Sampling Seoul
Summer Seoul Food – Fight Fire with Fire
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For summer, the basic concept is eating foods thought to have warm properties, which can mean spicy as hell, but not necessarily. Food with warm properties are thought to prevent the chi life force energy in the abdomen from getting too cool from being sweat out too much. Got it – when it¡¯s hot, you fight fire with fire.
Specifically there are three days of summer, as determined by the lunar calendar, that are thought to be the hottest days in terms of needing to replace chi that¡¯s been sweat out. These are the three ¡°hot days¡± or sambok. This year the hot days fall on July 14, July 24, and August 13. On those days, you might see Koreans queued up outside restaurants that serve the traditional dishes associated with special warm properties needed to replace lost chi.
What foods are those? Well, here's a short list of the foods thought to provide stamina in the summer months: sam-gye-tang, which is Korean chicken soup; yuk-gae-jang, a spicy beef and veggie stew; chu-o-tang, an eel soup; and kong-guksu, which is noodles in a soy-milk broth. Let's go through each one, with some suggestions where to try in Seoul
Sam-gye-tang (ginseng chicken soup)
Sam-gye-tang (see photo) is a whole chicken stuffed with sticky rice, ginseng root, garlic, other herbs and spices and boiled, resulting in succulent chicken served whole in fragrant broth. Not just any chicken – only young chickens are used, and none of the herbs and spices are broken or cut, only whole herbs and spices used, presumably to keep their nutrients as fresh as possible before cooking. Sam-gye-tang is the most quintessential of the Korean "hot days" foods.
Sam-gye-tang shouldn¡¯t sound so exotic as a health food to Westerners. Except for the ginseng and garlic dosage, it¡¯s not a whole lot different than the chicken soup your mom insisted you eat when you were sick. Same in Korea. It chock full of nutrients for replenishing a body that¡¯s been sweated out in the summer. One thing to note: pieces of tree bark from the prickly castor oil tree are added to broth to tenderize the chicken and give additional flavor. So don't be surprised to find pieces of bark in your soup -- they're supposed to be there. But don't eat.
The ginseng flavor of sam-gye-tang is often paired with a ginseng-flavored rice wine called insam-ju (see photo). According to traditional Asian herbal medicine, ginseng stimulates yin energy, improves circulation, and revitalizes the body. 
Some places to try sam-gye-tang, with the Korean name and transliterated:
Restaurant name: Tosokchon ( Åä¼ÓÃÌ ) in central Seoul. How to get there: Exit No. 2 of Gyeongbokgung Station, line 3. Walk along Jihamoon Tunnel. Turn right toward the direction of Segeomjeong and walk straight for 150 meters. Telephone: 02-737-7444. Business hours: 10 am ~10 pm. Price for Samgyetang: W13,000.
Restaurant name: Yeong-yang Center ( ¿µ¾ç¼¾ÅÍ ) in central Seoul. To get there: Take exit 6 out of Myeongdong Station (Line No. 4). Turn left after walking past Pasccucci and walk another 50 meters. Telephone: 02-776-2015. Business hours: 11 am ~10:30 pm. Price for Samgyetang: W10,000.
Restaurant name: Goryeo Sam-gye-tang (°í·Á »ï°èÅÁ). To get there: Walk 100 meters straight from exit No. 7 of Gwanghwamun Station. Turn left at an alley between Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts. Telephone: 02-736-1888. Business hours: 10 am ~ 9:30 pm. Price for Samgyetang: W12,000.
Yuk-gae-jang (spicy veggie and beef stew)
Another recommended dish for ¡°hot days¡± really is quite spicy hot is yuk-gae-jang (see photo). It¡¯s a stew of beef and vegetables. Will definitely cause a sweat, but in this case that¡¯s what you want to jump start your sweat glands, which after all exist to keep you cool. This dish also is loaded with nutrients. The amount of beef isn¡¯t actually that much, just enough to flavor the broth and give a few morsels. The real nutrient firepower comes from the mix of veggies that sweat out their potent goodies into the broth. 
Veggies in yuk-gae-jang include green onions, leeks, gosari (fernbrake), daikon radish shreds, and other greens. Plus loads of garlic of course. The taste is best when the balance between sweet and sour is still there as a subtle undercurrent to the overall spiciness.
Chu-o-tang (loach soup)
You won't have any trouble handling chu-otang -- tastes just like your mom's loach soup back home. Loach soup?! That's right, loach. If you are still confused by what a loach is, it's a tiny eel, thought to be packed with protein, calcium and other nurtrients. Don't worry, you won't find any loaches in your soup. For chu-o-tang, the loaches are cooked until they pretty much disintegrate in the soup, along with nutritious green veggies.
It's not a spicy food, so no problem there. But it is a bit...funky. Takes some getting used to, but delicious.
This is a soup with long history. Mentions of chu-o-tang can be found in 900-year-old writings by Chinese visitors (good mentions). In former times the loaches were caught in the wild, and were seasonal for fall. But now thanks to eel farming, chu-o-tang is available year-round, and especially prized as an energy restorative in summer.
Every neighborhood will have a chu-o-tang restaurant or two, but for some places to try there is Wonju Chu-o-tang in the highrise business neighborhood of Yeoksam in southern Seoul. To get there, come out exit 7 of Gangnam Station, line 2 and walk about 10 minutes; the restaurant is across the street from Kyobo Tower. Open from 9 am to 11 pm. A bowl of chu-o-tang will set you back W7,000.
Jangeo-gui (broiled eel)
Wait -- we're not done with slithery things. Just as the loaches in chu-o-tang are packed with nutrients, so is whole grilled freshwater eel, which is called jangeo-gui in Korean. Jangeo-gui is one of the top stamina foods as a summer-time restorative. The eels are de-boned before grilling, and either a spicy red sauce or a sweet teriyaki-lke sauce is used. Grilled eel is said to be high in Vitamens A, B, and E, calcium, iron and other nutrients.
A good place to try Korean grilled eel is located near the COEX mall and exhibition center in south Seoul. From the Samseong subway station, line 2, come out exit 6 and find Bongeunsa Temple (can't miss it -- it's large and the only temple in the area). The restaurant just to the right of the temple's main gate. Restaurant name is Song-gang Min-mul-jangeo. But you don't have to remember that. Look for people eating eel; it's the restaurant's specialty.
Kong-guksu (noodles in chilled soy broth)
Another food for ¡°hot days¡± is the purely vegetarian kong-guksu. This dish of noodles in chilled soybean milk may seem plain, but again it¡¯s got tons of nutrients for refueling a tired body fatigued by heat. Traditionally the noodles are made of wheat flour, but enterprising restaurants also offer buckwheat noodles. The better restaurants will make their own soy milk broth by hand-grinding their soy beans of choice, and possibly adding some secret ingredients to the ground-up mixture, such as sesame seeds, for a little nuttier note. You can find this dish either cheap or expensive. All worth a try.
A good restaurant to try kong-guksu is located in the band name shopping district of Myeongdong in central Seoul. The restaurant name is Myeongdong Gyoja, located near Myeongdong station, line 4. From subway exit 5, make a left at the first intersection (Woori Bank) and make the next right (Who.A.U. Clothing Store.)
If you cannot get to the locations given above, never fear. The best way to find a restaurant for sam-gye-tang, or yuk-gae-jang, or kong-guksu? Ask a Korean. Restaurants for these are everywhere. Just ask and for sure a helpful Korean person will direct you to his or her favorite place for ¡°hot day¡± food. You don¡¯t have to worry about how to order at the restaurant. Many restaurants serving these dishes specialize in serving only that dish. Besides, it's summer -- they'll know what you want.
