From Gageo Island to Hampyeong: The Flavors of Life

Noh Ae-ran, Gageo Island's first female village head, goes out with her husband on yellow rockfish (bulbolak) fishing trips and is responsible for household finances in the village.

Despite a time when women were taboo aboard fishing boats, she has kept working for 20 years, serving as crew, co-pilot, and cook all at once.

Gageo's bulbolak is leaner and less fatty than common rockfish, and is considered a winter delicacy.

Before spring spawning, they move to shallower waters to feed. After removing scales and guts, they undergo a complex 10-step process including salting and drying before reaching the table.

Gageo has no fish auction hall or market, so the crew cooks right on the boat during fishing trips. Adding kimchi for savory depth is a secret known among the island's seafarers.

The method, learned aboard the boat, produces deep flavor with few seasonings. It is how they make a hearty meal after grueling work at sea.

Noh Ae-ran was the only woman among 50 applicants to pass and earn her engineer's license.

As a 17-year veteran, she handles vessel operation and steering with skill, and earned her license before her husband, contributing to their purchase of a larger boat eight years ago.

Typhoon damage swept away the back of their house, and three years of repairs have been slowed by the difficulty of sourcing materials and hiring technicians on a remote island.

Noh Ae-ran and her husband are repairing the house with their own hands, working to preserve as much as possible of the home she and her parents built together.

Moray eels (dolJangeo) living in rock crevices are caught in traps, and the catch is confirmed by movement inside the trap.

Fishing with a trawler is a first for her. In this unfamiliar fishing world, she is applying the know-how from her years on a sport-fishing boat as she takes on the challenge.

Gageo's eel noodle soup was served to fishers returning after catching anchovies, and islanders regard it as soul food.

Because vegetables were scarce on the island, it was boiled with plenty of eel, and it is made from a recipe she learned from her mother.

Noh Ae-ran recalled: "For my mother, when they caught anchovies on Gageo, they'd come back late at night. Then the mothers would serve those men who'd caught the anchovies a lot of eel noodle-type dishes."

This eel noodle soup carries the sorrows of Gageo's residents, who have lived hard lives, and their warm affection.

Sunim Songha, who has more experience, steps in to help Sunim Haeyeon, who is raising a pet for the first time.

Songha made a clean, sheltered nest for the puppies out of cardboard, showing careful attention.

The temple uses vegetable yukgaejang to restore energy, offering it as a special restorative meal for fellow monks who come to help with hard work such as kimjang.

It is a dish that carries the temple's wisdom of adding health while creating deep flavor from a variety of vegetables.

It is a special kimchi-making method that carries the temple's wisdom gained through long experience.

Before starting work as a taxi driver, she ran a large business that went bankrupt. She described the bitterness and hardship of that time with the word 'red flavor.'

The business failure was a great trial in her life, and she uses this expression to symbolize that period.

Passed down from the days when meat was precious, this method offers rich juiciness and a tender texture, and has become a specialty of Hampyeong.

The restaurant owner added that the custom of topping the dish with pork fat from the days when meat was scarce became established as Hampyeong's specialty preparation.

Kim Gwang-ok, a former art teacher, has farmed here for 18 years and settled in the village, offering elderly residents the chance to enjoy art.

She opened the museum to bring art to elderly rural residents in a culturally underserved area. Captivated by the village scenery, she has settled here for 18 years, farming and living.

Gukbap made with sugure (ox skin) simmered with seonji (ox blood) began as a dish sold at markets, using sugure that was once discarded because it was hard to prepare.

An elderly woman who lost her husband early began selling sugure gukbap at markets 60 years ago to support her children.

She noted that the origin of sugure gukbap is selling sugure, which was thrown away because it was hard to prepare, boiled with seonji at markets in a time when food was scarce.

Her granddaughter, who had worked a office job, has joined in the past two years, taking on dishwashing and serving alongside the first-generation grandmother and second-generation daughter.

The third generation granddaughter joined two years ago after working a office job, handling dishwashing and serving to carry on the family business.

The third-generation granddaughter put aside her past hardships of washing dishes while squatting, and stressed that she is happy to now be able to work across generations in a comfortable environment.

A longtime regular friend who has known the grandmother for over 50 years stays by her side. In the hungry, cold days of the past, they endured hard times together, leaning on each other.

Each ran their own business and got through difficult times. Today they look after each other and continue their friendship with the feeling of having become rich together.