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Letter From Jeju
Jeju black pork a must try among tourists including S’poreans, but the purebred pig is going extinct
Once reared by almost all households on Jeju, only 350 of the island’s purebred black pigs are left today.
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The Jeju native black pigs that were once a mainstay of Jeju households are considered an endangered species now, with only 350 of them on Jeju island.
ST PHOTO: WENDY TEO
JEJU – On the holiday island of Jeju, it is hard to miss the Jeju black pork barbecue restaurants that seem to lurk in every corner. In fact, there are more than 500 such eateries on the island of some 700,000 residents.
In South Korea, grilled pork belly, or samgyeopsal, is so popular that there is a day to commemorate the Koreans’ love for the fatty cut – March 3 – an onomatopoeic pun on samgyeopsal.
