Anheung Jjinppang Village

Anheung-myeon in Hoengseong County, Gangwon Province, is a township known across Korea for one thing: steamed buns. Shops selling Anheung jjinppang, buns leavened with makgeolli rice wine, filled with homemade red bean paste and shaped by hand, line the main road through the township centre. It is the place to stop for a freshly steamed bun on the way to Chiaksan or Pyeongchang.

From travellers' snack to local speciality

Before the Yeongdong Expressway was built, Anheung was a stopover for people travelling between Seoul and the east coast region. Travellers filled up on steamed buns here and took more with them for the road. A local tale even credits the red beans with driving off mischievous goblins. The buns drew renewed attention from the 1960s, and by the early 2000s demand from all over the country had led some makers to switch to machines. Today nine shops still make them by hand.

How Anheung jjinppang is made

The secret is makgeolli, which makes the wheat dough rise. The dough goes through three rounds of fermentation, the last one finished off in the sun for about 15 minutes. The filling uses Korean red beans grown under contract, mainly in Hoengseong, boiled down and made by hand. The result is a thin, fluffy wrapper and a bean paste that is not overly sweet. The hoppang sold from convenience-store steamers every winter takes its name from a product launched by a confectionery company in 1971; Anheung buns, by contrast, are made by hand in each shop, with dough rested that day and steamed to order, so the two are made in quite different ways.

What to see

• Bun shop street: along the main road around the township office, steamers puff away outside every shop. Each makes its buns a little differently, so try two or three. Many also sell Gangwon staples such as potato rice cakes and potato dumplings.
• Anheung Jjinppang Morak Morak Village: an exhibition, experience and culture space devoted to the buns, where you can make your own from the dough up.
• Anheung Jjinppang Festival: first held in 1999, it takes over the whole township centre for three days every October.

During the festival some 3,000 residents take part, with bun-making sessions and performances running for all three days; it reached its 14th edition in 2022. Hoengseong is also famous for its Hanwoo beef, so a popular plan is buns for a snack in Anheung and a beef dinner in Hoengseong town.

Tripto tips

• Opening hours: they vary from shop to shop, as do closing days. Go in the morning for the best choice of freshly steamed buns.
• Time needed: 30 minutes to an hour to taste and browse, about 2 hours if you add a workshop at Morak Morak Village.
• Taking some home: frozen buns can be re-steamed at home.
• When to go: late autumn and winter, when a steaming bun is most welcome. It gets busy during the festival, so allow extra time for parking.
• Getting there: driving is easiest. Guryongsa Temple at Chiaksan National Park in Wonju is about half an hour away by car, so it pairs well with a hike there.