Kongnamul-gukbap콩나물국밥

Jeonju's bean sprout soup with rice once went by the name takbaegi-guk (탁백이국). In December 1929 the magazine Byeolgeongon ran a roundup of famous regional dishes and placed Jeonju's takbaegi-guk alongside Pyongyang's eobok-jangguk and Seoul's seolleongtang. Those rivals got their flavor from beef, the writer noted, while takbaegi-guk managed just as well with nothing but bean sprouts. And since sprouts are raised on water, the piece added, Jeonju's water must simply be good.

The same piece explains how to eat it: go to a takbaegi house before breakfast or after midnight, sit on a bench, knock back a cup of cloudy makgeolli, then slurp down a bowl of the soup with a spoonful of rice in it. The drink, soup and rice together cost five jeon. When the scholar Choe Nam-seon listed the foods each region was famous for, "Jeonju's bean sprouts" made the list too.

Today's Jeonju version swaps the plain sprout soup for a stock of anchovy, kelp and radish, and favors sprouts grown from small black jwinunikong beans. Some places boil it hard in the earthenware bowl with an egg cracked in; others serve the broth unboiled with a poached egg on the side. Locals say it isn't complete without a cup of moju, makgeolli simmered with ginger, jujube and cinnamon.