Jeju Island and Its Volcanic Larder

Jeju lies off the southern coast of the peninsula, a single volcanic island raised around Hallasan, whose summit is the highest point in South Korea. Its basalt soil, its exposure to wind and its separation from the mainland by open sea gave it a cooking distinct from that of the provinces across the water.

The island's larder begins with its rock. Basalt soil drains quickly and does not hold water as the alluvial plains of Jeolla do, so Jeju was never a rice country in the manner of the mainland. Barley, millet, buckwheat, sweet potato and legumes were the staples of the island table, and the mainland habit of rice at every meal belonged to the island only in part. Citrus, above all the tangerine grown in the milder south of the island, belongs to the same volcanic ground. The Korean radish, Raphanus sativus, and the cabbages and greens of the garden plots, set within low walls of black stone, complete the vegetable side. The sea supplies the rest, and it is the sea that defines the island's reputation. The haenyeo, the women divers of Jeju, work the shallows without breathing apparatus, gathering abalone, Haliotis discus hannai, turban shell, sea urchin, octopus and seaweeds. Their work is recognised by UNESCO on its list of intangible cultural heritage. What they bring up is eaten in the simplest ways: abalone sliced raw, or cooked into a porridge, juk, that carries the sweetness of the shellfish and a little of its liver. The island's dishes follow from these materials. Fish are cooked in soups seasoned with doenjang, the fermented soybean paste, rather than with the red chilli that dominates many mainland stews, and seaweeds such as the gelatinous mom are simmered with pork into a thick broth. Largehead hairtail, Trichiurus lepturus, is a fish of the southern waters and is cooked on the island both grilled and in a soup with vegetables. Pork is the island's meat, and the black pig of Jeju has long been raised there. Seasoning on Jeju is sparing. Salt, doenjang, a little garlic and the natural flavour of the sea carry most dishes, and the cooking depends on the freshness of what has been landed that morning, so that raw preparations are common in a way they are not inland. A cook working from Maangchi's recipes will find the same principle in abalone porridge and seafood soups: the ingredient is cooked briefly, and the broth is built from the shellfish itself rather than from heavy additions. The thin soil, the wind and the distance from the mainland produced a frugal cooking, in which grain was supplemented by tubers, pulses and whatever the shore gave up.

The flavour of Jeju is the flavour of the shore: clean brine, the sweetness of fresh shellfish and the mild savour of doenjang rather than the heat of gochugaru. Abalone porridge shows it plainly, with its pale colour and its faint bitterness from the liver, while the citrus of the island gives a bright, fragrant counterpoint at the end of a meal.