Seattle is not short of quality Korean restaurants, but many offer similar menus built around the best-known, most popular dishes. When global restaurateur Hoyeon Park moved to Seattle, he noticed that it was difficult to find authentic Busan-style pork soup, a beloved comfort food in Korea but largely unknown in the States. Park currently operates more than 20 restaurants of varying concepts across Korea and Hong Kong. For his first U.S. restaurant, he decided to craft its concept around the Busan-style pork soup, naming the restaurant Busan Jeong.
The word jeong (정) describes a Korean sentiment that encompasses warmth, kindness, generosity, and human connection. It is an ethos Park hopes is felt not just through the literal warmth of the food, but also in the time and care evident in its preparation. The team at Busan Jeong makes the broth entirely from scratch, simmering pork bones for many hours to achieve a rich, deeply flavored broth with a clean finish. They also make the accompanying kimchi, sauces, and other components in-house.
Gukbap, which translates to “soup-rice,” is eaten with rice added directly to the soup so it can soak up the rich broth. Among the variations of gukbap on the menu, Park wanted to introduce American diners to soondae gukbap, a Korean blood sausage and pork soup. He notes that many people outside Korea have never tried Korean soondae and that many local Korean restaurants likely purchase premade, frozen versions from suppliers.
“Making soondae from scratch requires significantly more time and labor, but the difference is remarkable,” says Park. “Our soondae has a softer texture, a cleaner flavor, and a more delicate balance than commercially produced versions.”
The star of the bowl: Busan Jeong’s house-made soondae, which has won over plenty of hesitant diners.
Busan Jeong’s soondae is prepared using natural pork casings filled with Korean glass noodles, pig’s blood, vegetables, tofu, and its own in-house seasoning blend. The process requires the team to extensively clean the casings before mixing the filling and stuffing them by hand. They slowly steam the blood sausage before cooling it and adding it to each bowl of soondae gukbap.
This is one of Busan Jeong’s signature dishes and also one that surprises diners the most.
“Many guests tell us they were hesitant to try blood sausage at first, but after tasting our homemade version, they completely changed their perception,” says Park. “For me, this dish represents our philosophy of honoring traditional Korean comfort food while putting genuine care into every step of the process.”
Tiffany Ran is a writer and the chef behind Babalio Taiwanese Pop-Up, a Taiwanese food pop-up, and the food editor of TaiwaneseAmerica.org. Much of her food exploration includes jumping between catering, restaurants, and the pop-up world. Her writing has been featured in Vice Munchies, Lucky Peach, Goldthread, JoySauce, Northwest Asian Weekly, and more.
