Here is one my favorite Korean foods mainly due to the large number of budaejjigae restaurants in the 2nd Infantry Division area:

I love a dish that has an amazing history and “story-telling” attributes; there must have been a few tales of the old days shared over this dish no doubt.

This is the original “fusion” dish, with ingredients from disparate countries married out of pure necessity, which seems to be the way with most Korean classics. Invented around the 1950’s in Gyeonggi Province, there are two city names that are well known for their versions of this delicious stew – Uijeongbu budae jjigae and Songtan budae jjige. Why these regions? This is where the US army base was.

After the war ended in 1953 Koreans were very poor and food was scarce, but frequently people who lived near the US military bases were lucky enough to get some sausages, hotdogs and canned meats. With this they stretched the ingredients out to make it last and created the very famous budae jjigae stew. Little did they know that they would start a phenomenon that is as strong as ever 56 years later!  [10 Magazine]

Click the link to learn about some good locations to try budaejjigae at in Korea.  Besides the great budaejjigae that my wife makes I recommend heading up to Uijongbu and try the budaejjigae restaurant right next to the now closed down Camp Kyle, Kumo Restaurant (금오식)당:

If you don’t know where Camp Kyle is then just take a cab to the Home Plus and you can walk to the restaurant from there.  I was actually introduced to this restaurant when I used to have lunch periodically with a Uijongbu city official.  If it is good enough for a Uijongbu local to eat at, it is good enough for me.  Here is a picture of the restaurant’s budaejjigae dish I took the last time I was there:

This is some good stuff and I the reason why whenever I am in Uijongbu I always make it a point to stop by this restaurant.