About Jangsang Abai Sundae
Jangsang is one of the oldest of the family-run abai sundae kitchens in Sokcho's Abai Village — the small island neighbourhood at the city's harbour mouth that was settled by Hamgyeong-Province refugees after the Korean War. The restaurant opened in 1968 and is run by the third generation of the original founder's family; the recipe — Hamgyeong-style blood sausage stuffed with rice, glass noodles, squid, scallion, and the sausage casing being squid skin rather than the more common pork intestine — has been made the same way for fifty-seven years.
The signature is the Squid-Casing Abai Sundae at ₩12,000 — three thick slices of the squid-skin sausage served on a steel plate with three small banchan, a bowl of cold-broth oksusu (corn) tea, and a small dish of saltand-sesame dipping sauce. The set comes with rice and a small bowl of beef-bone soup. The premium Modeum Set with sundae, fish-stuffed dumplings, and a small portion of grilled mackerel runs ₩18,000.
The room is small and unselfconscious — eighteen seats at a counter and small tables, white-tiled walls, family photographs of the founder's mother on the back wall, the open kitchen visible at the back where the sausages are sliced fresh from the long squid casings each lunch hour. Walk-ins outside lunch peaks work; the queue at peak runs ten to fifteen minutes.
What makes Jangsang the right Abai Village answer rather than just any of the dozen sundae kitchens is the recipe authenticity — the squid-casing technique is the original Hamgyeong-Province method (more common Korean sundae uses pork intestine), and the rice-and-glass-noodle stuffing is the genuine refugee-era recipe rather than the modernised tourist version. The dish exists nowhere else in South Korea in this form.
Best Occasion Fit
Solo dining at its most undramatic — counter seat, fifteen-minute meal, ₩12,000 bill, the dish in its definitive form. For team dinners, the restaurant absorbs four or six at small tables. As a first date with food-curious partners, the historical narrative gives the meal built-in conversation.
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