Chicken soup has been my comfort food since I was a little girl. When I heard there was a Korean dish that sounded equally as cozy I knew I had to try it! My friend had heard of a place near City Hall in Songtan that locals said was amazing called Eucheol. When we were driving to Eucheol, Naver kept trying to take us down a dirt construction road. We thought “surely this can’t be right!” but hidden down an unpaved road behind a farm was a quaint cabinesque restaurant.
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| Eucheol front entrance |
Once you walk into the restaurant you take your shoes off and are able to pick your seat. The restaurant has a combination of western tables and chairs as well as a small section of floor seating. We tried to sit there, but unfortunately, it was full. On the table is their limited menu only in Korean, but it is easily translated using the Papago app. Samgyetang is a clear broth soup that has a whole young chicken stuffed with garlic, rice, jujube, and ginseng inside that is delicious and refreshing. Ginseng chicken soup is a traditional summer dish that is popular because it is very nourishing and is said to help cool down on hot summer days. There even is a Korean phrase “ee yeol chi yeol” which means “fight heat with heat.” Although it seems counterintuitive, the hot soup helps in the summer because after you sweat your body cools down!
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| Left: Menu includes multiple varieties of ginseng chicken soup, beef soup, and potato pancakes. Right: Two different types of kimchi, cucumbers in vinegar, peppers and two sauces come on the side. |
This restaurant specializes in hanbang samgyetang with nurungji (or scorched rice). Hanbang is traditional Korean medicine and nurungji is the thin layer at the bottom of the pot when you boil rice. Their soups are cooked with traditional Korean medicinal herbs with the scorched rice on top. We tried the two they recommend the pumpkin (3rd menu item) and ot (1st menu item). Ot is a traditional herbal medicine made from the lacquer tree – the server told us it is supposed to help with abdominal organ health.
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| Left: Ot Samgyetang with nurungji Right: Pumpkin Samgyetang with nurungji |
The soups both came out still boiling and the scent made my mouth water! At first, I thought the nurungji was the chicken skin, but once we started eating I realized it was rice. The bowls are deceivingly big, so make sure you come hungry. I felt stuffed by the end of our meal, but the bowl barely looked like I made a dent in it. These soups were much thicker than traditional samgyetang and although it is a summer food it also would be the perfect cozy fall comfort food!
This article is written by Shauna Sanford Smith a PIEF Foreign Reporter
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