I love Korean food, at least the kind I get in restaurants–tofu soup, bibimbap, Korean twice-fried chicken, bulgogi, raw marinated beef and pears. Drooooooool. I can’t think of anything off the top of my head that I don’t like (oh, wait, silk worm larvae).
Anyway, I’ve noticed that almost any main dish comes with the option of being topped with an egg, usually fried, sometimes raw (for tofu soup, the egg cooks in the hot broth).
Is this really a standard part of authentic Korean cuisine? When did it start? How did it develop? If you were in Korea, could you ask for an egg on nearly anything? Is there some lore behind this?
I’ve been to Korea a number of times, and we were told by local friends that eggs we’re always popular because they were a low-cost, nutritious and easily available
For the same reasons, they became a much more common topping when people were starving after the Korean War. From what I’ve been told, much of Korea’s food palette changed in that period. Hence “Army Stew” with spam and bologna, etc.
I’ve never seen bulgogi topped with egg (for instance) in Korean restaurants in Toronto. It’s pretty ubiquitous with bibimbap, but that’s about all I can think of.
Poaching eggs in soup or congee is fairly common in Chinese cooking (e.g. egg drop soup). In fact, my wife made eggs poached in oatmeal just this morning. When I visited Japan, we had a number of rice bowl-type meals that included a raw egg for mixing with the rice. (My wife assumed one of them was a hard-boiled egg, with unfortunate consequences.)
At some point they learned that almost everything savory (and many things sweet, like pancakes) becomes better with a fried egg on top. I hope that other cultures learn this as well.
“When I visited Japan, we had a number of rice bowl-type meals that included a raw egg for mixing with the rice. (My wife assumed one of them was a hard-boiled egg, with unfortunate consequences.)”
Those are donburi or just don, literally bowl and only a few donburi have egg, notably oyakodon and katsudon. But they all have rice as the underlying layer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donburi
BTW, if you have sukiyaki, the raw egg isn’t to be placed into the pot. You’re supposed to scramble it in the bowl and use it a dip for whatever you pull out of the pot. When I had Chinese hot pot with my Taiwanese friends, we did the same thing.
I’ve never seen an egg on anything but bibimpap either. At the Korean all you can eat places I’ve been to, there are, I’m assuming raw eggs, but I don’t know what they’re supposed to be used for. I assume dipping like for sukiyaki and hot pot.
I watch a lot of Korean TV shows and when they have fried eggs, it’s always a side dish.
Edit: When I make miso soup from the container (vs a dried package) at home, I always add some eggs cracked directly in the soup. Never scrambled, so there’s some whites floating around. Like Egg Drop soup.
As far as restaurants are concerned, an egg is a good premium add-on, whether its noodles, a burger, or even a pizza slice. $1 extra for something that takes almost no prep and is bought in bulk for a tenth that price.
Just remembered. If you get oyakodon or katsudon in a restaurant, it should have a lid. You’re supposed to wait a few minutes from when it’s served so the egg has a chance to steam.
When I was young, I’d always get scolded by the waitress because I’d open it too soon.
My guess is that it’s authentic on bibimbap, but then, because that’s one of the more distinctive dishes at a Korean restaurant, customers began to associate “egg on top” with Korean food, and to order it on other things.
A few years ago, I went to a Taiwanese soup restaurant in Seattle where your soup is brought to on a portable gas burner that keeps it hot while you eat. For the soup I ordered, a spicy curry soup with fishballs and a bunch of sliced meats and veggies, it was served with a still-raw egg freshly cracked atop the broth, which cooked while I ate around it. It takes awhile to cook the yolk that way, but I found it a welcome addition to the meal.