Korean Soups

Korean soups are called tang and some spices are added to them sometimes. Still, in the yuk-kae-jang soup, the main ingredient is the spice, besides the broth. Sam-gae is a very healthy soup, made with ginseng and a whole chicken and the kal-bi tang is made with pork ribs and green onions. Soups can be both light and fluid, but also creamy and prepared as paste. The most popular soups are the doenjang, the kimchi jjigae, the mae-un tang and the samgyetang. The doenjang is made of soybean as a paste and it is served as the main course, besides the meat dish. The kimchi jjigae also contains soybean paste and it is served while it is still boiling. The fish soups are common, too, like the mae-un tang, which is also very spicy. A meatless soup is the summer soup called samyetang, which contains rice, chestnut, garlic and ginseng roots.