Bugeo-guk

A mild, golden soup made from rehydrated dried pollack with egg, tofu, and sesame oil — famed as a hangover cure.

Bugeo-guk, made from bugeo (wind-dried Alaska pollack), is one of Korea's most ancient and revered soups, its history stretching back to a time before refrigeration when drying fish was the primary preservation method. The drying process — carried out across Gangwon Province's mountain valleys where the fish are hung on wooden frames and freeze-dried through winter — concentrates the flavour of the pollack into a rich, umami-dense ingredient that, when rehydrated and simmered, produces a soup of quiet but deep complexity. The resulting broth is a clear, warm gold, lighter in body than beef soups but more flavourful than plain anchovy stock, and Koreans prize it as a gentle detoxifier — the amino acids in the dried fish are said to help the liver process alcohol, making bugeo-guk one of Korea's most trusted hangover remedies. The shredded fish is often sautéed briefly in sesame oil before being added to the broth, adding a subtle nuttiness, and the egg stirred in at the end creates silky ribbons throughout the soup. Budgeons were historically carried as travel rations by Korean soldiers and travellers, and the soup made from them represents an entire tradition of Korean ingenuity around preservation.