August 2023

The Place to Go for Korea¡¯s Best Jat Dishes

Gapyeong is famous for having Korea¡¯s best quality jat because it has a perfect environment for cultivating the seeds: The summers are cool, while the winters are colder than other areas of the country. Gapyeong is a mountainous region, with fertile soil ideal for cultivating pine nut trees.
The pine nut trees grown in Gapyeong produce the best quality jat. Gapyeong jat have large seeds and are considered the most delicious tasting in Korea.
In Gapyeong, people use these good-quality jat to make a variety of dishes, including the jatdubu full-course meal, jatdubujeongol (pine nut tofu mushroom hot pot) and jatdububossam (boiled pork eaten with a salty sauce and wrapped in greens). Some of the most popular jat dishes are jatdubu and jatdubujeongol.

(Left) Gapyeong is famous for producing thick, glossy and flavorful high-quality jat.
(Right) Jatdubu is made by grinding jat and beans together.

A Perfect Melding of Crumbly Dubu and Crunchy Jat

Let¡¯s find out more about jat before we try some jat dishes. Jat are part of the nut family and feature hard shells. Compared to other types of nuts, jat have a high amount of iron, which makes them effective in preventing anemia. Jat also have a lot of healthy unsaturated fat, which helps improve the luster of one¡¯s skin and lowers the body¡¯s cholesterol count. Moreover, jat are good for boosting your energy. Taken all together, there¡¯s really no reason not to eat jat!
In Gapyeong, people place jat in their dubu. You should definitely try jatdubu if you want to experience its original taste. The dish makes each bite taste even more delicious than the last. In short, it perfectly melds gently crumbling dubu with crunchy jat.
Eating jatdubu is as easy as it looks. It¡¯s best to lightly dip it in soy sauce or wrap it up in kimchi. Jatdubu is delicious no matter what kind of side dish you have with it.

Fighting Heat with Heat

Jatdubujeongol is made by placing jatdubu and various vegetables into a thick broth that is then boiled until everything is cooked. The dish features a well-balanced mix of vegetables, including onions, pyogo (shiitake) mushrooms, pine mushrooms and fish roe mushrooms, along with green onions. The boiled meat broth smells delicious, perhaps because of the jatdubu. The broth, which uses gochujang (red pepper paste) as its base, stimulates the palate. The dish is good as a meal and, in Korea, it is considered one of the best dishes to soothe the stomach in the morning after a night of drinking.
The thick broth of jatdubujeongol is more infused than jatdubu. The broth tastes delicious because it features a mix of various spices along with jatdubu. Despite being made from gochujang, the broth isn¡¯t spicy. That¡¯s why you can¡¯t help but come back for more!
Koreans say that ¡°heat beats heat,¡± which essentially means that when your fatigued by the hot humid weather, you need to soothe your body with something hot. The hot broth of jatdubujeongol makes you sweat profusely, but fuels you with energy. It¡¯s all thanks to the jat that you can regain your strength through this dish.

In Gapyeong, there are traditional full-course meals that feature various dishes using jatdubu.