Heestory Meals CEO Yook Kyung-hee, founding father of premium sundae restaurant franchise Sundae Silrok / Courtesy of Heestory Meals
The federal government should broaden its listing of buying and selling companions that permit imports of Korean processed meats to additional advance the delicacies’s international attain and recognition, in accordance with the nation’s official sundae grasp.
Sundae is a standard Korean sausage made by stuffing casings with a mix of blood and different components, equivalent to rice, noodles, greens and meat.
Yook Kyung-hee, 63, CEO of Seoul-based Heestory Meals, has spent the previous 15 years selling sundae — nonetheless broadly perceived abroad as a low-nutrition road meals — by Sundae Silrok, a franchise restaurant model providing inventive, health-focused interpretations of the dish.
Designated because the nation’s 99th Korean Meals Grasp by the Ministry of Agriculture, Meals and Rural Affairs earlier this month for her experience in sundae, Yook mentioned globalizing sundae requires coordinated authorities help moderately than relying solely on particular person efforts.
She mentioned abroad demand for her merchandise is powerful, however exports are constrained by restrictions on processed meats tied to well being, illness and halal certification necessities in some markets. Yook added that such constraints can solely be eased by bilateral agreements overlaying elements equivalent to meat kind, processing strategies and certification requirements.
“There’s sturdy demand for our sundae in Europe, Indonesia and Japan, however exports stay tough due to regulatory boundaries,” Yook mentioned in an interview with The Korea Occasions on Wednesday.
“The Korean authorities wants to deal with these points so that companies like ours can export meals merchandise extra freely.”
Yook has revived historic sundae kinds, such because the one pictured above which follows a late-Sixteenth-century Joseon Dynasty recipe, mixing boiled beef with flour and cow blood to stuff a cow gut, which is then boiled and sliced for serving. Courtesy of Heestory Meals
She added, “Spanish blood sausages are broadly bought throughout Europe and america, and I hope Korean sundae can in the future be out there worldwide.”
Sundae has myriad variations, in accordance with Yook. Whereas the cooking methodology is comparatively easy — normally mixing components with animal blood, stuffing them into casings equivalent to pig or cow intestines, after which steaming or boiling the sausage — the range of components and casings permits for an nearly limitless vary of flavors and colours. This versatility impressed Yook to create sundae dishes which can be each nutritious and flavorful.
A key ingredient is blood, which takes on a pudding-like texture when cooked. When mixed with completely different meats, greens, seafood, grains or nuts, the dishes’ taste and magnificence adjustments, starting from nation and area to particular person households.
Yook based Heestory Meals in 2011 and launched Sundae Steak two years later. Full of meats, greens and nuts, then grilled and served with a fork and knife, the novel reinterpretation confirmed how creativity may alter a well-recognized dish. A lower-calorie model, Sundae Steak Mild, eliminates carbohydrates and as a substitute makes use of tofu and konjac.
She additionally pushed the boundaries of her creativity by venturing into desserts. Sundae Chocolate combines pig blood with Valrhona chocolate, cooked inside a pig’s small gut.
Whereas pig intestines are probably the most generally used casing in Korea, sundae will also be made utilizing the intestines or different inner organs of cows, chickens or lambs. Hollowed greens, in addition to gutted fish or squid, may also function casings.
Sundae Steak, created by Yook in 2013 to introduce a premium Korean sundae with balanced vitamin / Courtesy of Heestory Meals
“Sundae is an ideal instance of wholesome gradual meals — the alternative of quick meals. It permits us to make use of each a part of the animals and greens we produce,” Yook mentioned.
“Comparable recipes exist not solely in Korea but in addition in Germany, Spain, Italy, France, the Czech Republic, Mongolia and Southeast Asian international locations. Seeing how this shared custom takes completely different varieties around the globe impressed me to develop various Korean-style sundae.”
How Sundae begins
The road-style sundae widespread at the moment emerged within the Nineteen Sixties, when a lot of the inhabitants confronted meals shortages within the aftermath of the Korean Conflict. As the federal government promoted pig farming to extend meals provides, giant portions of inner organs thought of unsuitable for typical meals turned broadly out there. In accordance with Yook, an nameless “genius” then devised a brand new kind of sundae by mixing starch-based glass noodles with pig blood and stuffing the combination into pig intestines. Chewy, flavorful and reasonably priced, it rapidly turned a nationwide favourite.
Yook grew up in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, watching her mother and father repeatedly steam vegetable-filled sundae in a big cauldron and share it with neighbors. She recalled that making selfmade sundae was a standard customized amongst prosperous households that raised livestock of their backyards within the metropolis on the time.
In maturity, pushed by curiosity and a want to push again in opposition to the homogenization of mass-produced sundae, she started tracing the dish’s roots in Korea by historical texts. She discovered references in three books written throughout the seventeenth and 18th centuries of the Joseon Dynasty. To her shock, the recipes carefully resembled the sundae she had seen ready and eaten throughout her youth.
Yook visits a long-established sundae restaurant at Yeongdeungpo Avenue Market in Seoul on this April 2015 picture. She traveled throughout Korea and abroad to review regional variations of sundae and comparable dishes in native cuisines. Courtesy of Heestory Meals
“I take into consideration what I ought to do as a grasp earlier than this range of sundae is totally forgotten on this nation,” Yook mentioned. “Considered one of my roles is to move on recipes for several types of sundae in cleaner and more healthy methods.”
Heestory Meals at present operates a Japanese subsidiary and a sundae manufacturing plant within the metropolis of Fujisawa. The power, previously run by a Japanese grasp sausage maker, now produces Yook’s sundae.
“I traveled there 9 occasions to steer and train a sausage knowledgeable in his 70s my sundae recipes,” Yook mentioned. “As a result of Japanese customers don’t eat blood, the sundae we produce in Japan doesn’t use it. The sausage grasp praised sundae for its versatility in contrast with the meat-centered simplicity of sausages.”
She mentioned the corporate distributes its sundae nationwide from the manufacturing facility in Japan as a result of exports from Korea stay restricted.
“In Japan, selling overseas meals can take many years,” she mentioned. “Our Japanese enterprise didn’t flip a revenue final yr, however I imagine succeeding in Japan is as difficult — and as significant — as succeeding wherever on this planet.”
