Kkamu House Hoengseong: Hwangtae Baekban near Welli Hilli

There’s a stretch of the Yeongdong Expressway east of Wonju where every roadside ban-jib looks the same. 까무하우스 (Kkamu House) in Dunnae-myeon, Hoengseong-gun is the one you stop at — the 허영만의 백반기행-featured hwangtae-haejangguk specialist that locals from Welli Hilli ski resort drive 10 minutes for.

Cultural context for foreign visitors: 백반 (baekban) is Korea’s home-style fixed meal — soup, a main, rice, and a constellation of banchan (side dishes), priced like a lunch tray. It’s the format Korean families ate growing up, and it’s now an endangered species in Seoul. 허영만 (Hur Young-man) — the legendary manhwa artist behind 식객 (The Gourmet) — has spent the last decade hosting 백반기행 (Baekban Travels) on TV Chosun, driving Korea looking for restaurants where the baekban tradition is still done right. Kkamu House is one of his picks. That’s the calibration.

The Spot — A Roadside Ban-Jib near Welli Hilli

Kkamu House sits on a quiet two-lane road in Dunnae-myeon, the same valley as Welli Hilli Park ski resort. It’s a single-story building with a wide blue-and-orange sign — “까무 하우스 / 황태해장국 · 산채비빔밥 전문점” (Kkamu House / Hwangtae Soup · Wild-Vegetable Bibimbap Specialist) — and a parking lot big enough for ski-rack SUVs.

Inside is exactly what a 1990s Korean roadside ban-jib should look like — rustic wooden tables, simple chairs, a tray of crafts and souvenirs on one wall, big windows that let the mountain light in. No music. No fuss. Tables are spaced wide enough that a family of four can spread out a full grilled-fish set without bumping elbows.

The Menu — Read Once, Order the Set

The menu board behind the counter is Korean-only, but the structure is simple. Two columns: 까무 정찬 (Kkamu set menus) on the left, 든든 밥상 (filling-table single dishes) on the right.

The 까무 정찬 (Kkamu set) is what you came for. Three options, all at ~₩19,000 ($13 USD):

• 황태구이 + 황태해장국 정찬 — ₩19,000 ($13 USD) · grilled dried pollock + clear pollock soup + rice + every banchan. This is the order.
• 더덕구이 + 황태해장국 정찬 — ₩19,000 ($13 USD) · grilled deodeok root instead of the grilled fish.
• 곤드레비빔밥 + 더덕구이 (小) — ₩15,000 ($10 USD) · wild-gondre-greens bibimbap with a small deodeok side.

If you’re solo or on a budget, go single-dish from the right column: 황태해장국 ₩10,000 ($7) soup-only, 황태구이 정찬 ₩13,000 ($9) grilled-fish-plus-rice (no soup), or 곤드레 소고기 국밥 ₩11,000 ($7) gondre-and-beef gukbap. Add a 더덕구이 ₩12,000 ($8) grilled-deodeok side if there are two of you sharing.

The Self-Service Banchan Corner

Before your tray arrives, walk over to the 반찬 셀프 코너 (banchan self-service corner) by the kitchen. Sign reads: “드실 만큼만 가져가세요” (“take only what you’ll eat”). Six clear bins of banchan rotate daily — myeolchi-bokkeum (anchovy), gamja-jorim (potato), kimchi, danmuji, namul, jangajji — plus tongs and serving spoons. You bring back two or three small saucers, plus whatever the table is already pre-set with.

The pre-set banchan are the kind your grandmother used to make and nobody in Seoul makes anymore — young white kimchi, danmuji slices, anchovy candy-glazed in soy, soft potato cubes in gochujang, jangajji (pickled wild leaves), bean-sprouts in sesame oil. Every one of them is good. Try them all before you commit to refills.

황태해장국 (Hwangtae Haejangguk) — The Soul of the Meal

Korea’s pollock-soup tradition is born in the 덕장 (deokjang) — the open-air drying racks of Gangwon mountain villages, where fresh Alaskan pollock is hung out through the coldest months. It freezes overnight, thaws by day, and after 30 freeze-thaw cycles becomes 황태 (hwangtae) — pale yellow, almost dry, but with all the umami concentrated inside. It’s a food that requires the winter.

