Craving mandu for the New Year? These are the best places to get it.

Food & Travel

Published: 09 Feb. 2024, 08:30 Updated: 09 Feb. 2024, 17:47

Craving mandu for the New Year? These are the best places to get it.

Manduguk at Jaha Son Mandu in Jongno District, central Seoul [LEE JIAN]

Seollal may be best known as the day for eating tteokguk, but a deeper conversation into the traditional holiday dish leads to a more divided issue: Does mandu have a place in the New Year's staple soup?

A close contender following tteokguk (rice cake soup) on the Lunar New Year is tteok manduguk, which is essentially tteokguk with steamed or boiled mandu (Korean dumplings).

Mandu, on Seollal, is more commonly eaten in the Peninsula’s northern regions, like North Korea, Gangwon, Seoul and Gyeonggi, due to their better climates for farming wheat. Thus, depending on the region and individual household recipes, tteokguk can look very different — one of the most apparent differences being the presence of mandu.

Some Korean families make mandu together on Seollal, generously filling each flour pocket as an act of wishing each other a full year. [JOONANG PHOTO]

Mandu is believed, especially among locals, to trace its origins to China. The famous Chinese book “The Romance of the Three Kingdoms” states that Zhuge Liang, chancellor of the state of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period, was unable to cross a river when returning home after conquering the Nanman and was told to behead 49 people and throw their remains in the water in order to appease the gods. Zhuge thought this would be cruel, per the book, and instead ordered his men to stuff livestock meat inside a flour casing to create fake heads.

There is a popular belief that mandu's shape comes from the shape of a human head. In the photo is meat and kimchi mandu from Wonsan Mandu in Sonpa District, southern Seoul [LEE JIAN]

Food critic Park Jung-bae, however, wrote that this story was just a legend in his 2021 book “Mandu.” It is more likely, Park believes, that mandu originated in Mesopotamia and traveled to China and Korea through the Silk Road.

Korea’s first record of mandu appears during the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392), as part of the lyrics to a popular song “Ssanghwajeom.” Mandu restaurants were called ssanghwajeom in ancient Korea. The dish also appears in numerous recipes from the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), including those used by royals.

Plumes of steam make even very small and humble mandu joints an eyecatcher, especially during wintertime. LEE JIAN]

A total of 78 types of mandu appear in Joseon Dynasty documents alone, according to Jeong Hye-kyung a food and nutrition professor at Hoseo University. Those include gullim mandu, circular dumplings without an outer casing; eo mandu, whose casing is made with thinly spread fish meat; buckwheat mandu; and sungchae mandu, in which filling is wrapped with white kimchi.

Pyunsoo is a square shaped mandu filled with only vegetables. In the photo is pyunsoo from Jaha Son Mandu. [LEE JIAN]

“Korea can be seen as having a rich mandu history because, compared to other countries that used wheat or rye casing, Korea explored many different ingredients to wrap their mandu, such as fish and vegetables,” Jeong wrote in her research paper “Historical Review of Mandu’s History” (2008).

And as is said of red lipstick, no mandu under the same sky is the same. To find the best mandu joints, look for a live kneading station: This shows that a restaurant makes its own mandu casing. These can usually be easily spotted outside the kitchen, either outside the restaurant or in the eating hall. In addition, look for establishments that steam or boil their mandu to order rather than selling it prepackaged.

Mandu station inside Plaza Son Kalguksu in Songpa District, southern Seoul [LEE JIAN]

The Korea JoongAng Daily went on a mandu tour to help you choose your next meal. From decades-old mandu shacks to Michelin-listed eateries as well as healthy and unique mandu options, here are some of our favorite mandu to spice up your tteokguk this Lunar New Year's holiday.

The Mandu trend right now: Thin skin

Kimchi mandu from Cham Mandu in Dobong District, northern Seoul. [LEE JIAN]

Lower in carbs and calories, the most popular mandu restaurants in Seoul these days are old nopo diners that sell mandu with skin so delicate it is almost translucent.

Gogi, or meat mandu (6,000 won or $5 for ten pieces) at Nolbu Mandu in Dongdaemun District, eastern Seoul, has a delicate and chewy casing filled with juicy pork stuffed to the edges. Gogi mandu are compact — about the size of a finger — and locals can be seen stacking towers of steaming dumpling baskets on their tables.

Ewha Mandu in Gwangjin District, eastern Seoul, makes king-size wang mandu, or translucent dumplings, with both gogi and kimchi options (6,000 won for five pieces) available. Stuffed with meat, glass noodles, leeks and chives, these mandu have a slight gingery smell and taste. They are only available for takeout.

