Tteokguk is a Korean soup with thinly sliced rice cakes submerged in a beef broth. It’s typically topped with egg, seaweed and meat.
Tteokguk
“We traditionally eat this during the Korean New Year’s celebration on Jan. 23, or Seollal (Lunar New Year), when families come together to share their blessings and perform ancestral rites.
The ingredients have symbolic importance: The white tteok (rice cakes) symbolizes purity and cleanliness and the coin-like shapes represent yeon jeop, an old Korean currency, to show prosperity. Basically, it signifies wishes for a good, prosperous new year. The broth is typically beef in seasoned stock and it is garnished with jidan (thin egg yolks and whites), green onions and gim (Korean seaweed).” – sophomore Cherry Shin