Sundae SoupSundaeguk

Sundae is Korean blood sausage — glutinous rice and glass noodles packed into pig intestine casings, boiled, and sliced into rounds. Sundaeguk is sundae served in a bowl of hot broth. For decades it was associated with Sindang-dong in central Seoul, a neighborhood near Dongdaemun that developed a dense cluster of sundae restaurants around the old wholesale market, where market workers ate cheap, filling food before long shifts.

I first had sundaeguk at a restaurant in Sindang-dong with my father, who was a regular. The restaurant was small and had been in the same family for a long time, and the menu was essentially just sundaeguk and rice. The broth was anchovy-kelp stock, clear and savory, with bean sprouts adding texture and the sliced sundae rounds floating in it. Salt on the table, gochugaru if you wanted heat.

Sundae is available at Korean grocery stores frozen or refrigerated. The flavor is mild and slightly earthy — not overtly bloody in the way European blood sausages can be, because the filling is primarily rice and noodles with the pork blood functioning more as a binder and color agent than a dominant flavor.

The recipe tip about steaming frozen sundae before adding it to the broth matters for texture. Simmering the slices directly from frozen gives them a slightly waterlogged quality; a short steam first compacts them and improves the chew. Thaw completely, steam for five minutes, then slice and proceed with the recipe.

Sundaeguk is traditionally eaten with a small plate of salt and perilla leaves for dipping the sundae, alongside the bowl of soup.