| "Passion For Korea" Tour Day 9 (April 13, 2006) Sunchang Gochujang Village |
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| We spent last night in Gwangju, a city with a population of 1.5 million people, in Jeolla Province. It is a big city with lots of traffic. However, the staff at the hotel we stayed at did not speak English very well. Today is day 9 of our tour and we have now passed the half-way mark. We head out this morning for the gochujang village in Sunchang. Sunchang is an aging city--60% of its population is over the age of 60. The village is famous for its gochujang (hot pepper paste). The photo above shows different dishes made with gochujang. |
| The final step in making gochujang is to add chili pepper to the doenjang, causing the paste to turn red. |
| To make gochujang, you start with soybeans. After mashing up the soybeans, you end up with a paste which you ferment. The fermented soybean paste is called doenjang (see left photo). If not used to make gochujang, doenjang at this stage can be used in cooking or dried in blocks (see right photo) for future use. |
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