Vol. 10, Issue 02 February 2010 
Makkoli: New Incarnations of a Traditional ’Ju
Food
If you have been living in Korea for a while and haven’t had a chance to try makkoli or some of the other traditional alcohols, now is a chance to check out part of Korean culture that has been morphing into a new fusion eclectic lick.
By Maria Lisak
Makkoli is gaining popularity overseas, and especially in the Japanese market. It is also enjoying a resurgence as the brew of choice among youth these days, as it is cheap and easy to add fruit to for a cocktail-like spin. If you have been living in Korea for a while and haven’t had a chance to try makkoli or some of the other traditional alcohols, now is a chance to check out part of Korean culture that has been morphing into a new fusion eclectic lick.
My first experiences of traditional rice alcohol were with dongdongju and flower wine, or hongju. Hongju was served like a herbal tea, in western teacups; not really a traditional Korean experience, but more of a high-end wine and tea combination experience.
My next experience introduced me to a dongdongju house in Chong-no sam-ga in Seoul. Long gone now, this DDJ was the coolest treehouse of a place to hang out. The interior was entirely made of wood; the wood floors were the same as the wood walls and low wood ceilings. The wooden tables were low but since we sat on tree stump stools, no problem. With an order of dongdongju we’d of course get anju – dried fish, meat, fruits, veggies, and nuts and seeds along with rice crackers. But the best anju was the pajeon. Back in 1996 there were still several traditional places like this in Seoul, even in Gangnam, but in rural areas they were everywhere. Now, they are nearly impossible to find and have been ‘fusionized’ for trendiness.
An example of this trendiness was part of my life in Kunsan back in 2004. My friends and I used to go to a makkoli house which served pineapple and strawberry makkoli. Cold, cheap and delicious, it was an excellent choice instead of a social beer after work. This place too has bitten the dust.
If you just want to drink makkoli or dongdongju, no problem. Go to the local mart and pick up a plastic bottle of this booty for a couple of chunners.
|
Ministop |
Mountain Mart |
7 11 |
Mart |
| 1800 won
In the beer cooler. |
1800 won
In the alcohol fridge |
1300 won
Located in the juice & yogurt section |
1300 won
Located between the water and boxed juice, under the savory mu and sausages. |
But makkoli and dongdongju are about the full experience, not just the alcohol. I encourage you to locate your neighborhood makkoli house.
These days my quest for a makkoli or dongdongju house have turned up very few selections. Actually none at first, except tiny little sikdangs with no ambiance at all. I asked several of my Korean friends about famous or popular makkoli houses or even a makkoli factory. Nada. Zilch. Nothing. However, I was able to hit a local makkoli house. Fabulous pajeon and makkoli! And a factory in Hwasoon. But the closest I could find to my good ol’ days are in Chondae Humun.
For a toss back to the old treehouse style of my 1996 Chong-no sam-ga days, you can hit Chonnam Uni’s back gate district.
| For Makkoli, go to Chunhyang’s Mom’s place:
Wol Mae Ne Ju Mak (don’t know Chunhyang? Check out the Namwon love story) |
For DongDongJu, holler out: Ul Su (Cheers! Like JiHwaJa) |
| From Dunkin’ Donuts, go up to the first road, turn left. It is on your left at the next intersection. | From Dunkin’ Donuts, go up to the first road, turn left. Walk to the next intersection, turn right. It is on your right, across from the walled park. |
Traditional alcohol has different levels of importance in traditional Korean living.
|
|
| However, this Confucian ranking is a bit different than the distilling levels of ju. In the fermentation process, makkoli is the sediment which settles at the bottom. The rice grains and deep yellow color make the best makkoli. Above makkoli is the clearer, yet still milky-looking,dongdongju. More distilled than the makkoli, it has a little bit of sediment, but no rice floaters like makkoli has after a good stir or shake. The very top of the fermented alcohol rice is the clear chongju. This is the best tasting and is much more expensive because of its pure nature within the distillation process. |
To Whom It May Concern:
I’m writing this feedback to ask for correction on the name of a Korean traditional drink in the post, Mak-ko-li. Here is the link for the page: http://gwangjunews.net/2010/02/makkoli-new-incarnations-of-a-traditional-%E2%80%99ju/
In the post, I couldn’t help but notice that the drink, Makgeolli is misspelled as Makkoli. Since South Korea’s government initiated a phonetic system for transcribing Korean into English in 2000, the drink has its own orthography in English according to the way it sounds in Korean. However, as Korea has just started to promote Makgeolli as a Korean tradition drink to the world, many brands introduce Makgeolli with different spellings which might cause confusion abroad. Therefore, Korean Culture and Information Service has put efforts on correcting the errors for promoting Korean tradition in a right fashion, even in online posts. With the change, you could be participating in raising awareness about Korean tradition.
For more information, visit the official website of the Republic of Korea, http://www.korea.net in which you can also find posts about Makgeolli. If you have any question, please contact us via e-mail, I’d be pleased to help you through correction.
Thank you for your time and consideration. I’m looking forward to hearing from you on the matter.
Korean Culture and Information Service
Yujin Lee
Yujin:
We are a volunteer organization and already don’t have enough people power to upload, edit, and proofread.
If you would like to volunteer to help “police” our language and the romanization practices of our online magazine, please know that you are welcome to join us as a volunteer editor or proofreader.
Sincerely,
Maria Lisak
Editor in Chief – Gwangju News
Thank you for the response and the offer.
However, what I mostly do is to work on finding errors related to South Korea and ask for correction at the Korean Culture and Information Service. Furthermore, I’m not well aware of what’s going on in Gwangju city. Sorry for turning it down, but I’d like to once again ask for correction on the drink name, if you don’t mind.
I’d appreciate it. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Yujin Lee