Sambok & Tangogi Soup
   The hottest period of summer is called sambok in Korean.
   From olden times people went to summer resorts and prepared seasonable dishes.
   As a proverb says, Like cures like, they ate hot tangogi soup, samgyethang, spicy beef soup, aduzuki bean congee, boiled barley rice and leek soup.
   Tangogi soup is prepared with slices of well-cooked tangogi garnished with minced skin, oil, seasoning herbs, garlic, and powders of red and black peppers and served in boiling hot tangogi broth.
   Samgyethang is a dish of jugged young chicken with insam, jujube, glutinous rice and other ingredients.
   Spicy beef soup is prepared specially for those who find tangogi soup disagreeable.
   Beef soup is usually served without hot pepper, but during the midsummer days it is served hot.

Tangogi soup

   From olden times the Korean people loved to eat tangogi soup in midsummer in order to improve health. Eating hot tangogi soup in the midsummer heat seems to be originated from the treatment method of Koryo medicine.
   The soup prepared by boiling tangogi to a pulp and served with spicy seasonings stimulates appetite diminished by heat and promotes health. So it was called a tonic broth, and people said, “Even a drop of tangogi soup on the instep in midsummer takes medicinal effect.”
   The preparing methods of the tangogi soup varied according to regions. In the Phyongan provincial area the soup was made by dissolving soybean paste in the broth, and both ordinary and peppered soybean paste were added when boiling the soup in the Hwanghae provincial area.

Foods 4