Saengseon-gui생선구이

Grilling is one of the oldest ways of cooking, going back to the moment people first learned to handle fire. Korean grilled fish, saengseon-gui (생선구이), often relies on nothing more than salt, and the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture describes three ways to use it: curing the fish before grilling, sprinkling it on during grilling, or seasoning after the fish comes off the heat. Scatter fine salt over a fish while its fat is sizzling, the encyclopedia notes, and the salt melts on so the skin looks lightly touched with frost.

Mackerel, one of the most common fish for grilling, has a long paper trail. In Jasan Eobo, a catalogue of marine life by the Joseon scholar Jeong Yak-jeon, mackerel is recorded under the name byeongmuneo (碧紋魚, "blue-patterned fish"), with a note that ordinary people called it godeungeo. The same book records that mackerel catches grew from around 1750, then dwindled year after year from 1806 until the fish all but vanished. Mackerel was widely eaten in the Joseon era, and fish split along the back and salted were sold in many places.

There was a practical reason for all that salt. Mackerel are caught in huge numbers at once and spoil quickly, so they had to be salted before they could be sent to towns far from the sea. The result, jaban godeungeo (salted mackerel), is still grilled golden brown and served with rice today.