Korean Dish For Three Hot Days in the Summer

!±8± Korean Dish For Three Hot Days in the Summer

Using the Lunar Calendar there are three hot days during summer. Chobok, Joongbok, and Malbok which represent the first hot day, middle hot day and final hot day. This year, those days were July 19, July 29, and August 8. People in Korea are served precious food such as Samgyetang (chicken stew) and Choouhtang (mudfish) to strengthen the body which is weakened by the hot weather.

Samgyetang is chicken stew which is cooked with glutinous rice, garlic, ginseng, jujube fruit, and 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 stubbed in the chicken's cavity and you must close the flaps over the cavity (sew with thread or use a skewer). After that, place the chicken in a pot, about half filled with water, and cook it for many hours. It is served with salt and pepper. Hot red chili pepper paste can be inserted to enrich its flavors and taste to one's preference. Samgyetang is a symbolic food in Korea in the summer.

Choouhtang 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 delicious tastes and flavors. Mudfish has high protein content and excellent amino acids composition. Also, it is rich in vitamin A, vitamin B, and vitamin D, calcium and iron. Slippery mucus increases protein absorption and synthesis. Because Choouhtang uses the whole of mudfish including its bones and inner organs, it is a healthy food for growing children and middle-aged women who are concerned with osteoporosis due to the absense of calcium. It is served with Chinese pepper powder, whole green pepper, and minced red peppers.

Why do Koreans cook a warm dish like Samgyetang or Choouhtang during the summer? When people sweat, inner body temperature significantly decreases and this leads to harmful effects to the stomach and liver. Koreans say that people order the hot dish to stop that and also to improve one's appetite in the warm weather.