''Tomundaejak'' () is a book of food criticism written by

Heo Gyun Heo is a family name in Korea. It is also often spelled as Huh or Hur, or less commonly as Her or Hue. In South Korea in 1985, out of a population of between roughly 40 and 45 million, there were approximately 264,000 people surnamed Heo. The na ...

in 1611. It is included in the '' Seongseobubugo'' (; a collection of 26 books and 12 volumes). This book was written during

's exile. He was exiled to Hamyel (now

Iksan Iksan (; ) is a Administrative divisions of South Korea, city and major railway junction in North Jeolla Province, South Korea. The city center and railway junction was formerly called "Iri" (), but merged with Iksan County (''Iksan-gun'') in 19 ...

), a seaside district in

North Jeolla Province North Jeolla Province, officially Jeonbuk State (), is a Special Self-governing Province of South Korea in the Honam region in the southwest of the Korean Peninsula. Jeonbuk borders the provinces of South Chungcheong to the north, North Gyeo ...

. While eating the coarse food there, he started to describe the delicious food that he ate before. ''Domun'' () means the door of the butcher's, and ''daejak'' () means chewing something loudly. So the title ''Tomundaejak'' means licking one's lips by the butcher's door, thinking of the meat that one cannot now eat. This book refers to 11 sorts of

tteok ''Tteok'' () is a general term for Korean rice cakes. They are made with steamed flour of various grains, especially glutinous rice, glutinous and non-glutinous Japonica rice, rice. Steamed flour can also be pounded, shaped, or pan-fried to make ...

, 30 types of fruit, 5 kinds of meat, 40 varieties of seafood, 25 sorts of vegetables and 5 other foods, for a total of 117 foods. It names those foods' ingredients' groups, names, specific localities of production, origins, bulk dates, production seasons, processing methods, shape, taste and so on. Korea-Domun

Composition

''Tomundaejak'' describes and comments on the best dishes from various regions and specialties from the eight provinces of Korea, and delicacies, vegetables, fruits and fish from various places in detail. These contents are divided largely into "Fruits," "Fish," and "Crops."

Fruits

It includes a total of 30 fruits, recording various kinds such as chestnuts and jujubes common in the

Joseon Joseon ( ; ; also romanized as ''Chosun''), officially Great Joseon (), was a dynastic kingdom of Korea that existed for 505 years. It was founded by Taejo of Joseon in July 1392 and replaced by the Korean Empire in October 1897. The kingdom w ...

period, and it informs the reader of their areas of production. Especially, it records 6 kinds of mandarins from Jeju: ''geumgyul'' (), ''gamgyul'' (), ''cheonggyul'' (), ''yugam'' (), ''yuja'' (), and ''gamnyu'' () (a type of persimmon).

Meat

It records rare foods like bear's paw, the tail and tongue of deer, pheasant meat, placenta of leopard and where they are produced.

Seafood

It records 40 varieties of seafood like carp, gray mullet, Chinese herring, sweetfish, cod, mackerel, ricefish, clams and crabs. It evaluates and records their taste and their production locales. (The list quoted in full:) *The Han River: gray mullet, Korean sword fish,

blowfish Tetraodontidae is a family of marine and freshwater fish in the order Tetraodontiformes. The family includes many familiar species variously called pufferfish, puffers, balloonfish, blowfish, blowers, blowies, bubblefish, globefish, swellfish, ...

, Coreoperca herzi *

Yangpyeong Yangpyeong County () is a Administrative divisions of South Korea, county in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. Climate Yangpyeong has a monsoon-influenced humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification, Köppen: ''Dwa'') with cold, dry w ...

: Kumrinoe *Imcheon, Hanshan of

Chungcheong Chungcheong Province (; ) was one of the eight provinces of Korea during the Joseon Dynasty. Chungcheong was located in the southwest of Korea. The provincial capital was located at Gongju, which had been the capital of the kingdom of Baekje ...

, and Impie of

Jeolla Jeolla Province (, ) was one of the historical Eight Provinces of Korea during the Kingdom of Joseon in southwestern Korea. It consisted of the modern South Korean provinces of North Jeolla, South Jeolla and Gwangju Metropolitan City as wel ...

Whitebait Whitebait is a collective term for the immature fry of fish, typically between long. Such young fish often travel together in schools along coasts, and move into estuaries and sometimes up rivers where they can be easily caught using fine-mes ...

Asan Asan (; ) is a Administrative divisions of South Korea, city in South Chungcheong Province, South Korea. It borders the Seoul Capital Area to the north. Asan has a population of approximately 400,000. Asan is known for its many hot springs an ...

: Yellow corvina *The

Yellow Sea The Yellow Sea, also known as the North Sea, is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula, and can be considered the northwestern part of the East China Sea. Names It is one of four ...

: Zaha, Spiny lobster, Kodoueo,

Herring Herring are various species of forage fish, belonging to the Order (biology), order Clupeiformes. Herring often move in large Shoaling and schooling, schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate wate ...

, Croaker, Yellow corvina fish, fingerling, small

octopus An octopus (: octopuses or octopodes) is a soft-bodied, eight-limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (, ). The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefish, and nautiloids. Like oth ...

