Serving temperature Warm Place of origin Korea | Type Tang | |
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Main ingredients Chicken meat, Asian Ginseng Similar Samgyeopsal, Baeksuk, Bibimbap, Bulgogi, Asian Ginseng | ||
Samgye-tang (삼계탕; 蔘鷄湯) or ginseng chicken soup means ginseng (kor. insam) - chicken (kor. gye) - soup (kor. tang). It consists primarily of a whole young chicken (poussin) - filled with garlic and rice -, scallion and spices, among them jujube and Korean ginseng.
Contents
Custom
Samgyetang is a warm soup for hot summer days. It is especially popular to eat this chicken soup on sambok (삼복) days, which are three distinct days of the lunar calendar — Chobok (초복), Jungbok (중복), and Malbok (말복) - which are commonly among the hottest summer and most sultry days in Korea. It is believed to eat the soup threetimes in this period is good for your health.
Some specialty restaurants in South Korea serve nothing but samgyetang, having gained local popularity through their special recipes for the dish, which are often kept as secrets. The dish is sometimes accompanied by a small complimentary bottle of insamju (ginseng wine) in certain restaurants.
Miscellaneous
In Cantonese, it is translated as yan sum gai tong. In Chinese culture, similar to Korean culture, this soup is believed to prevent illness. The one main difference is that in Chinese culture, ginseng is not consumed when one is sick because the ginseng is believed to trap the sickness within the person.
