Bob Terwilliger > wrote:

> Victor wrote:
>
> > I once made Korean samgyetang chicken soup, using recipe below. I
> > prefer to order it at a restaurant, though. The soup is always very
> > bland, deliberately so, and always needs to be seasoned liberally, at
> > least as far as I am concerned.
>
> Whenever I've seen it in a Korean restaurant, it was touted as health food,
> something along the lines of "Mom's chicken soup, good for whatever ails
> you". Bland food is what most sick people want.

Yes, like many other foods it is considered health food. But, then,
Koreans, like many other East Asians and Indians make little distinction
between food and medicine. In this case, it is mostly because the soup
contains ginseng. Also, jujubes are said to be good for the stomach.
This soup is always served very hot and, paradoxically, is supposed to
be eaten in hot weather. Like some other foods, it is proclaimed to be
good for one's "stamina", this being somewhat of an euphemism,
obviously.

Bland food, soups especially, is very popular in Korea, alongside some
of the most incendiary. Such soups as gomtang, ggori-gomtang,
kalbitang, doganitang and seolleongtang are just as bland as samgyetang.

Here in Düsseldorf, local Korean restaurants do not emphasize supposed
health benefits of any of their dishes. Their clientele tends to be
very heavily Korean, with some Japanese sprinkled in, and only
relatively few Europeans, though.

Victor