The owner of my local Korean market told me this is her favorite kind, and she basically has a friend and got on the list with the American distributor in New Jersey, and this brand only does gochujang and one or two kinds of doenjang. It wasn’t pricier than the kind I had selected so I genuinely don’t think she was trying to upsell me (not to mention she’s very sweet!). Phone translation tells me the label says Taste of Dong-a but no google results saying that’s a brand name or anything.
I’m excited to try it, and am curious if others have seen it before!
by miss-janet-snakehole
3 Comments
Haven’t seen it before, but looking at the ingredients it’s not made the way it’s usually made in Korea, so I’m guessing export only and the recipe has changed to have a stable shelf life.
Interestingly, took me years to learn what DongA means. I used to see ‘DongA Marts’ as a grocery chain in Korea, and just assumed it was a name. It is, but ‘dong’ means ‘east’ and ‘A’ for Asia, so ‘taste of east Asia’.
I’ve never had the gochujang but their dwenjang is FIRE
This is such an underrated brand. I’m Korean and it’s probably the closest store bought product to old-style homemade 고추장. It’s slightly less sweet than other store bought ones, but it’s top 2 for me.