Taegu (Hawaiian dish)

Taegu is a popular side dish in Hawaii related to Korean ojingeo-chae-bokkeum. It was perhaps introduced to Hawaii by the Koreans in the early 1900s. Taegu is often sold next to poke in the seafood counters of grocery stores and Korean specialty shops.

Taegu ( Korean: 대구) is the Korean term for codfish. While commercial taegu is commonly made with dried cod, most home recipes still use dried shredded cuttlefish as it is more widely familiar and available. Taegu is quite similar to the original Korean ojingeo-chae-bokkeum recipe in terms of ingredients. However, Hawaii recipes generally do not "bokkeum," or stir-fry, the seafood nor cook the seasonings. Rather all the ingredients are combined and left to marinate.

In contemporary times, the flavor profile and sauce mixture are generically called taegu. It is popularly applied to other dishes such as fresh tuna for "taegu poke", dried tuna for "aku taegu", or as a dressing to noodles and even fried chicken.

Preparation
If using dried cod, it is soaked in water before shredding. The cod or dried cuttlefish are cut or shredded into smaller pieces, between a julienne and batonnet. They are then combined with gochujang, gochugaru, honey, soy sauce, sesame oil, and sesame seeds and left to marinate from 30 minutes to overnight before serving.