Gangneung Chodang Dubu Village

The customers came to the tofu

Before Chodang was a restaurant village, local women made tofu at home and carried it into central Gangneung to sell. In the 1970s and 1980s, buyers began coming the other way. Families who had long made tofu opened dining rooms in the village, turning household production into a place people traveled to eat

By the early 1980s, the cluster had become a recognizable food district. Demand also pushed production beyond home kitchens: a dedicated tofu factory opened in 1983 as makers faced larger volumes and food-safety requirements

Chodang carries a much older origin story, but it is best treated as a legend. The village name comes from Chodang, the pen name of Joseon scholar Heo Yeop, father of Heo Nanseolheon and Heo Gyun. Local tradition says he used good well water for the soybeans and East Sea water to set the curd. There is no firm evidence that Heo Yeop’s exact recipe passed unbroken into the restaurants operating now

The sea is part of the recipe

The defining step happens after soaked soybeans are ground, filtered and boiled. Seawater-derived bittern is added to the hot soy milk, and the dissolved minerals trigger the proteins to coagulate. Sundubu is eaten at that soft-curd stage, before the curds are pressed into the firmer blocks sold as dubu

The technique remains visible in current kitchens. Chodang Gobu Sundubu, now described as a fourth-generation restaurant, still uses domestic soybeans and seawater as its coagulant. Older accounts describe families drawing seawater themselves; modern producers can use deep-sea water instead. The equipment changed before the defining chemistry did

One method, several Chodang menus

Plain sundubu and firm dubu remain the baseline, while the same local curd also appears in hot pots, spicy stews and desserts

Donghwa Garden is credited with introducing jjamppong sundubu in the village, pairing the mild curd with a spicy seafood broth. Its kitchen also uses soybean whey in kimchi, keeping a by-product of tofu production in the meal. At the sweeter end, Chodang sundubu has moved into gelato and rice-cake desserts; a sundubu-filled chapssaltteok from Kangwonok won Gangneung’s tourist-souvenir grand prize in 2023

Before you go

A Chodang meal changes depending on whether the aim is to taste the curd itself or one of the village’s later inventions. Plain sundubu makes the soft texture and restrained seasoning easiest to notice. Jjamppong sundubu and tofu desserts show how far the same local ingredient has been pushed without losing the Chodang name