Exterior of Cham Mandu [LEE JIAN]

Cham Mandu in Dobong District, northern Seoul, is a mandu cart more than 20 years old in front of exit 1 of Changdong Station. Its spherical gogi and kimchi mandu (5,000 won for nine pieces) are covered in a soft, yet chewy, delicate dough that the owner kneads herself. The insides are filled with pork, chives and glass noodles. A fair warning: Their kimchi mandu are on the spicier side. Cham Mandu's dumplings are only available by phone reservation, which the owner takes for 20 minutes starting 7 a.m.

Skinless, gluten-free and colored: Healthy and unique mandu choices

Gullim mandu at Plaza Son Kalguksu [LEE JIAN]

For a new mandu experience, try gullim mandu. Gullim, meaning rolled in Korean, is a sphere-shaped mandu that has been rolled and then steamed without a particular casing but holds together because of starch powder that has been incorporated into the filling. It originates from Pyongan Province, a mountainous region located northwest of the Korean Peninsula, where wheat farming was challenging. Plaza Son Kalguksu in Songpa District, southern Seoul, is a decades-old noodle eatery that also sells gullim mandu (10,000 won for six pieces) with finely diced pork, chives, carrots and glass noodles rolled in potato starch that is then steamed.

Memil, or buckwheat mandu which has a darker skin, is being made [JOONGANG PHOTO]

Memil, or buckwheat mandu, is a familiar side dish to locals often enjoyed at buckwheat noodle eateries. Their skin, made with buckwheat flour, has a dark brown color and is slightly tougher than the soft flour cover. It has many fans these days, especially among gluten-free eaters. Many Joseon Dynasty mandu recipes call for buckwheat flour, because the humid climate made it difficult to farm wheat in Korea.

Manduguk whose dumplings are wrapped in colorful casings made of natural ingredients [JOONGANG PHOTO]

Seongbuk-dong Myeonok House in Seongbuk District, northern Seoul, offers a bowl of colorful mandu (9,500 won for five pieces) which includes buckwheat dumplings into the mix. Other options include an orange dumpling incorporating sweet pumpkin, a reddish pink dumpling with prickly pear cactus, a green dumpling with green tea and an orange dumpling with carrots.

Steady sellers

From left,meat, kimchi and seafood mandu at Kkangtong Mandu in Jongno District, central Seoul [LEE JIAN]

Kkangtong Mandu in Jongno District, central Seoul, has been in business since 1988, but there is still almost always a queue during mealtimes. All the mandu menus at the restaurant, including inside its manduguk (12,000 won) and mandu kalguksu (10,000 won), are served with a mix of meat, kimchi and seafood types. Its seafood mandu is especially famous, containing one whole shrimp.

Jaha Son Mandu in Jongno District is best known for its beautifully presented manduguk (20,000 won) containing seven medium-sized dumplings. It has a thick, doughy skin whose taste strongly comes through the bland filling. Inside is a mix of pork and beef as well as mungbean sprouts and tofu.

An interesting item to try here as well is pyunsoo (12,000 won for four pieces). Originating from Hwanghae Province, a northwestern province during the Joseon Dynasty, pyunsoo is traditionally a vegetable mandu shaped like a square. It is hard to find these days but it was commonly eaten in the past inside a cold beef and soy sauce broth during summer. Jaha has added beef to the filling of its plate of pyunsoo along with shiitake mushrooms and cucumber that give the mandu a crunch and lightness.

Both venues are listed in the 2023 Michelin Guide.

North Korean-style mandu

Manduguk at Bongsanok in Seocho District, southern Seoul [LEE JIAN]

North Korean mandu are characterized by their large size, thick skin and slightly bland taste. Unlike some mandu found in South Korea, they do not mix pork and beef in their fillings, nor do they include glass noodles, onions and chives. Instead, they contain a lot of tofu and mungbean sprouts. North Korean mandu are also often boiled in water, rather than steamed, so as to thoroughly cook through the exterior.

Bongsanok in Seocho District, southern Seoul, is a Michelin-listed North Korean restaurant run by an owner who learned how to cook via her mother-in-law, who was from North Korea’s Hwanghae Province. Mandu here are filled with steamed-then-diced lettuce, which gives the dumplings a nice crunch. Its manduguk (13,000 won) is topped with lean beef strips and a dash of gochugaru (red pepper flakes).

Mandu at Piyangok in Gangnam District, southern Seoul [LEE JIAN]

Piyangok in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, sells a freshly made mandu plate with six dumplings for 14,000 won, as well as a half plate for 7,000 won. It isn’t cheap, but it's bigger than a fist. It also has the iconic soft and doughy exterior that goes best with the restaurant’s in-house spicy soy sauce incorporating gochujang and gochugaru.

BY LEE JIAN [lee.jian@joongang.co.kr]