Korean ways of enduring hot summer

Kim Min Jung

Even though it’s only May now, it’s been getting hotter and hotter. The temperature of Summer in Korea is usually over 30 degrees Celsius and sometimes it reaches 40. So, some of you will be worried about how to survive during this scorching summer. But don’t you worry! For today’s article is going to be about how Koreans endure their hot summers.

Sam Gye Tang(Chicken soup)

Sam Gye Tang is a Korea traditional Chicken soup. It is prepared by boiling whole chickens with many medicinal herbs. When the Summer comes, we sweat a lot and feel lethargic. So, to supplement the energy, Koreans eat this soup during the Summer. This is called ‘Eee yeol Chi Yeol” culture, which roughly translates to “fight the heat with the heat”. We eat not only cold food but also very hot food during the Summer. Also, you can observe that after Koreans eat very hot food, they say “Oh, it’s very cool!”, which is very hard to understand for foreigners. However, this is a Korean unique culture. Wouldn’t it be cool to experience the ‘coolness’ with some hot Sam Gye Tang?

2. Bing Soo

Bing Soo is a Korean style dessert eaten during Summer. It is made by freezing water or milk, grinding it with a machine and adding the toppings of choice. Korean traditional style is putting sugared-red bean with some rick cakes. But these days, there are a lot of fusion styles of Bing Soo. Many franchise cafes in Korea have Bing Soo as their season menu, so if you want to eat them, you can visit Korean cafes. But there is also franchise café called “Sulbing” that has Bingsoo as its main menu. You should try it out! (There’s also Sulbing near HYU)

3. Mini hand fan

The Mini hand fan is another unique summer culture of Koreans. It was invented 1-2 years ago and became a big trend among Koreans. Maybe during the hot summer, you can see many Koreans carrying hand fans. It’s of a portable size, so you can easily carry it around. Also, it has a chargeable battery (which is even compatible with a typical android charger), so it’s very easy to use. This is very useful and even has reasonable pricings, (Average 5000 won~15000 won) so I recommend you to buy one if you feel hot during the Summer!