What are the flavours of a Korean Summer?
Chilled sour soups with vinegar and mustard, mugwort aromatic herb, chicken with ginseng, and the five flavours of omija juice all mean that summer is here!
Omija (magnolia berries) juice is a combination of five flavours – sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and pungent! My parents-in-law pick the berries in autumn, mix them with sugar and store them in a ceramic pot until the following year. In the summertime the berries are removed with a sieve leaving omija concentrate which is mixed with water and ice for a refreshingly tart summer drink!
It’s said to have health benefits too such as lowering blood pressure and detoxing. We keep a large bottle in the fridge and drink lots in the summer.
THE SIGNATURE SUMMER DISHES
HOT CHICKEN SOUP – Samgyetang
Soup is a massive part of Korean dining in general. (One theory I’ve been given for this is that when the country was poor, soups were made to make the food go further.) Chilled noodle dishes and ice cold sour soups are big in summer.
And chicken features heavily too – fried or served with broth. Traditional medicine follows the practice of fighting heat with heat, so hot samgyetang chicken soup is THE dish to eat on BOKNAL (the 3 hottest days of the year).
I purposely don’t go to samgyetang restaurants on the designated boknal days though, because the queue to get in the restaurants will BE ALL THE WAY DOWN THE STREET. And I don’t like to wait for food – especially in the heat!
A whole chicken is served in the soup with ginseng and glutinous rice, dried jujube berries, garlic, ginger, and leek. It’s filling and healthy. I love this dish although I do feel sorry for the tiny chicken.
COLD NOODLE SOUP
While Samgyetang is traditionally eaten on specific days, neng-myeon noodles are popular all the time and I’d say they snatch the top spot for the preferred dish to eat in summer. The noodles can be mixed with spicy chilli sauce or in an icy savoury and sour broth.
If there’s one thing I never ate in Britain it was COLD soup (cold soup that’s meant to be cold, that is..) But then summers were never really that hot. Here you can find a whole host of cold soups – cold noodle and chicken soup (Chogyeguksu 초계국수) has a sour broth and the condiments on the table include vinegar and mustard for those who like their noodle soup even more sour or spicy.
If you’re not into the idea of a sour soup, cold soy milk noodle soup (kongguksu 콩국수) has noodles nestling in a thick white milky broth made from soybeans. I have to say though, that this is not my cup of tea. I find it a bit bland and monotonous. But those who love it, love it. And it’s a popular dish and very healthy and filling.
SOCIAL FOOD & DRINK
CHICKEN AND BEER
Chicken and beer (a.k.a. chimaek 치맥) is still popular these days. There’s even a chimaek festival held in Daegu at the end of July. The word Chi-maek is a combo of chi (chicken), and maek (maekju Korean for beer).
My favourite chain of chimaek restaurants is still Daily Beer (생활맥주). When I wrote about their chicken back in 2016 they had about 40 franchise restaurants around the city. In 2019 there are over 200! I liked that Daily Beer served craft beer with the chicken which was unusual at the time. Not anymore.
The past 10 years has seen a craft beer revolution in Korea. When I first came, most restaurants had the choice of two lagers – Cass or Hite – and they both tasted the same (in my opinion). Supermarkets didn’t offer much more choice. Now the aisles of the local Emart are stacked with craft beers from around the world and there’s a growing list of local boutique breweries.
Korea Craft Brewery has some interesting names for their beers – how about a Cosmic Dancer or a bottle of Hug Me? Moonbear Brewing have just opened a pub restaurant in the Sokcho area. And new kinds of restaurants are opening to accommodate the demand for choice – In Seoul Tap Public is a ‘self pour pub’ where customers fill their own glass choosing from over 60 draft beers!
But craft beer isn’t cheap. And for those who would rather drink beer at home, LG have recently come up with an espresso machine-looking home-brew kit.
KIMCHI
YEOLMU KIMCHI
Kimjang kimchi making happens in autumn and the kimchi can be stored and eaten all year round. But there’s seasonal kimchi too. Summer kimchi includes youlmu kimchi, (juicy radish leaf kimchi) oi kimchi (cucumber) and puchu kimchi (wild leek).
Yeolmu is made from the leaves of the white moo (daikon) radish (below). The radish leaves are sold in large boxes at the supermarkets in the summer time. And restaurants serve it as a side dish. I sometimes make this at home as it’s handy to have with noodles.
The annual kimchi festival introduces a huge range of kimchi eaten around the country. And here are 5 things I learned about kimchi at the Kimchi Museum
SNACKS
RICE CAKE
Large packs of fresh mugwort are cheap in the supermarket and rice cakes made with mugwort were customarily made at the beginning of summer to boost health and energy in the heat.
And apparently, in the Joseon period, jeungpyeon rice cakes (made with alcoholic makgeolli and yeast) were especially popular in summer as the fermentation process stopped them from going off too quickly in the heat. The alcohol gives the rice cake a slightly sour taste.
I might have a go at making these jeungpyeon rice cakes made with makgeolli fermented rice wine.
DESSERTS
BINGSU
When it comes to summer desserts, the top spot has to go to bingsu – shaved ice dessert.
Last year I wrote about how the hotels were coming up with some LUXURY bingsu desserts at eye-watering prices and in 2019 there are yet more serious bingsu desserts. I also wrote about the world of Korean Ice Cream which has a shorter history than bingsu but has developed its own range of flavours.
See more post on Korean food and drink here. And more Korean food ideas at my dramasrok Pinterest food and drink board.
