Bosintang
A controversial Korean soup made with dog meat.
Bosintang, called tan'gogikuk in North Korea, is a Korean soup where dog meat is the main ingredient. It's boiled with green onions, perilla leaves, and dandelions, plus seasonings like doenjang, gochujang, and perilla seed powder. Agastache rugosa is added before eating. The dish, tied to claims of boosting virility, has sparked major controversy in recent decades due to legal limits on dog butchering. A 2020 survey found 83.8% of South Koreans have never tried it.
Quick Facts
- Country
- Korea
- Main ingredients
- Dog meat
- vegetables
- spices
Facts from the source article.
History
Dog meat has been eaten on the Korean peninsula for millennia, according to most historians. The specific soup known as bosintang appears in an 1849 cookbook, which calls for boiled dog and green onion. In North Korea, the same dish is called dangogiguk and was once served at Kim Jong Il’s dinner parties before he became leader; Pyongyang also has a restaurant dedicated to dangogi. A South Korean municipal court ruled in June 2018 that killing dogs for meat was illegal, though eating it remained legal. In January 2024, South Korea’s parliament passed a law banning the breeding and slaughter of dogs for consumption, set to take effect in 2027 after a three-year grace period.
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