1. Ingredients for Najki Bokkeum
- Primary ingredients: Octopus
- Secondary ingredients: Basic seasonings (Gochujang paste, red chili powder, soy sauce and sugar) and vegetables (spring onion and onion)
2. Taste evaluation
-Spicy: ★★★★★
-Salty: ★★☆☆☆
-Sweet: ★☆☆☆☆
-Sour: ☆☆☆☆☆
3. Introduction to Nakji Bokkeum (stir-fried octopus) 낚지볶음
The first taste you come up with when you think of Korean food will be ‘spicy’ taste. So I’ll introduce you one of most spicy and most Korean-styled food called Nakji Bokkeum.
Nakji Bokkem is octopus dish seasoned with spicy Gochujang paste and stir-fried, and it’s loved by a lot of Korean people that you can even find a few Nakji Streets throughout the whole country.
Nakji was called Nakje in the era of the Three States and it was either fried, boiled or steamed.
Since then, it was recognized as a stamina product that improves your physical strength and there’s even a saying about it that ‘three or four octopuses are enough to wake up the sick bull.’
But people started to use spicy sauce since the 1900s.
It is assumed that this dish selling at famous octopus restaurant in front of a company called JoseonBangjik in Busan during the Japanese colonial period was developed to today’s spicy Nakji Bokkeum.
JoseonBangjik is called Jobang now and Jobang Nakji is still a popular dish in Busan.
Canon EOS 550D | f/4.0 | iso 1600 | 2015:03:17 13:21:17 | Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode | 50mm
Nakji Bokkeum is made by preparing octopus, seasoning it with Gochujang paste, chili powder, soy sauce and sugar, and pan-frying altogether.
Octopus gets too tough if you fry it for too long so it should be briefly stir-fried to keep its chewy yet soft texture.
BUT it never gets soft. First, you’ll feel your tongue is on fire but you will find it sweet as you chew it that will make you get addicted to the taste.
In fact, it is more like spicy taste helps your body produce endorphin that makes you happy than you get addicted to spicy taste itself. So there are many people who get rid of stress by eating spicy Nakji Bokkem when they feel down.
But Nakji Bokkeum is spicy even for Koreans who are used to spicy taste, spicy enough to make their tongues burn.
However, not every restaurant uses spicy sauce for Nakji Bokkeum and some use properly hot sauce even the kids can eat it.
Besides, you can order less spicy sauce so you don’t have to think of it as a ‘horrifying food’ and avoid it.
As mentioned in old documents, octopus is very good for recovering your body due to its special ingredient called taurine as a stamina product. Plus when you get sweat while eating spicy stir-fried octopus, it helps your blood circulate well and produce endorphin that makes you happy.
If you’re depressed or feeling down from tiredness, you should totally try Nakji Bokkem to refresh yourself.
But, highly spicy sauce might cause stomach problems. So I want you to be prepared before you barge in any restaurant.
4. Kinds of Nakji Bokkeum
Nakji Bokkeum is basically seasoned with spicy sauce such as Gochujang paste and red chili powder. It tastes different in each region.
- Seoul Mugyo-dong Nakji-bokkeum: There used to be so many old stir-fried octopus restaurants in Mugyo-dong in Seoul but they all moved to Jongno 1-ga due to regional development. It’scharacterized by hot spicy sauce that would make your tongue burn.
- Busan Jobang Nakji-bokkeum: There’s Jobang Nakji Street in Beomcheon-dong, Jingu, Busan. Common ingredients include octopus, various vegetables and spicy sauce but you can add Gopchang(tripe) or shrimp.
It uses less spicy sauce than the one in Mugyo-dong and you can taste different ingredients including various vegetables, Gopchang, shrimp and so on.
- Muan Nakji Street: Muan is very famous for octopus where you can enjoy fresh octopus than any other cities. You can taste unique and various octopus cuisines like Horongi, San-nakji(raw octopus) and Yeonpo-tang(octopus soup) besides Nakji Bokkeum.
Spicy Nakji Bokkeum is served with cooked rice, seasoned bean sprouts, steamed eggs, cold soup, and vegetables including lettuce/perilla leaves. They all neutralize the spicy taste.
If you mix them all, you can enjoy spicy stir-fried octopus.
Take a bite at first and if it’s too spicy for you, you could put a few pieces of octopus on a spoonful of rice with seasoned bean sprouts.
Spicy taste will be neutralized and chewy octopus will taste so much better with crunchy bean sprouts.
You could also have a piece of octopus with soft steamed egg and then drink the cold soup.
Why on earth do Koreans love this spicy food?
As mentioned earlier, spicy taste arouses endorphin that makes you feel better and there’s something about it that makes you get rid of stress when you cry while eating it.
