Korean people have a custom of eating ttokkuk (rice-cake soup) on the lunar New Year’s Day.

   The data on ttokkuk described on the national classics like Ryolyangsesigi and Kyongdojapji show that our ancestors enjoyed ttokkuk on the lunar New Year’s Day and how to make it.

   Pheasant meat is suitable for boiling soup but chicken can be used in the absence of pheasant. So the old saying, “chicken for pheasant” came out.

   The method of making ttokkuk differs from province to province. Some people made ttokkuk by cutting bar rice cake into slices with a bamboo knife in the shape of peanut and the others made it by kneading rice flour with hot water, shaping into round and flat balls and putting them in the soup.

   When making ttokkuk, first make a rice-cake patch, cut it to a certain size, rinse it in cold water, and add to the pheasant broth or chicken soup to boil for about 3 to 5 minutes. Put the boiled ttokkuk into a large soup bowl and serve with onion, pepper, sesames and laver powder.

   Ttokkuk is not only delicious and nutritious but also absorbed well.

   From the olden times, ttokkuk has become one of the foods that were always served on every lunar New Year’s Day and people ask how many bowls of ttokkuk he/she ate instead of asking his/her age. Ttokkuk was also called as “Chomsebyong” because every bowl of it meant a year to his/her age.

   On the lunar New Year’s Day, the Korean families cut the rice-cake into the water and when the guests visited their house, they regarded it as a courtesy to boil the rice-cake soup to serve them.

   Today, Korean people are enjoying ttokkuk, a delicious and nutritious national food.