“Sundae” is not something cold and sweet with ice cream and chocolate sauce, but it’s a Korean traditional sausage with cow or pig’s intestines stuffed with cow/pig’s blood, glass noodles and various ingredients such as meat and vegetables; pronounced more like “soo-un-dae”.
And “Sundaeguk” is Guk (=soup) with Sundae inside.
I know a lot of foreigners don’t really like it because of its unique appearances and what’s made out of, and my foreign friends also don’t even want to try those Sundae.
I wasn’t an exception until very recent; I tried a long ago, but I didn’t really like it that time.
However, my Korean superior took me to one of the Sundae restaurants for lunch when I was sick, telling me that Sundae makes you feel better, and of course, because it was going to be treated by my superior, I had to have it (I had no choice to say NO I DON’T WANT, unfortunately and fortunately…) and I actually liked Sundae from that shop!
I heard that there are many kinds of Sundae, but I am just gonna write about the one I liked.
Table of Contents
Damso Sagol Sundae
담소사골순대…The name of the shop is, in Chinese character, 「談笑」（”chatting and having fun” kind of meaning）and it’s a franchising chain Sundae restaurant that I see many of those nowadays.
They mainly have restaurants in Seoul, but I see a few outside Seoul too; this must be quite popular Sundae shop!
How it looks outside!!
I’ve been to a couple of shops from the same franchising chain in different locations, but all of them are mostly the same, of course.
Inside the restaurant↓↓
I didn’t know the meaning of this ↑↑ but this was placed in the middle of every restaurant from this chain… I wonder what this is。
Also, every restaurant had this huge pot and boiling Sundae soup right next to the window.
At the window that is facing the street, every restaurant has a little room partitioned by a huge glass and the huge pot was put in that little room where you can see from the street.↑↑
And soup inside…
Menu @ Damso Sagol Sundae
The one I like and I always have is the one only with geef Sundae. On this menu, itsthe second top where it says (牛)
I wonder why, but even though this is a chain restaurant, the price varies the location by location… so the one I go, I have 2 restaurants from this chain nearby where I live, and the one has this beef Sundae for 4,500 KRW and another has the same thing for 6,000 KRW; both for takeout.
It is still cheap, in my opinion, for Sundae that is rich in nutrition and delicious!
The menu also has a page to show off all those award this restaurant won… ↑↑
But actually, I am not too sure why they put those awards to show off, because those awards are mostly nothing related to their tastes and how good their food is, but rather, mainly related to “how innovative this company is” or something that’s related to their management style.
As far as I see, none of those awards guarantees the taste of the food!
Other than the award that focuses on “management innovation”, this restaurant also won an award for “2015 national consumer centric brand” … this is also another kind of management award, or the attitude of the company.
Oh well, I get the message that this company cares about customers, innovative, and will be the successful one!
Sundae Guk takeout set
I live alone in Seoul, so over the weekends, I usually have to eat meals alone, but in Korea, it is very difficult to find places where you can eat alone.
The reason is, in Korea, people usually don’t eat alone and when you eat alone, people would think you are miserable without friends etc., which is totally fine with me, but the worst thing is, unless in Myeongdong area or somewhere where they are used to receive a single-person customer because of lots of travelers from outside of Korea, usually restaurants staff gives me a weird look when I tell them I came to eat alone, or worse, they tell me they cannot serve food for less than 2 people (simply their minimum portion/dishes are 2 or more people.)
I also don’t have a gut to occupy 4 people seat all by myself when it’s the busiest time for lunch/dinner at those Korean restaurant, so I usually order takeout set at this Sundae restaurant and eat at home.
This is what I usually get “Beef Sundae Guk takeout set”…6,000 KRW。
Inside the bag, you will see those↓↓
Soup, Sundae and other stuff, and banchan (Korean side dishes – usually for Sundae guk, you will get some Korean radish Kimchi)↑↑
The one that has soup, the package is huge and I can tell they give me more than half a liter of soup for 1 person!
This is Sundae – usually they give me the same amount of sundae in this package but the amount of other stuff (glass noodles and some vegetables) depends on the person who prepares the takeout set!
2 kinds of banchan↓↓
I really enjoy the one on the left – this is spicy/sweet radish kimchi! Believe me it’s good! Not only spicy but you can taste some sweetness too! And no sourness. Some kimchi has very sour taste which I don’t really like, but this radish kimchi is not sour at all.
When you eat at the restaurant, you can eat those banchan as much as you want (banchans are usually free and you can ask for more if you finish what they give you at the beginning! This is what I really like about Korean restaurants) but when you order takeout, of course, you only get what they give you.
Fully cooked or half cooked takeout set
When you order Sundae here, the restaurants staff will ask you whether you would like your sundae to be fully cooked or not.
You can see the Sundae it’s boiled inside the soup and served to you at the restaurant, and you can ask for the same thing when you order your takeout; otherwise, they will separate the soup and steamed Sundae and you would need to boil those together at home.
A good thing about having those soup and Sundae separate is that you can prepared Sundae Guk with your own timing. However, when you order the fully cooked takeout set, just like what you would have at the restaurant, the restaurant staff will ask you to eat within 10 minutes.
I am not sure why 10 minutes, whether after 10 minutes, it will go bad or something, but for sure, the restaurant staff will expect you to eat it as soon as you get home nearby.
I really like to have it on my own timing, so I usually order the one that are separate.
Once I bring those at home, I just boil them together whenever I feel like Sundae Guk!
This is before I boil↑↑…and after that, it will look like this↓↓
Intestines shrinks after boiling for about 10 minutes and you can see the stuffing inside.
This is a white Sundae↓↓it’s got no blood inside, and it tastes the best among all other Sundae I have ever had in Korea. Most of the foreigners don’t like Sundae because of blood inside, but this kind of Sundae, I think they can also have, because it’s just like other sausages with meat and only unique thing is glass noodles and veggies inside.
Sundae is rich in nutrition and has stuff that is hard to intake with other foods such as iron etc. Soup is really nice with broth from bones and make/keep your body really warm.
Korean people often say that it’s good to have Sundae after you drank too much on the previous night, but now I believe it too.
Sundae is not too heavy and also low in calories but rich in nutrition that cleanse your body to stay healthy; lots of Korean K-POP idols like Sundae too.
I can see Korean people have been eating meat for a long time and eating meat is definitely one of their culture. But they also know how not to waste any part of their cows and pigs; not even a single drop of their blood.
I really respect how they don’t waste their “food” and Sundae is one of the way to “not-waste intestines and blood” too. Those intestines and blood can rotten very quickly but by making those into sausages and steaming (pre-cooking) them, people could keep those for a little longer and intestines and blood wouldn’t be wasted.
I would say, Sundae definitely represents a form of Korea’s food cultures.
There are many Korean soup dishes such as Seolleongtang and Samgyetang, but Sundae Guk is also another option for you to fully enjoy Korean traditional food in Korea!
