Sujebi

Sujebi (Korean: 수제비) is a traditional Korean soup. It is a Korean-style pasta soup consisting of hand-torn dough flakes with various vegetables and has been eaten from the early Goryeo period. In ancient times, when the Korea people were poor, they didn't have much foodstuffs and so made sujebi with small quantity of dough and leftover vegetables. In addition, rice was rare after the Korean War, so many people ate sujebi instead of rice because wheat flour was cheaper at that time. However, sujebi with various kinds of ingredients was considered a special food, so it was eaten on special days like a celebration day or feast. Nowadays, there are many kinds of sujebi and many people enjoy it as a health food. It is similar to another Korean traditional food Kalguksu, but Kalsuksu is made with noodles while sujebi is made with wheat flakes. Both of them are considered as proper food for a rainy day due to its hot and rich flavored broth. It is usually eaten with kimchi.

Origin

It was during the mid Joseon period that sujebi was named. Its name was originally came from Chinese letter 手(su, 수) meaning ‘hand’ and 摺(jeop, 접) meaning ‘folding’. The pronunciation has been changed as time passes for the ease of articulation. It is called differently depending on the regions, but sujebi is the standard word and most commonly used.

Region or cities	Name	Korean name
North Korea	milgaru ddeudeo guk	밀가루뜨더국
Gyeonggi-do and Gangwon-do	ddeudegi or ddedeokguk	뜨데기 or 뜨덕국
Jeollanam-do	ddeoneonjuk or ddiyeonjuk	떠넌죽 or 띠연죽
Gyeongsangnam-do	sujibi, miljebi, or milkkarijang guk	수지비, 밀제비, or 밀까리장국
Yeocheon and Bongwha	dabureong juk or beongeuraegi	다부렁죽 or 벙으래기

Classification

Generally, there are two kinds of sujebi depending on the type of broth. One is with Korean clear soup, and the other is with seaweed soup. In the former one, dough flakes are roughly torn by hand, whereas in the latter one, dough flakes are round shaped. This round-shaped dough is called "Saeal"(새알 in Korean). When people order or make sujebi, it usually refers to the former one in Korea. Then, it is again classified as various types depending on other ingredients. Typically, there are potato sujebi which includes potatoes and seafood sujebi with seafood. However, many restaurants are making new sujebi variations to attract customers these days.