Tteokguk fever in January

A bowl of Korean rice cake soup.

Eating tteokguk, or literally rice cake soup, has been a long culinary tradition in Korea. Ingredients include classic garaetteok, or long tubular rice cake, which is sliced, and a hearty beef or vegetable stock. The soup is then served in a colorful way with jidan, or assorted toppings, made from eggs, mushroom, green onion, or ginkgo nuts. All these ingredients might be common these days but when Korea was an old-fashioned agricultural society, tteokguk was considered to be a fancy and highly nutritious treat, reserved for big holidays. Garaetteok, for one thing, requires a lot of white rice, the most desired staple food in Korea, and beef soup and eggs were once considered a rare food essential to stamina. Eating tteokguk symbolizes a prosperous start to the New Year for all.