Speaking of Seollal traditions, the food most identified with the holiday is tteokguk, or rice cake soup.<br />It's a Korean custom at the Lunar New Year to have a bowl of it as you turn a year older.<br />And as our Seo Eun-kyung explains, the shapes of the rice cakes and the noodles are symbolic. <br /> On the first day of the lunar calendar, many Koreans have a bowl of tteokguk in the morning. The earliest record of this tradition is in a document from 1795, and the tradition could date back even earlier than that.<br /><br />"Garaetteok or long, thin rice cakes are the main ingredient in Tteokguk . They symbolize a healthy, long life with the extra meaning of steadily accumulating property. When you cut them into slices, they represent a desire to have a financially successful year as sliced rice cakes look like coins."<br /><br />The most well-known type of tteokguk is made up of slices of tteok and simmered beef broth. <br />However, tteokguk has different varieties depending on the region.<br /><br /> <br />"Local produce and customs differ in accordance with seasonal and geographic conditions, resulting in a range of tteokguk."<br /><br /> For instance, in mountainous inland parts of Jeolla-do Province in southwestern Korea, seafood and beef are rare, so locals use marinated chickens as the main ingredient for soup. <br />Pheasants were used originally, but as these became harder to find, locals gradually switched to chicken. This is the origin of the Korean proverb "a chicken instead of a pheasant", meaning "settle for second best".<br />On the other hand, parts of Chungcheong-do Province in the west of Korea had easier access to seaweed.<br />Locals used boiled seaweed from the West Sea to make the broth. <br />Unlike Garaetteok which is boiled when it's first made, the type of tteokguk uses raw rice cake made from rice flour.<br /> Though the way of making tteokguk varies across the country, the wisdom and tradition of ancient Korea is reflected in a bowl of the broth, offering a glimpse into Korean traditional food culture. <br />Seo Eunkyung, Arirang News. <br />
