삼계탕 – Samgyetang (Ginseng Chicken Soup)

It consists primarily of a whole young  chicken stuffed with garlic, rice, jujube, and ginseng. If you add ginger, pepper, and either papaya (not ripe) or chayote,  it will taste like the Filipino chicken dish called chicken tinola (chicken stew in ginger broth and vegetables). But while in samgyetang the young chicken is cooked whole, in chicken tinola the chicken is chopped into small pieces.

While samgyetang is a popular summer stamina food, Filipinos love eating this chicken tinola during cold and rainy days. Koreans troop to samgyetang restaurants in summer, particularly  during the so-called three dog days of summer (or three hottest days of summer.)

The Filipino in me make me go for samgyetang  during autumn and winter. They’re perfect  for the cold days and nights during those seasons.