By Bernard Rowan
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My friends and seniors tell me that Korean food, as in food consumed at a Korean meal, is food medicine, food for the body and soul in right proportion. Of course, that can't be an empirical statement. It also reads idealistic. However, if we examine Korean desserts, they contribute to health when consumed properly.
I want to focus on the following: delicious sujeonggwa (cinnamon ginger punch), sweet and soothing sikhye (rice punch), patbingsu (shaved ice with red beans or other toppings), tasty yakgwa (fried honey cakes) and gotgamssam (walnuts in dried persimmons). Also, I want to mention tteok (rice cakes), songpyeon (another rice cake), and kang jung and dasik (sesame cakes). This isn't an exhaustive list. However, I'll leave it there because writing all these names makes me hungry, and I'm not in Korea!
After a Korean meal, in particular for me, one like galbi, lighten the consumed feeling by drinking some sujeonggwa. The cinnamon and ginger punch aids in digestion and has a wonderful taste. It's also served cold, which I like, and often served in bowls. Sometimes the punch has dried persimmon in it, another digestive aid and sweet bite.
Milder but no less satisfying is rice punch or sikhye, served with pine nuts or grains of rice to give a texture and taste. The drink stems from boiling the strained remnants of malt water poured over rice. There's no added sugar, but it's ever so sweet!
Koreans have gone in for popsicles and ice creams of late, but for a traditional treat to beat the heat, try patbingsu. It's made of shaved ice, or sometimes just small pieces of ice, topped by a sweet red bean mixture or various types of chopped fruit. Somehow, it's fun to eat with another person too!
When I visit a Korean grocery store, I look for yakgwa and gotgam. I like these cakes because they're chewy and tasty, a little bit like Korean versions of marble bars or blondies. Yakgwa cakes are wonderfully rustic, fried and tasting of wheat and honey, yummy and calorie-filled; don't eat too many! Gotgam improve on my limited experience of persimmons, a squishy fruit that appears in fall all over the ground messing up my feet. The fruit dries to take on a taffy consistency and then mixes with nuts for a chewy and wonderfully naturally sweet taste.
The other desserts I mention are to my understanding related to royal culture. Rice cakes are the usual items, often seen at a traditional restaurant such as Korea House in Jung-gu, Seoul. I don't like tteok and songpyeon that much. If I'm not careful, it sticks to the roof of my mouth and back of my throat. They may come filled with a sesame oil tasting mixture that doesn't please my palate.
Sesame cakes or kang jung are better if one wants to enjoy sesame as the dessert's main ingredient. Much better for high cuisine are dasik, or tea cakes. They use the same kinds of ingredients, but also feature pine pollen. I read that Korean royals enjoyed towers of these treats, so don't feel bad if you want to eat many of these. They are light and not full of butter, eggs and sugar!
Here's hoping this partial survey of Korean desserts makes the reader want to try one or all of them. The difference of ingredients, variety of tastes, and healthful properties of some recommend Korean hangwa. So too does the history of their existence and production in Korean courts, households and establishments. Enjoy!
Bernard Rowan is associate provost for contract administration and professor of political science at Chicago State University. He is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and former visiting professor at Hanyang University. Reach him at browan10@yahoo.com
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