Cook-Rest-Animal/dp/158008334...
I just finished "The Last Place on Earth", about the race to the south pole, and one of Amundsen's obsessions was with ensuring that he had an experienced arctic cook.
Though a large part of Swedes, both children and adults, refuse to eat blodpudding. Id say this food culture is hanging on by a bare thread, and will probably disappear in a few generations.
I'll probably end up with anemia if my body becomes accustomed to my bloody diet but oh well. I'm already dependent on caffeine and nicotine so one more thing won't make that much difference.
Glad that this has now been discovered by white people.
[1]: http://www.haaland-kjott.no/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/NRK35...
I wonder what the author means when he says "sometime in recent history, we forgot how to use blood". Who's we?
Due to health issues and people switching diets to more European and American dishes the soup is diminished to disappear within next 2-3 decades. It is a great part of the Polish culture though.
I eat it daily. Pig blood has a firmer texture and a more neutral taste -- it's comparable to tofu in both regards. I strongly prefer it to chicken blood.
Chicken, too. There's a Portuguese dish called "arroz de cabidela", which is rice prepared with chicken blood.