Using a Lunar Calendar there are three hot days during summer. Koreans call them Chobok, Joongbok, and Malbok which represent the first hot day, middle hot day and final hot day. This year, those three days were on July 19, July 29, and August 8. Koreans enjoy precious food such as Samgyetang (chicken stew) and Choouhtang (mudfish) to energize the body which is weakened by the hot weather.
Samgyetang is chicken stew which contains ginger. Other medicinal herbs like wolfberry and angelica sinensis could be used. The young chicken, which can serve 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 (use the skewer or sew with thread). Afterwards, place it in a pot, about half filled with water, and boil it for many hours. It is served with pepper and salt. Spicy red chili pepper paste can be added to enrich its flavors and taste to one’s preference. Samgyetang is a representative food in Korea in the summer time.
Chyeotang is also one of the Korean traditional health foods for the summer time with rich flavors. The rich soup stock boiled with grinded mudfish (sometimes whole mudfish can be used) and dried Chinese cabbage, tofu, beef and mungbean sprouts will provide sensational tastes and flavors. Mudfish has high protein content and excellent amino acids composition. Also, it is rich in calcium, iron, vitamin A, vitamin B, and vitamin D. Slippery mucus promotes protein absorption and creation. Because Chyeotang uses the all of the mudfish including its bones and inner organs, it is a healthy food for growing children and middle-aged women who are worrying about osteoporosis due to the absense of calcium. It is served with whole green pepper, minced red peppers and Chinese pepper powder.
Why do Koreans have a warm dish like Samgyetang or Choouhtang during the summer? When people sweat, internal body temperature goes down a lot and this causes 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 restaurants directory.
