Singapore | Issue № 2
The Hansang
Your bridge to Korean food, from Singapore
Section · /culture

Culture.

Essays on Korean food culture, history and everyday rituals for Singapore readers.

4 essays

Field Notes

Your Korean birthday soup might have started with whales

Goguryeo people saw it. Tang scholars wrote it down. A thousand years later, every Korean mother still eats it after labour.

31 May 2026

Field Notes

This Korean jelly used to be lamb soup

Yanggaeng started as a lamb broth in 5th-century China. Buddhist monks took it to Japan, swapped the meat for red beans, and the soup became a sweet.

24 May 2026

Field Notes

This Korean dessert got banned three times

Yakgwa was so good Korean kings tried to outlaw it. Three times, across two dynasties. People would not stop making it.

17 May 2026

Field Notes

Before Korean food was spicy, it was fermented

Doenjang, ganjang, and gochujang are not just sauces. They are one of the oldest flavour systems in Korean food.

10 May 2026