Oritang (Spicy Duck Stew)

At a Gwangju market in the cold months, I look for minari before I look for the duck. The bundle should stand upright, hollow stems snapping clean, leaves not tired at the edges. Oritang is a Jeolla pot, generous and a little stubborn: bone-in duck simmered until its richness softens, red pepper for warmth, ground perilla for body, and minari laid on top at the end like the green part of the season.

People mistake the thickness for heaviness. It isn't. The duck must be blanched and simmered gently so the broth tastes clean; the perilla goes in late so it thickens without turning muddy; the minari barely cooks, because its sharp green bite is what keeps the bowl awake. If you boil everything together from the start, you get a pot with no edges. The meat, the perilla, the greens, all of them should still be readable.

Notebook 58 says 1 cup of deulkkae-garu for 8 cups of finished broth. That sounds fussy until you've eaten a pot where someone added powder by the fistful and buried the duck. Tonight this asks for time, not cleverness: trim the fat, skim the pot, season in stages, and put the minari in only when everyone is already sitting down. 손맛 is real; I measure it anyway, so it can be handed on.