to be fair, they’re nothing alike in terms of cooking technique or ingredients of origin; my understanding is that mao (冒) means that the ingredients (chosen by the person eating and can be vegetarian) have first been blanched in water but the soup it’s served with is not necessarily the original cooking liquid, OTOH, budae (military) jjigae is more about making american processed meat (spam/hot dogs) that you’d find as military rations palatable by throwing them in a simmering pot with kimchi along with whatever else your poverty level affords. budae jjigae is going to suffer in comparison just by basic definition. having said that, throw in the fact that you’d have to pay $30+ for budae jjigae at a place like chunju han il kwan in k-town vs. whatever they charge for the mao cai, i’d probably go with the mao cai.