, Jineo *

Gangneung Gangneung (; ) is a list of cities in South Korea, municipal city in Gangwon, South Korea, Gangwon province, on the east coast of South Korea. It has a population of 213,658 (as of 2017).Gangneung City (2003)Population & Households. Retrieved Ja ...

Carp The term carp (: carp) is a generic common name for numerous species of freshwater fish from the family (biology), family Cyprinidae, a very large clade of ray-finned fish mostly native to Eurasia. While carp are prized game fish, quarries and a ...

Lenok Lenoks, otherwise known as Asiatic trout or Manchurian trout,James Card: Fly fishing in South Korea.' Retrieved 22 June 2015. are salmonid fish of the genus ''Brachymystax'', native to rivers and lakes in Mongolia, Kazakhstan, wider Siberia (incl ...

Sardine Sardine and pilchard are common names for various species of small, oily forage fish in the herring suborder Clupeoidei. The term "sardine" was first used in English during the early 15th century; a somewhat dubious etymology says it com ...

Samcheok Samcheok (; ) is a city in Gangwon Province, South Korea. To the west are the Taebaek Mountains, which form a high flat plain of more than 1,000 meters, and to the east the coastal plain slopes sharply. Samcheok borders Donghae in the north, ...

Crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura (meaning "short tailed" in Greek language, Greek), which typically have a very short projecting tail-like abdomen#Arthropoda, abdomen, usually hidden entirely under the Thorax (arthropo ...

(It is as big as small dog, straight as an arrow, and sweet tasting. It is usually made into

jerky Jerky is lean trimmed meat strips which are Food drying, dehydrated to prevent Food spoilage, spoilage and seasoned to varying degrees. Normally, this drying includes the addition of salt to prevent Microorganism, microbial growth through o ...

.) *The

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it ...

: Bangaeo,

Salmon Salmon (; : salmon) are any of several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native ...

Trout Trout (: trout) is a generic common name for numerous species of carnivorous freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of which are members of the subfamily Salmoninae in the ...

, Nuruchi,

Halibut Halibut is the common name for three species of flatfish in the family of right-eye flounders. In some regions, and less commonly, other species of large flatfish are also referred to as halibut. The word is derived from ''haly'' (holy) and ...

flatfish A flatfish is a member of the Ray-finned fish, ray-finned demersal fish Order (biology), suborder Pleuronectoidei, also called the Heterosomata. In many species, both eyes lie on one side of the head, one or the other migrating through or around ...

Sweetfish Ayu or AYU may refer to: * Ayu (given name) * Ayu sweetfish (''Plecoglossus altivelis''), a species of smelt * ''Ayu'', a local name for the African manatee The African manatee (''Trichechus senegalensis''), also known as the West African manat ...

, Salted salmon eggs *Northern areas: Trout, Paldaeo *Heungddok, Buan of Jeolla:

Squid A squid (: squid) is a mollusc with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight cephalopod limb, arms, and two tentacles in the orders Myopsida, Oegopsida, and Bathyteuthida (though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also ...

, Douha *

Yeongnam Yeongnam (, ; literally "south of the ridge") is a region that coincides with the former Gyeongsang Province, one of the ancient Eight Provinces, in what is now South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a countr ...

: Eungueo * Nyongbyon of

Pyongan Pyongan Province (; ) was one of Eight Provinces of Korea during the Joseon dynasty. Pyongan was located in the northwest of Korea. The provincial capital was Pyongyang. History Pyongan Province was formed in 1413. Its name derived from the name ...

: Nulchi

Vegetables

It records a total of 26 kinds of vegetables like ginger, mustard, and their areas of production.

Jogwa

''Jogwa'' () is a word meaning all Korean traditional snack foods. People usually refer to them as ''

hangwa () is a general term for traditional Korean confections. With ''tteok'' (rice cakes), forms the sweet food category in Korean cuisine. Common ingredients of include grain flour, fruits and roots, sweet ingredients such as honey and ''yeot'', ...

'' to distinguish them from western-style cakes. People make ''yumilgwa'' () for memorial services, feasts and treating guests. They are divided into '' yakgwa'' (), '' daegye'' (), '' jungbaeggi'' (), '' hongsanja'' (), '' baeksanja'' (),

frozen desserts Frozen dessert is a dessert made by freezing liquids, semi-solids, and sometimes solids. They may be based on flavored water ( shave ice, ice pops, sorbet, snow cones), on fruit purées (such as sorbet), on milk and cream (most ice creams, sunda ...

(), '' gwagwa'' (), '' bongjeopgwa'' (), '' mandu-gwa'' (), and so on. It records ''jeungbyeong'' (), ''wolbyeong'' (), ''sambyeong'' (), ''songoyumil'' (), ''jabyeong'' (), and so on in the section of Seoeul (Not

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

). It records '' yaksik'' () which was the food that was given to crows on the 15th day of the

Lunar New Year Lunar New Year is the beginning of a new year based on lunar calendars or, informally, lunisolar calendars. Lunar calendar years begin with a new moon and have a fixed number of lunar months, usually twelve, in contrast to lunisolar calendar ye ...

. Chinese people learned this recipe and they named it ''goyeoban''.

References

Simple explanation of ''Tomundaejak''
(Source : Digital Hangeul Museum)

''Tomundaejak''
{cbignore, bot=medic (Source : Edunet) Korean cuisine Korean books