Kkamu House’s 황태해장국 is the clear-broth school: milky-white from long simmering of the dried pollock with daikon radish and bean sprouts, no gochujang, no chili oil, just the clean savor of the fish itself. The broth comes to your table bubbling in a black stone pot, with shredded hwangtae meat that pulls apart with chopsticks. Pollock soup is Korea’s classic hangover cure — high in protein, easy on the stomach, mineral-bright.

Here’s the part that makes this meal: the customization tray. Every set comes with a raw egg, sliced green onion, chopped jalapeño, and salty saewujeot (fermented baby shrimp). The Korean way to season your bowl:

• Crack the raw egg straight into the bubbling broth — the heat poaches it inside 30 seconds, and the yolk turns the soup richer and silkier.
• Stir in a pinch of saewujeot (새우젓) for salt-and-funk depth. Half a teaspoon is enough.
• Pile in the green onion and jalapeño for sharpness and heat.
• Sip the broth first — then break up the pollock with your spoon.

Beside the tray, a packet of premium 재래김 (jaerae-gim) — traditional roasted seaweed — comes with every set. Open it, wrap a spoonful of rice in a sheet, dip into the broth. This is how Korean families eat baekban: bite of fish, bite of soup, bite of gim-wrapped rice, sip of broth, repeat.

황태구이 (Hwangtae-Gui) — Grilled Pollock, Sweet and Spicy

The grilled hwangtae is the other half of the set, and the photogenic one. The dried pollock is rehydrated, butterflied open, brushed with a thick gochujang-honey-garlic glaze, and grilled on a hot cast-iron platter until the edges char and the glaze caramelizes. It arrives at the table sizzling, scattered with toasted sesame seeds and a fan of green onion.

Texture: jerky-meets-flaky. The dried pollock keeps a little chew at the edges, but the centers pull apart in flakes like a brisket. The glaze is sweet first, garlicky second, slow-burn spicy third — the kind of sauce that makes you reach for more rice. Tear a piece off with your chopsticks, drag it through the residual sauce on the plate, wrap it in gim, eat with rice. Repeat until the plate is bare.

더덕구이 (Deodeok-Gui) — The Mountain Root

If two of you are sharing, add the 더덕구이 (deodeok-gui, ₩12,000 / $8). 더덕 (deodeok) is a Korean mountain root — Codonopsis lanceolata — with a piney, ginseng-adjacent aroma and a fibrous texture. It’s pounded thin with the back of a knife, glazed with the same gochujang-honey-garlic, and grilled alongside the fish.

It’s a health-food dish that doesn’t taste like one — the sweet glaze hides the slight herbal bitterness of the deodeok, and the grilled texture is somewhere between jerky and crispy bacon. Koreans believe deodeok is good for your lungs in winter (it’s a traditional cold-and-cough food). Whether or not you buy that, it’s the strongest-flavored thing on the table — the dish you order for the table to share and keep coming back to.

Practical Notes for Visitors

• Get there for lunch. Kkamu House is breakfast-and-lunch only — typically open ~07:00 and closed by mid-afternoon. Show up by 13:30 to be safe.
• Cards are accepted (Visa / Mastercard). No need to scramble for cash.
• Self-service banchan — walk over and refill your own. The sign says “take only what you’ll eat” and Koreans take this seriously.
• For a ski day: drive ~10 minutes from Welli Hilli Park to Kkamu House between morning and afternoon sessions, eat the full ₩19,000 ($13 USD) set, head back to the slopes warmed up and re-energized.
• For a road-trip stop: exit the Yeongdong Expressway (영동고속도로) at Saemmal IC, follow signs ~7 km. It’s the natural lunch stop between Seoul and the east-coast Gangneung beaches.
• Pair it with another regional Korean classic: on Jeju, try The Park View at Jeju Shilla for a hotel-level take on hwangtae and Korean comfort food. In Mapo Seoul, Daedo Sikdang is the equivalent old-Seoul beef classic. For a Hongdae-side baekban after a day of cafe-hopping, Matkkalson in Haebangchon.

The Verdict

Kkamu House is what makes the Welli Hilli weekend worth the drive even before you put on the ski boots. The clear pollock soup is Hur Young-man-approved for a reason — it’s the kind of restorative broth that resets your day.

If you’re skiing Welli Hilli or driving the Yeongdong Expressway between Seoul and Gangneung, this is your lunch stop. Locals know it. Korean food bloggers know it. Now you do too.