There are a lot of traditions associated with the coming of the new year, whether it’s the Western New Year that we ring in on January 1, the Chinese New Year which lands some time in late January or early February, or even Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, in September or October. I’m American, and ring in the new year at midnight on December 31 with lots of champagne, hugs and kisses all around, and pretty much all kinds of other decadent debauchery.
But my Korean family adheres to some of the Korean traditions associated with the new year. When I was little, my sisters and I would very begrudgingly don our hahn-boks, traditional Korean dresses, and do seh-beh. I hated it. The dresses were stiff and itchy and very uncomfortable. After a while, they got too small, but a hahn-bok isn’t something you can pick up in the next size up at Macy’s. They are always custom-made in Korea, and Mom brought them back only when she went to visit Korea.
My parents sat on the couch, and each of us in turn would pay our respects by kneeling down and taking a deep bow – so deep, our foreheads touched the floor at my parents’ feet. "Seh-hae-bohk mah-nee bah-duh-sae-yuh” is the wish for prosperity and good fortune. America puts very little emphasis on ceremony and tradition, so I thought all of this was ridiculous.
Of course, I tolerated it, since part of the tradition is exchanging gifts, and as a child, I received seh-beh dohn – money. After we bowed, my mom pulled a little roll of cash out of her sleeve and handed it to each of us. I would just snatch it from her, run to my room to change out of the horrible hahm-bohk and stash my cash away. Greedy spoiled little brat. Then we’d eat the traditional Korean new year food, dduk-gook, a brothy soup (gook) with small rice cakes (dduk).
This year, I missed the traditional seh-beh on Day 1. I was off whirling around downtown LA with a 72 hour hazy buzz. But my Mom still called me, asked me to be careful, not to drink too much, and said that even if I’d be a day late, my dduk gook was waiting for me. And my seh-beh dohn, too. Honestly, the seh-beh dohn is really a tradition for children, but I guess to Mom, I’m always a child. I'm still a little hungover, and maybe that's why we serve dduk gook on New Year's Day - to cure a wicked hangover.
As much as I hated it back then, I so appreciate my parents’ teaching me as much as they could about my heritage, despite all my reluctant rebellion. We still do seh-beh now, but we don’t have to dress up. And as much as I still feel a little silly with my forehead pressed to the floor, I know how much it means to my parents that I wish them a prosperous new year in Korean. It means a lot to me, too.
Dduk Guk | Korean Rice Cake Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 16 ounce package dduk oval slices
- 8 cups rich chicken broth
- 10 cloves garlic finely minced
- 2-3 tablespoons soy sauce basically, to taste
- 2-3 scallions green parts only cut into 2" long pieces
- 4 eggs
- salt and pepper to taste
- 20 mahn-doo enough for all the people who are eating fresh or frozen
- sesame oil to taste
- toasted nori seaweed, or nori, julienned/crumbled for garnish
Instructions
- Soak dduk in cold water for at least 20 minutes, or until soft.
- While rice cakes soak, heat chicken broth in large soup pot. Add garlic, soy sauce, scallions, and salt/pepper to taste, and let simmer for about 10 minutes to flavor the broth.
- Add mahn-doo to broth to cook, then add dduk. Allow to simmer until dduk is soft, about 10 minutes.
- Lightly beat eggs, then stir slowly into simmering soup to create wisps.
- To serve, ladle broth into bowls and distribute dumplings and rice cakes equally among bowls. Drizzle each bowl with about 1 teaspoon sesame oil. Garnish with sliced green onions and toasted nori.
Anonymous says
Yayyy!!!
Finally, a nice, simple, tasty recipe for dduk mandu gook! It might even be better than my mom's!
sarah says
well, come on now...nothing is EVER better than your own mom's ;)
Anonymous says
sorry to point this out, because I like your writing, but it's *han* bok, not hahm bok
Anonymous says
How cool! I'm wondering if its okay to cook it without the mandu to just make duk gook.
Anonymous says
What a wonderful writing on the obedient reluctance experienced by 2nd generation Americans whose parents are from cultures different than ours. It brought tears to my eyes. My hat is off to you for not only surviving your young years by appreciating them and what your parents cultural beliefs brought to you. Happy New Year!
Sean says
I was intrigued to see what your first post would be like after seeing your Five Candles post. It's funny/interesting to look back and see how far (and man you've come a long way!) we've come and changed from our first to latest post.
I'm not sure how much time you spent on this post but it's beautifully written and I can totally relate to this.
Keep up the great work and looking forward to more of your stuff! Oh, and your twitter updates are pretty cool/funny too.
Sarah J. Gim says
Sean: A lot has changed. I guess the biggest thing being…I actually wrote about food! LOL. I write about food now, but soooo differently. Glad to see new people join the food blog world every day, including you!
Diana says
How am I not at all surprised that the first sentence of your very first blog post included the word "cock?"
Chingoo says
I'm confused. Why are all of your Korean words misspelled? Why are you putting ham in a hanbok?
- your chingoo
Cardea Concrete says
I love the recipe! My mum loves it!