Among the local foods long established along Korea's east coast, many recipes centre on fish that appeared on tables because they were cheap. Dressed raw oil flounder and spicy lumpfish stew are the best known.

Oil flounder has soft flesh and high oil content, so it could not be kept long. The practice of dressing it raw as soon as it was landed took hold accordingly. Tossing it with vegetables and a vinegared chilli paste was a choice dictated by the material itself.

Lumpfish long fetched poor prices at market because of its appearance. Its soft flesh breaks down readily when simmered, so it thickens a stew without any additional ingredient.

How such dishes came to represent a region has little to do with culinary fashion. People ate what was caught, processed it before it spoiled, and dried or fermented what remained. Those constraints set the shape of the recipes.

Circumstances have changed. Shifts in catch volumes have raised prices for some of these species, and better preservation has removed the necessity behind the old methods. What remains is the memory of a taste.

The food culture of Chinese communities has a similar layer. Recipes that stretched scarce ingredients in leaner times often survive today as delicacies, a reminder that food always records the conditions of its era.