[News Today] ‘JANG-MAKING’ CULTURE EXHIBIT

[LEAD]
Last month, UNESCO recognized the traditional Korean practice of making sauces 'Jang', like doenjang and gochujang as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. To highlight this fading art, the National Agricultural Museum has launched an exhibition.

[REPORT]
Making maeju or fermented soybean blocks from carefully grown beans and producing doenjang or soybean paste and ganjang or soy sauce after many days of fermentation require great patience.

The long hours result in jang flavors distinct to each family that play essential roles in meals.

A book that documented good days to make jang, a blanket term for Korean sauces and a book that contains a drawing of Changdeokgung Palace and the platform for jang crocks and a story of a court lady who oversaw the place.

And even a letter about food written by famed calligrapher Kim Jeong-hui.

Food masters have brought back Korea's traditional jang culture.

This seed soy sauce that endured more than a hundred years is quite a magical treasure.

Lee Yun-hee / Nat'l Agricultural Museum of Korea
When soy sauce is kept in a crock pot, it evaporates little by little, leaving behind salt crystals. We call them jangseok meaning sauce rock.

Visitors love the exhibit, a visual presentation of 'making jang', a vanishing intangible cultural heritage for mankind.

Jin Eun-jeong / Hwaseong resident
Children don't know what Jangdokdae or a crock pot platform looks like, but here there are many different kinds. Children can easily learn about it.

Lee Yun-hee / Nat'l Agricultural Museum of Korea
Food, dietary cultures are changing too quickly. I hope the exhibit provides an opportunity for visitors to think about healthy foods we could gain by waiting.

The museum also provides programs that allow visitors to talk to traditional Jang masters and their students as well as to cook food with them.

The exhibit continues until February 23rd.