You may notice quite a few homeless people around Seoul Station. A lot of visitors ask me, “Why are there so many homeless people here?” One of the biggest reasons goes back to 1997, during the Asian Financial Crisis. In Korea, we usually call it the IMF Crisis . A lot of companies went bankrupt, unemployment rose very quickly, and many people suddenly lost their jobs and income. Some people eventually lost their homes as well. And many of them came to Seoul Station . Why here? Because this was one of the main places to find day labor and temporary jobs , and it was also the main railway station if they wanted to go back to their hometowns. But some had no money left and nowhere else to go, so they stayed around the station. That is one reason Seoul Station became one of the main gathering places for homeless people after the 1997 crisis. Then another thing happened. Once many homeless people were here, churches, charities, NGOs, and the government started providing help here. Th...
Every country has a food people want when the weather changes. In England, it might be tea and biscuits. In Italy, maybe a hot bowl of soup. And in Korea, when it starts to rain, people think of jeon and makgeolli. Jeon is a Korean-style pancake, and makgeolli is a traditional rice wine.
So, why do Koreans eat jeon on rainy days? Listen to the sound when it cooks—sizzle, sizzle. People say it sounds like the rain. That’s why jeon and makgeolli have become a classic rainy-day combination in Korea.
How to make nuruk.
The key ingredient in makgeolli is nuruk, a traditional Korean fermentation starter.
To make nuruk, wheat is mixed with warm water to make a dough. It’s wrapped in cloth and pressed into shape, traditionally by stepping on it. Then it’s dried and fermented.
**The wheat is roughly crushed so the good microorganisms can get inside more easily and help with fermentation.
** So, why do they step on the nuruk? It’s to press out the air. Less air means less chance for unwanted bacteria to get in, which helps prevent contamination. So you need to press out as much air as possible.
After that, the nuruk is mixed with steamed rice and water and fermented again. And that’s how makgeolli is made.
As the nuruk dries and ferments, you’ll see a layer of white mold growing on it. That’s part of the natural fermentation process.
** Makgeolli is a fresh, unpasteurized drink, so you can’t age it like wine. If you leave it too long, it eventually turns into vinegar.
Why does makgeolli taste different from region to region?
So here's the thing — rice by itself won't ferment. It has to get broken down into sugar first, and that's the job of something called nuruk. Nuruk is basically wheat or rice that they let wild mold and yeast grow on naturally. And that's the whole reason makgeolli tastes the way it does. Sake, by comparison, uses one single mold they grow in a lab under controlled conditions, called koji. Nuruk's wild, nobody's controlling it, so the local water and climate shape every single batch — which is why makgeolli from one city can taste totally different from the same drink two hours away.
And that's actually why serious makgeolli drinkers will go out of their way for certain places. There's a fortress town on Geumjeong Mountain in Busan that's been brewing makgeolli in the exact same spot for something like 500 years, and locals will tell you it's the mountain spring water and the specific wild yeast up there that makes it impossible to copy anywhere else.
Where the Name Comes From
The name actually explains the texture. "Mak" means roughly, or just now, and "geolli" comes from the word for filtering. So makgeolli basically means "just roughly filtered." Wine gets filtered over and over until it's totally clear — makgeolli only gets strained once through a coarse cloth, and that's it. That's exactly why it stays cloudy and there's always sediment sitting at the bottom of the bottle. So you've gotta shake it before you pour — skip that step and you're just drinking watery liquid off the top while all the actual good stuff sits untouched at the bottom.
For most of its history, this was called nongju — "farmer's drink" — because it was cheap, filling, and you could brew it at home with whatever grain you had lying around. Meanwhile the upper class back in the Joseon era, so 1392 to 1910, mostly drank soju instead, which was more refined, distilled. And that's basically the exact same class split beer had in medieval Europe — they used to call beer "liquid bread" over there, it was as much a meal for laborers as it was a drink. And instead of a glass, you're drinking out of this rough unglazed clay bowl, and someone ladles it out with a wooden dipper — that's not just for show, that's literally how it was traditionally shared, one big bowl passed around the table instead of everyone pouring their own cup.
Questions Foreigners Always Ask (막걸리)
Is it strong? Not really — usually 6 to 9 percent, about like a strong beer. Way under soju, which is 17 to 20 percent, or even wine.
Can I check it in my luggage? I wouldn't risk it. It's still fermenting, still building pressure, so a flight can make it leak or even burst. Just grab a bottle at duty-free instead.
Why does it taste different every time? Because of that wild nuruk — no two brewers taste exactly the same, sometimes not even two batches from the same brewer. That's totally normal.
Is it the same as sake? No — sake uses one controlled mold and gets filtered clear. Makgeolli uses a wild mix and stays cloudy, unfiltered.