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Table Manners

 

 

 

 

 

The Food on Seolnal

 

Foods prepared and served on the New Year’s Day are altogether called ‘New Year’s Food’ or ‘Food for treating New Year’s guests’, and liquors served on the New Year’s Day are called ‘New Year’s liquor’.

 


Tteokguk(Rice cake soup)

Manduguk(Dumpling soup)

Dasik(Pattern pressed honey cake)

Jeon gwa(Fruits boiled down in sugar)

Sikhye(Fermented sweet rice drink)

Jok pyeon(Leg gelatin)

Pyeon yuk(Sliced boiled meat)

Jeon(Pan-fried food)
       

 

Tteokguk(Rice cake soup)

Rice cake soup of New Year’s Day is known to be the 1st seasonal food for the New Year’s Day season. Basic material for the rice cake soup is sticks of rounded rice cake and “Dongguk Se-si-gi (Dongguk Record on Seasonal Events)” described about rice cake soup in detail. “Non-glutinous rice powder is steamed, the steamed rice powder is put on the pounding board and it is pounded many times to make it in long stick form. This is called white rice cake. This white rice cake is sliced, put into clear beef and pheasant soup and boiled. And then put some pepper powder on it. This is called rice cake soup and this is being sold in marketplace as a seasonal food.”

Eating rice case soup in New Year’s Day seems to be originated from the ancient faith of worship to sun. As the New Year’s Day is the first day of New Year, rice cake in white color was used to express brightness and the reason why rice cake is in rounded shape seems to be pictograph for the round shape of sun.

Tteokguk –Recipe
Rice cake soup is the food we take on the first day of New Year. People think that a person gets one year older when the person ate one rice cake soup. Materials to make the soup of rice cake soup are brisket of beef, cow leg bone, chicken or anchovy. But sometimes half and half for meat and anchovy are used. On the top of rice cake soup, decorative shredded eggs are put usually but sometimes minced beef, sliced beef or shish-kebab is put as decorative seasoning.

Materials:
500g of white rice cake(sliced ones), 300g of brisket of beef, 1 piece of cow leg bone, 3 big spoons of clear soya sauce, 4 liters of water (20 cups), 200g of beef and 2 eggs.
Seasoning for beef: 2 big spoons of soya sauce, 1/2 big spoon of sugar, 1 big spoon of minced green onion, 1/2 big spoon of minced garlic, 1 big spoon of sesame with salt, 1/2 big spoon of sesame oil and 1/2 small spoon of pepper.

How to cook:
1) Wash cow leg bone and boil it in water for considerable amount of time. Pour out the boiled soup and boil it with new water again two more times. Then cool it down and take away hardened fat.
2) Put brisket of beef into the poured out cow leg bone soup and boil it to make clear beef soup. Cut the boiled beef chunk into slices.
3) Cut the stick of rounded rice cake into slices in slanting way, wash the rice cake slices in water and take out from water.
4) Pan-fry beef with seasoning after shredding or mincing.
5) Put sliced rice cake into the clear beef soup and boil it up until the white rice cake becomes soft.
6) When the rice cake is floating up to the surface, put egg and stir it. Put the rice cake soup in a small brass bowl and put topping of fried minced beef. Put some pepper powder on it.