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 last hot day. This year, they were July 19, July 29, and August 8. People in Korea 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 consists of glutinous rice, jujube fruit and garlic. 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 feast 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). Now, put the chicken in a pot, almost half filled with water, and simmer it for many hours. It is served with salt and pepper. Spicy red chili pepper paste can be tossed in to enrich its flavors and taste to one’s preference. Samgyetang is a symbolic food in Korea in the summer time.
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, beef, tofu and mungbean sprouts will provide delicious 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 increases protein absorption and production. Because Choouhtang uses the entire mudfish including its bones and inner organs, it is a healthy dish for growing children and middle-aged women who are concerned with osteoporosis due to the low amount of calcium. It is served with Chinese pepper powder, whole green pepper, and minced red peppers.
Why do Koreans eat a warm dish like Samgyetang or Choouhtang during the summer? When people sweat, internal body temperature goes down significantly and this leads to harmful effects to the stomach and liver. Koreans say that people eat the hot dish to prevent that and also to improve one’s appetite in the hot weather.
John J. Lee is a freelance writer and developer for a Korean restaurants locator.
