Rice cake is one of the Korean staple dishes. It is said that the rice cake was created in the Bronze age (about 4 thousand years ago) when the steamer began to be used. The data regardring the ricd cake can be found in the srelics of the period of three countries and the ancient history documents.
In the mural paintings of the front room of king Gogukwon’s mausoleum,
there is a steamer. And in the “Chronicles of the three states”, there is the story that two princes had the match to make more tooth dents on the surface of rice cake to take the throne.
The rice cake was used for the great events of family such as the holiday, birthday, and marriage ceremary and to serve the guests. The people said that the sound of pounding rice into flour and one of pounding steamed rice with the mallet were the expressions of wedding feast.
The custom of our people who like the rice cake is reflected in the following folk song “let’s pound the steamed rice cake.”
E pun of the front house, Ok Sun of the back house.
Let’s go making the rice cake .
Dol Se of the front house, Cha Dol of the back house.
Let’s go pounding the steamed rice cake with the mallet.
Eya, E heya, very good.
Let’s pound making sound “Chol Sok, Chol Sok”
Let’s pound the steamed rice and glutinous rice.
The rice cake is classified into two: one made of the only grain and the other mixed with the other ingedients. The former was used as the special food anytime in a year and the later was made according to the seasonal characteristics using the proper ingredients.
Fernented rice cake.
This is made by kneading the powdered rice with the sweet drink prepared with rice and malt or the raw rice wine, fermenting it and then, steaming it.
In the past it was called; “Gizi cake”, “Gizu cake” and “Zung cake”. “Gizi cake” and “Gizu cake| were named after the process of fermenting the alcohol and Zung cake was named after the process of steaming the powdered rice.
The garnishing is the essential element in stimulating the taste of rice cake. In these modern days, the garnishing and decoration were used to beautify many dishes and it is the sourish rice cake that the garnishing and decoration were introduced at the first time. So it is seen that the word “garnishing” was originated from the sourish rice cake. In the old times our people wrote the letter meaning happiness and one meaning long life with the jujube on the rice cake. The material of this rice cake is jujube, chestrut and dried persimmon.
Since it is peculiar in fragrance and color and has the delicious garnishing, it’s good to see and chew and not spoiled. It could be made anytime in a year but was made as the special food in spring when feeling languid and losing appetite. What is noted is to eat the sourish rice cake mixed with the leaves of moorwort as the special food on the eighth of the lunar April.
The moorwort is the small evergreen bush grown in the swampy land of the high mountainous areas. Its leaf is the same as that of azalea and is egg- shaped or oval and has the peculiar fragrance. It has been used as the pain killing drug for a long time.