Korea: 설렁탕 Seolleongtang

I've mentioned on the blog before that soup is, perhaps weirdly, one of my all-time favorite foods to eat. It's an endlessly versatile food delivery mechanism that is often warming, filling and soothing while also providing a nourishing boost of vegetables and protein in an easy to digest format. The endless customization and variety available means that every region, every culture, and every cuisine, have their own variations and takes on the staple food. One of Korea's most simple and straightforward seeming of soups is 설렁탕 or seolleongtang, a clean and milky white beef bone broth base that arrives at your table unseasoned. This trend towards under seasoning early on, familiar for those who have seen my post on or sampled Samgyetang, seems peculiar to Korean cooking (or anyone who's sampled my mother-in-law's cuisine). Given that the broth comes to the table in it's purest, nude form, you're given several different options for adding flavoring at your discretion; pungent, funky kimchi (in this case to be cut with scissors at the table), kkaktugi (pickled radish kimchi), and an assortment of other banchan and sauces. In this restaurant, this particular time, I was given pickled onions and a deeply umami seasoned squid side. Seolleongtang, despite its deceptively simple base, is one of those foods that I find myself craving time and time again after thoroughly underestimating it prior to trying it. After all, I grew up on tinned chicken noodle soup, with the soup absolutely saturated in salt, and the soggy noodles barely able to maintain their shapes after being pasteurized for safety, so I expected to be severely underwhelmed in the flavor department... to the contrary! The milky beef broth is unctuous and coats your mouth in rich beefy goodness, a light sheen of grease adding weight to the liquid. Brought to the table boiling hot and steaming, it's especially good at warming your body (and soul) after navigating the bone-chilling cold of Seoul's fierce winters. I wasn't even there for the worst of their winters, but I found myself going for seolleongtang multiple times a week. The bits of beef floating in the soup are absolutely tender, and the warm, slurpable noodles add a hearty boost of carbohydrate for energy and density. 

Warms you right up, regardless of the chill outside!

Until next time!

🍜

XOXO,

NAU