Chodang Sundubu is the silken soft tofu of Chodang village in Gangneung, on Korea's East Sea coast. Its defining trait is the coagulant: instead of nigari (bittern) or gypsum, the hot soy milk is set with clean East Sea seawater, whose dissolved minerals curdle the proteins into a barely-firm, high-moisture custard. It is eaten warm and almost plain — the unpressed curd (sundubu) ladled into a bowl, or the lightly drained tofu (chodang dubu) cut into slabs — dressed only with a thin soy-and-scallion seasoning sauce. A milder, non-spicy soft-tofu stew is also common, distinct from the fiery Seoul-style sundubu jjigae. The result tastes cleanly of soybean, with a faint marine sweetness rather than the sharpness a heavy coagulant can leave.
Chodang takes its name from Chodang (草堂), the pen name of Heo Yeop (許曄, 1517–1580), a Joseon scholar-official whose family lived in this Gangneung neighbourhood; his children, the poet Heo Nanseolheon and the writer Heo Gyun (author of The Tale of Hong Gildong), were born here. The tofu is said to have begun when Heo, drawing clear well water and using East Sea seawater in place of bittern, made an unusually tender curd that took the village's name. Local accounts repeat this attribution but hedge it, and the conflicting official posts assigned to him in some tellings make the founding date uncertain. What is documented is that seawater-set soft tofu became the village's signature and that, from roughly the 1970s, a cluster of some twenty tofu houses grew up along Chodang-dong to serve it.
The curd is barely set — it slumps off the spoon and breaks into soft, custardy clouds rather than clean cubes, served warm so the soybean aroma is at its fullest. The flavour is clean and faintly sweet, carrying a light mineral-brine note from the seawater instead of the dull bitterness a heavy dose of nigari or gypsum can leave behind. The thin soy-scallion sauce seasons without masking, and each spoonful is more drinkable than chewable.
Tofu sets when divalent cations bridge the soy storage proteins. After the soy milk is heated, glycinin (11S) and β-conglycinin (7S) unfold, exposing negatively charged carboxyl groups; the magnesium and calcium ions (Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺) dissolved in seawater neutralise that charge and link adjacent protein molecules — the 'ion-bridge' mechanism — knitting an open gel that traps water. Curdling is done while the milk is hot, around 70–80°C, where the proteins are denatured enough to bond. The key is that seawater is a dilute, mild coagulant: where concentrated nigari (mostly magnesium chloride) sets fast into a denser, firmer, sometimes bitter curd with poor water retention, the lower ion load of seawater coagulates slowly and gently, giving a loose, high-moisture, smoother network. Added in small ladlefuls rather than all at once, it yields the cloud-soft sundubu texture.
Variations
The same seawater-set curd appears in several forms: plain chodang dubu, lightly drained and sliced, eaten with a soy-scallion seasoning sauce; sundubu, the soft unpressed curd ladled into a bowl warm; and a mild, non-spicy soft-tofu stew, often built on an anchovy or clear broth rather than the red gochugaru base of Seoul-style sundubu jjigae. Some Chodang houses advertise tofu set with deep ocean water drawn from depths past 200 metres. The dish is most associated with the Chodang Tofu Village restaurant cluster in Gangneung, where it is served morning to night.
On the Palate
Where Chodang Sundubu sits in the Korean flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4
How it's made
8 steps · 30 min
- 15 min
Rinse dried soybeans and soak in plenty of cold water — about 8 hours in spring and autumn, 6 in summer, up to 12 in winter — until fully swollen.
- 210 min
Drain the soybeans and grind them with fresh water into a smooth, thick slurry.
- 315 min
Pour the slurry into a heavy pot and bring it up gently, stirring so it does not scorch or boil over, until it foams and smells cooked.
- 48 min
Strain the cooked slurry through a cloth: the coarse pulp left behind is okara, and the clear liquid that runs through is the soy milk.
- 55 min
Return the soy milk to the pot and bring it back to a gentle heat, around 70–80°C — hot but not at a rolling boil.
Watch outBring the soy milk back only to about seventy to eighty degrees — hot but not a rolling boil, where the proteins are denatured enough to bond but the seawater can set them into a soft, open gel.
- 610 min
Ladle clean seawater into the hot soy milk a little at a time, stirring slowly, until soft white curds bloom and separate from a clearer whey.
Watch outLadle the seawater in a little at a time, stirring slowly, until soft white curds bloom and part from a clearer whey — pour it in all at once and the curd turns coarse and tough.
- 78 min
For sundubu, ladle the warm unpressed curd straight into bowls; for chodang dubu, transfer the curds to a cloth-lined mould and press only lightly, then slice.
- 85 min
Serve warm with a thin seasoning sauce of soy sauce, chopped scallion, a little gochugaru and sesame oil; or simmer the soft curd briefly in a mild broth for a non-spicy stew.
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