Um Yong Baek 엄용백 돼지국밥
[Non-halal] We had our best meal in Busan at Um Yong Baek 엄용백 돼지국밥.
For our Busan trip, we earmarked four dishes that we had to try: dwaeji-gukbap (rice in soup), Milmyeon (cold wheat noodles), fish cakes and seafood.
And we had the best dwaeji-gukbap here.
Um Yong Baek 엄용백 돼지국밥 in Busan
Located in the Suyeong district, Um Yong Baek 엄용백 돼지국밥 serves dwaeji-gukbap which is a specialty in Busan.
Literally translated as “pork in rice soup”, this dish originated as a poverty dish during the Korean War in the 50s but soon grew in popularity across the country.
Similar to Gamjatang (pork bone soup), this dish is sometimes considered a hangover dish with restaurants open for 24 hours.
There is one restaurant that serves dwaeji-gukbap here in KL (see our post here) and we also tried the dish at another popular joint called Ssangdungi (Twins) Dwaeji-gukbap, but this one at Um Yong Baek was our favourite.
Um Yong Baek 엄용백 돼지국밥
What sets Um Yong Baek’s dish apart is the high quality pork used for the dishes. The restaurant also serves two styles of dwaeji-gukbap – the more common Busan style with a clear soup, as well as the Miryang-style dwaeji-gukbap.
The latter originated from Miryang, a city to the north of Busan and is characterised by its milky colour that is similar to Japanese tonkotsu.
We enjoyed both versions here.
Busan-style pork rice soup
The Busan-style pork rice soup (KRW13,000 or USD10) is boiled with pork meat which gives it a clear and clean broth.
The broth was already tasty on its own and we didn’t need to add the fermented shrimps. The soup is enhanced with ginger, green onion, and pepper.
But what stands out is the cut of meat here – hind shank, tenderloin, jowl and pork maw that were superbly tender, sweet and fresh.
The rice is also added into the soup here ok serving. The best way to enjoy this dish is a spoonful of rice, meat and kimchi. So yummy!
Miryang-style pork rice soup
The Miryang-style pork rice soup (KRW13,000 or USD10) has a milky colour as it was simmered for hours with pork marrow and trotters. This gives the broth a richer flavour with enhancement from ginger, garlic, and Angelica roots.
This was Ming’s favourite of the two. To be honest, both styles were really delicious – you’ll just have to get both to experience the best of both worlds.
Amazing hanging-suyuk
The other dish we knew we had to try here was the Hangjung-suyuk (KRW16,000 or USD12) – which are boiled pork jowl served with soy sauce cold noodles.
We enjoyed this a lot too! The thinly sliced pork was well seasoned and is torched before service.
The noodles were really delicious and paired well with the sweet-savoury sauce, with extra punch and crunch from mustard seeds.
Summary
If you can only allocate one meal for dwaeji-gukbap in Busan, this is it.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Be prepared to wait for a table during peak hours, but there are plenty of seats to wait comfortably.
Um Yong Baek 엄용백 돼지국밥
Address: 39 Suyeong-ro 680beon-gil, Suyeong-gu, Busan, South Korea
Hours: 11am-3pm, 5pm-9.30pm
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