If you ever miss the warm fuzzy feeling and have no one to turn to but food, then samgyetang may just be the comfort food you need. Samgyetang, or Korean Ginseng Chicken, is a traditional Korean soup made up of a whole chicken stuffed with ginseng, glutinous rice, chestnuts, jujubes, garlic and a host of other herbs. When I was in Korea, the locals shared that this hearty soup dish is most commonly consumed during the 3 hottest days in Korea (known as the Three Boks). It is believed that this highly nutritious dish could replenish and reinvigorate one's heat-battered body!
Anyway, despite the emergence of numerous Korean restaurants in Bukit Timah, the curious me could not resist trying out the instant samgyetang that's sold in the Korean marts. Well, I guess $14.90 is a worthwhile investment if it could hoodwink hubs into thinking my cooking skill actually improved!
Instructions were pretty simple to follow - simply microwave the whole bag for 10 minutes or pour out the contents and heat over low heat for 15 minutes. (I chose the latter!) So I have to admit that though I did not expect to have something out of the world coming out of an aluminium bag that needed to be heated up for a mere 15 minutes, I was still surprised by the end result.
So this is the heated up product, with a few chunks of pork liver which I added into the broth. As you can see, this is certainly not a food porn worthy shot and I'm quite certain that no matter how careful you treated the delicate chicken, it would still emerge broken and battered. However, the pictures certainly do not do the soup justice since frankly, despite how it looks, the taste turned out pretty authentic. However, I would suggest those who prefer something less salty to add a cup of water whilst heating. The glutinous rice was also a tad too gooey for my liking. And I was unable to find a notable chunk of chestnut which would really have made my day :(
TL;DR: Good to have during a lazy rainy day but if you aren't that lazy, take a pilgrimage to the nearest Korean restaurant to have your ginseng chicken fix!
Ps. You can get it on Qoo10 for only $9!!!
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