Ever since I deciphered the name of a popular soup called 감자당 (kamja-tang), which means potato soup, I've been wanting to try it. you could call me a potato-holic... I'll eat anything with potatoes in it. Thank god they eat potatoes in this country. A few weeks ago now I finally got to try it. And you know what? There just aren't that many potatoes in it! Why use such a deceiving name if you're only going to put two potatoes in the whole soup?It is a rather interesting soup, though. The meat that they use is pork, but it is the meat from the spine. The taste is fine, but it's a little strange to be eating around the back bones. It is a good soup, so you should give it a try. There are lots of kamja-tang restaurants all around.
I guess there are two theories on the origin of the name of 감자당. One is that it is called kamja-tang, because it has kamja (potato) in it. The second theory is that it is called kamja-tang because kamja is the word for the meat around the backbone.
I heard that potatoes were added to the recipe because people expected to find them in kamjatang. I always heard that the name comes from the backbone meat.
ReplyDeleteI remember being disappointed the first time I tried it, too. I think there was two slices of potato in the whole pot.
Actually the name 감자 doesnt mean potatoes. 감자탕 is from 삼국시대 and people back then called the backbone 감자. Even many korean people dont know why we call it 감자탕 though.
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