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| Soups |
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Korean soups are made from a variety of different meats, fishes, and
vegetables, and are meant to be eaten with rice. Most will come with a
bowl of rice or have the rice already in the soup when delivered to your
table. Koreans especially love a bowl of hot soup during the cold
winter. However, soups can be enjoyed at any time as part of a meal with
rice, kimchi, and other side dishes. Names of soup dishes
generally have a -guk or -tang suffix.
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| Chueo-tang (Loach and Bean
Paste Soup) |
Fish stock is obtained from boiling loach. Soy bean paste and cabbage or
turnip leaves are then added to the stock and simmered. The soup is
served sprinkled with black pepper and prickly ash seed powder to remove
the fish small. |
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Ddeok-guk (Rice Cake Soup) |
 Cylinder-shaped rice cakes about 2cm in diameter are cut diagonally into
thin slices, soaked in water, and boiled in beef broth. People eat this
dish from autumn to winter, but it is a specialty dish for the New Year
holiday. (In Korean views, you do not become a year older until you eat
a serving of ddeok-guk for New Year's.)
Ddeokmandu-guk, a combination of
ddeok-guk and mandu-guk, is also
popular at restaurants during the winter months.
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| Dogani-tang
(Knuckle Bone Soup) |
Knuckle bones and the surrounding meat are boiled until the meat is
tender. This type of tough meat is loved by people who like to chew. It
can be eaten as a meal or as a side dish when drinking. |
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| Galbi-tang
(Ox Short Rib Soup) |
The ingredients for kalbi-t'ang include short ribs and stewing beef with
radishes and onions. Sometimes noodles are also added. This dish is
similar to seolleong-t'ang |
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| Ggori
Gom-tang (Ox Tail Soup) |
This soup is very nutritious. The key to its flavor is its long-term
boiling. It can be simmered as long as six hours. The stock jells when
cold, but the soup is always served hot. |
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Gom-tang (Stew Meat and
Tripe Soup) |
Preparing this soup requires two boiling. Beef brisket, beef entrails,
bones, and tripe are boiled together, then the soup and meats are stored
separately until required. All the ingredients are boiled together for a
second time when served. |
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| Haejang-guk (Sunrise
Soup) |
 People who are up at dawn (taxi drivers, travelers, market workers, or
gamblers) like to eat this as an eye opener soup. Many people claim it
works great for recovering from hangovers after a late night of
drinking. Its restorative properties are reputed to clear even the
sleepiest or most hung-over people. Bones are boiled hard, and chopped
radish, radish leaves, cabbage, green onions, and fresh blood (direct
from the slaughter house) are added to stock to make a highly nutritious
soup. |
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| Kongnamul-guk (Bean
Sprout Soup) |
Bean sprouts are widely used in Korean cooking as a staple vegetable.
They are simmered with garlic and scallions in salted water to produce
this soup. (People add a sprinkling of red pepper and use it to cure
colds.) The sprouts should still have a crunchy texture.
This soup is one of the most popular side dish soups served by Korean
restaurants for dry dishes like bibimbap due to its mild taste.
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Maeun-tang (Hot Spicy Fish
Soup) |
 Restaurants that offer this dish often allow you to
select your fish from an aquarium. Many specialty seafood restaurants
have several aquariums from which you may select. Popular fishes for
this dish include red snapper, sea bass, codfish, globefish,
croakers, Pollack, and even fresh water fish like carp. It can also be
made with cabstand clams. (The price is calculated based on the weight
of the fish.)
The cleaned fish is cut into several pieces and boiled with ground beef
and green vegetables such as watercress and garland chrysanthemum, along
with red pepper paste. Hot pepper sauce and vegetables are added to this
mixture, then it is seasoned with pepper powder, garlic, soy sauce, and
more pepper paste. The main flavoring for this popular dish is fiery
kochujang (red bean paste). |
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| Mandu-guk (Dumpling
Soup) |
This popular autumn and winter dish adds meat- or vegetable-filled mandu
(dumplings) to meat stock. |
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| Miyeok-guk (Sea
Mustard Soup) |
 In
Korea, this seaweed soup is a must for women after delivering a baby. It
is believed that eating it for at least three weeks will help them
recover their health quickly. At home, members of the family eat this
seaweed soup as part of a birthday celebration.
Dried sea mustard is soaked in water and parboiled with minced meat. It
is then seasoned with sesame seeds, sesame oil, soy sauce, and crushed
garlic, then boiled with water. A chilled version (miyeoknaeng-guk) is
often searved as a side dish in the summer. |
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| Miyeoknaeng-guk (Sea Mustard
in Chilled Vinegar Water) |
Dried sea mustard is soaked in water and parboiled with minced meat. It
is then seasoned with sesame seeds, sesame oil, soy sauce, and crushed
garlic. Boiled water is chilled and poured over the mixtures. Shredded
cucumbers, vinegar, and ice cubes are added when served. (This is a
chilled version of miyeok-guk- naeng
means cold or refrigerated.) |
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| Oinaeng-guk (Chilled Cucumber
Soup) |
Koreans find the hot summer weather difficult to bear, so cold soups are
popular during this time. A mixture of soy sauce, vinegar, and water is
chilled. Shredded cucumbers, sesame seeds, and ice cubes are mixed into
the chilled water when served. |
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Samgye-tang (Ginseng Chicken
Soup) |
The body cavity of a small chicken is stuffed with glutinous rice, young
ginseng shoots, and jujubes. The chicken is then boiled in a clear stock
and served in an individual earthenware pot. It is highly recommended
for those new to Korean food.
This dish is famous as summer dish. Koreans try to survive the summer
heat with hot stamina food. This wonderful dish is gradually being
recognized by the rest of the world. Even if you are skeptical about the
properties attributed to ginseng, you will enjoy this dish which is said
to give stamina during the steamy Korean summers. |
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Seolleong-tang (Ox Bone and
Stew Meat Stock Soup) |
 Seolleong-tang is a thick broth made from beef bones and stewing
meat (sometimes with wheat flour noodles added). Before serving, the
stewing meat is sliced and returned to the soup. The soup is served with
square cut radish kimchi (Kkaktugi), chopped scallions,
and hot pepper sauce for garnishes. Sometimes the cook also adds some
noodles to it. This dish is similar to gom-tang. |
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| Yukgaejang (Hot Spicy Stew
Soup) |
This simple and popular clear soup made from meat stock has red pepper
powder sauteed in fat added to give it a fiery taste. This can be one of
Korea's hottest dishes and is not for those who dislike spicey foods.
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