Beat the heat with hot food
THERE are less daunting methods to beat the summer heat than by wolfing down still-boiling chicken soup for lunch. But followers of a Korean tradition say that few are as effective.
Their mantra is yi yeol chi yeol, or “fight fire with fire”, and their weapon of choice is samgyetang, a whole young chicken or Cornish hen stuffed with glutinous rice, ginseng root, red dates and garlic, served piping hot in its own broth.
At the peak of summer, and especially on sambok, the three days of the year Koreans believe to be the hottest, according to the lunar calendar, many of them seek out roiling bowls of samgyetang in the belief that it replenishes nutrients, improves circulation and helps balance the body’s internal and external temperatures.
“The concepts that make it good for you on a hot day are rooted in traditional Korean medicine and are very old,” said Maangchi Kim, the Korean-Canadian cookbook author and YouTube star. Her video on making samgyetang has been viewed more than 1.4 million times.
The dish predates written records, Kim said, but an early printed recipe for what is now called samgyetang appeared in a 1917 Korean cookbook and called for ginseng powder instead of fresh roots. By the 1960s, refrigeration had made fresh ginseng easier to buy, and the practice of eating the soup as a summer tonic, thought to refresh and re-energise, spread widely.
Those wilting under the sun today still turn to it, often instead of chilled foods, as a way to cool down. samgyetang,
“If I have something cold on a hot summer day, I may feel some relief as it goes down,” said Kim, who lives in New York City. “But the temperature difference between my body and the environment becomes too large, and after a while, I actually feel hotter than before.”
“If I have some hot samgyetang,” she added, “I sweat a bit, and my body feels more in sync with the environment.”
Sceptics might ask for scientific evidence – and be surprised that some exists. A 2012 study at the University of Ottawa found that drinking warm liquids on hot days can lower body temperature more than drinking cold liquids can because it activates the body’s natural cool- ing system: perspiration. When sweat evaporates, some of our body heat leaves with it, making us feel cooler.
The theory was put to the test on a recent 29-degree-Celsius day at Hansol Nutrition Center, which despite its name is not a shop stocked with vitamins and whey protein, but a Korean restaurant in the Murray Hill section of Queens, known for its samgyetang.
“It’s one of the best-selling items on our menu in the summer,” said Peter Ro, an owner. “Especially in hot weather.”
The dish comes to the table at full boil in an earthenware pot, and as tradition dictates, it is served underseasoned. Salt is added at the table to the diner’s taste: Each pinch helps bring the soup into focus, its richness cut by the sweet red dates and a faintly medicinal tang from the ginseng.
“We very much concentrate on the stock,” Ro said. “We try to adhere to the traditional way of preparing it.”
He said his recipe is a secret. But samgyetang is almost always made from just a handful of ingredients, with none of the pungent, spicy flavours that Korean cuisine is often known for in the West. The chicken is stuffed with aromatics and simmered until the meat can be pulled easily from the bones with chopsticks.
At Hansol, the soup is silkier than many versions, most likely from an extra helping of starchy rice in the stock. Otherwise it’s typical of the uncomplicated comfort dish that has steamed up Korean kitchens for generations.
Whether it provides relief from the heat ultimately depends on one’s definition of relief. Any cooling effect is not always immediate. “I guess we’re thinking more toward the longer-term benefits,” Ro said. “The food you intake will have an effect on your health, and that makes you feel better.”
Kim, though, swears by its tempering qualities. “It might only be psychological for me, as a Korean,” she said. “But it feels like it’s working.”