Healthy Korean Food Served In Korean Restaurant In The Summer
Using a Lunar Calendar there are three hot days during summer. Koreans call them Chobok, Joongbok, and Malbok which are defined as first hot day, middle hot day and final hot day. This year, they were July 19, July 29, and August 8. Koreans are served fine food like Samgyetang (chicken stew) and Choouhtang (mudfish) to energize the body which is weakened by the hot weather.
Samgyetang is chicken stew which is cooked with ginseng, jujube fruit, glutinous rice, garlic, and ginger. Other medicinal herbs like wolfberry and angelica sinensis could be used. The young chicken, which is good enough for one person, can be used for Samgyetang. Like a turkey meal on Thanksgiving Day, all of the ingredients has to be placed inside the chicken’s cavity and you must close the flaps over the cavity (sew with thread or use a skewer). Afterwards, put it in a pot, almost half filled with water, and boil it for many hours. It is served with salt and pepper. Spicy red chili pepper paste can be added to enrich its flavors and taste to one’s preference. Samgyetang is a symbolic food in Korea during the summer.
Chyeotang is also one of the Korean traditional health foods for the summer season with rich flavors. The rich soup stock boiled with grinded mudfish (sometimes whole mudfish can be used) and dried Chinese cabbage, beef, tofu and mungbean sprouts will provide extraordinary tastes and flavors. Mudfish has high protein content and excellent amino acids composition. Also, it is rich in vitamin B, vitamin D, vitamin A, calcium and iron. Slippery mucus increases protein absorption and creation. Because Choouhtang uses the all of the mudfish including its inner organs and bones, it is a good dish for growing children and middle-aged women who are concerned about osteoporosis due to the low amount of calcium. It is served with whole green pepper, minced red peppers and Chinese pepper powder.
Why do Koreans cook a warm dish like Samgyetang or Choouhtang during the summer? When people sweat, internal body temperature significantly decreases and this makes harmful effects to the stomach and liver. Koreans say that people order the hot dish to stop that and also to betters one’s appetite in the hot weather.
John J. Lee is a freelance writer and developer for a Korean restaurant finder.
John Lee is a freelance writer and developer for a Korean restaurants list.
Tags: food, korean
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