5 foods you must eat on New Year's Day of Korea

 5 foods you must eat on New Year's Day

hello? In the past, New Year's Day was divided into New Year's Day and Chinese New Year's Day. Chinese New Year is now called Lunar New Year. It is said that the government once tried to get rid of the custom by making it Lunar New Year, and public officials and employees of large corporations worked on that day. But we can't get rid of this tradition. So, instead of saying Chinese New Year, we now use it as New Year's Day.

January 1st of the new year (solar calendar) is New Year's Day, and January 1st of the lunar calendar, usually between January and February, is New Year's Day of Korea. It is hard to explain why we have two New Year's Day.  On this New Year's Day, there has been a must-eat food since ancient times. I would like to introduce 5 bases among them. Even on New Year's Day, when there are foods that are cooked at home and those that are bought from outside, I hope that you can eat these foods and reflect on the meaning of New Year's Day.

you must eat 1. The first New Year's Day food is "Tteokguk".

Tteokguk is a dish representing New Year's Day, eaten on New Year's Day, which marks the beginning of the year. In the past, "How many bowls (bowl) did you eat?" We also talked about age. I eat it once a year. These days, it is commonplace to eat tteokguk or tteokmanduguk even at places like Gimbap Heaven, so these questions are useless. The rice cake shop originally makes long bar rice cakes with rice, and this bar rice cake has the meaning of longevity. So, the long rice cakes from the rice cake shop were cut off by hand to become bar rice cakes, and the bar rice cakes are cut with a knife and used as rice cakes for rice cake soup.

If you eat rice cake soup with garnish, it is a really special New Year's Day food. Garnish is like licorice, which is sprinkled or placed on top of food to enhance the appearance as well as the taste. For example, there are more than 20 types, such as egg garnish or carrots. Try the tteokguk made with beef broth and beef as a garnish. You can feel the feeling of ending New Year's Day while eating a bowl.

You must eat 2. The second food for New Year's Day is "Steamed Ribs".

Galbijjim was not a common food for the common people on New Year's Day in the past. Because beef was and still is expensive. So, it was considered only as a royal cuisine and a food for noblemen. Now, income levels have risen and imported meat has come in, so various types of galbijjim-derived dishes are emerging.

Galbijjim takes more time and effort to make than tteokguk. However, it is so delicious that there is no need to cook rice for the holidays. If you eat rice cake soup in the morning and steamed ribs with white rice for lunch and dinner, there is no such thing as rice. The word “to receive the crab” goes so far. If beef ribs are too expensive, pork ribs are also good. On the contrary, for those who find beef difficult to digest, steamed pork ribs with both taste and price are the icing on the cake. I hope anyone can enjoy a bountiful Lunar New Year with this favorite galbijjim. 

You must eat 3. The third food is "Japchae".

It is a food that goes up on Korean holidays and birthdays. It is a dish made by stir-frying ingredients such as meat, mushrooms, and vegetables and adding glass noodles. It takes a lot of hands to make japchae, so special efforts and skill from housewives are required. If you add the various colors that go into the japchae, it will look like a picture. If you eat a lot of japchae at once, you will end up leaving behind no matter how tasty it is. Then, the glass noodles will burst and lose their original taste. So, I think it would be good to add glass noodles whenever you need to eat. Anyway, japchae is often bought and eaten because it is difficult to make, but this New Year's Day, feel the New Year's mood by making and eating it yourself. 

You must eat 4. The fourth food is "before".

Jeon is not the main food for the holidays. The same is true for ancestral rites. However, like licorice in the pharmacy, if there is no Jeon during the holiday, it does not seem to be a holiday. When you grill the pancakes and eat them while they are warm and the golden smell, you can't tell the end. There are so many types of jeon, such as Dongtaejeon, Shrimpjeon, and Gochujeon, that it's hard to list them all. As the times change, crab meat jeon is born.

This Jeon is a must-have food for New Year's Day, but in fact, it draws women's tears more than Japchae. After the Lunar New Year's Day, a family that should be harmonious turns into a situation that is not harmonious. Is it necessary to make a young daughter-in-law suffer? It would be nice to make it yourself, but I think it would be nice to just buy an appropriate amount of various jeon from the market, put it on a frying pan, and serve it out. It can be said that the New Year's Day, when one or two main dishes are prepared by hand and supplementary food, which requires a lot of hands, is spent by borrowing external power, is a good and happy New Year's Day.

You must eat 5. The fifth food is “herb”.

This herb is a must-go food like "jeon" on top. Likewise, it goes up to the ancestral rites. If we think that it is important to honor the benevolence of our ancestors on holidays or anniversaries, we could not neglect any of them in the house of the head family. Representative herbs include bellflower, bracken, and spinach. This food is called tricolor namul and was considered an indispensable food for the holidays. Bellflower and bracken in turn symbolize ancestors and parents, and spinach symbolizes children. However, rather than this meaning, it seems to have more meaning because there are many people who just enjoy the vegetable itself. Especially on New Year's Day, no matter how much food is reduced, there will always be food left over and you will gain weight. Vegetables are probably one of the leftovers, and if you make barley rice and put the leftovers in a bowl and mix them with red pepper paste, you will be able to feel another holiday.

In addition to this, there are various New Year foods such as Sikhye, dumplings, and gulbi. These foods differ depending on the household customs in different regions. And from rice cake soup to this kind of food, each of us is giving each of us memories. No matter how convenient we live in, we will never forget the New Year's Day food that our mother cooked for us when we were young. Because it is infinite love. I hope that such love and gratitude will overflow in your home this Lunar New Year.