Representative food of Korean holidays : How much do you know about the food you eat on Korean holidays?? If you live in Korea, you may have eaten it once during a holiday in Korea, and if you live abroad, you may have encountered Korean dramas or entertainment. But for those of you who haven’t eaten yet, I’m going to briefly introduce some of the most representative foods eaten during Korean holidays!
Representative food of Korean holidays : The first is, of course, rice cake soup!!
You can’t miss this dish on New Year’s Day. It’s literally a soup made by putting rice cakes in water and boiling them. Usually, long bar rice cakes are cut and added, or round and cute rice cakes called joraengi rice cakes are used! But it’s not just rice cakes inside, there are dumplings, meat, and a lot of garnish with green onions and eggs to top the soup! Wouldn’t it be delicious just to hear it?!
There is a custom of eating on New Year’s Day. Here, rice cake soup itself is originally made of long rice cake, so it means to live long like noodles. In the same sense, China and Japan eat noodles. Because you can continue to inhale the long side without breaking it. And it means to make a lot of money by eating round rice cakes like Yeopjeon. Nowadays, there are many rice cake soups that are oval by cutting them diagonally, but in the past, there were many round shapes that were cut at right angles. In other words, rice cake soup eaten on New Year’s Day can be said to contain the desire for wealth as well as longevity. Garae rice cake symbolizes long life and health, rice cake soup rice cake cut like a yupjeon symbolizes wealth luck, jorongi rice cake symbolizes evil spirits, and five-colored garnish symbolizes Korea’s unique traditional color. Traditionally, counting is a way of counting one year older in the new year, and there has been a saying that if you eat a bowl of rice cake soup here, you will be one year older. So he jokes like, “I ate 10 bowls of rice cake soup, so I’m older than you.”
Oh! There is a lot to say while eating this tteokguk. Traditionally, when it comes to New Year’s, you get one year older, so if you eat a bowl of tteokguk, you will get one year older.
Representative food of Korean holidays : Next is songpyeon!!
Songpyeon is a traditional Korean rice cake and is often eaten during Chuseok. You can create songpyeon of various colors by mixing various ingredients! They are usually dark green like mugwort, yellow, white, pink, and purple. Besides, what you might not know if you don’t take a bite of this songpyeon! There’s a cow in it too. I use a lot of sesame seeds, sugar, chestnuts, peanuts, walnuts, etc. to stuff the inside of songpyeon. Once you start eating this sweet and savory taste, you won’t be able to stop eating it again and again.
Previously, it was also called “Oryeo Songpyeon” because it was made of early-cooked rice, and it was a food that was eaten only during Chuseok, which was served as a staple food instead of rice at the Chuseok memorial service. It is said that it began to be made popular from the Goryeo Dynasty, and after making songpyeon, it was distributed to their species to ask them to work hard in farming the following year. There is a myth that “If you make a pretty songpyeon, a pretty child will be born.”
Oh, and there’s not just one shape of songpyeon! It is usually made small enough to be eaten in one bite, but this varies from region to region. In Chungcheong-do, it is made in the shape of a pumpkin, in Jeolla-do, it is made in the shape of a flower, and in Jeju-do, it is made in the shape of a flat plate. How is it, are you curious? I think it would be a great experience to try them all if you have a chance! hehe
I introduced two of them today, and seeing that they are all related to ‘tteok’, it seems that Korea eats and likes a lot of rice cake, doesn’t it? If you haven’t tried this tteokguk and songpyeon yet, I hope you try it when you get a chance later, and I’ll introduce other foods next time~~