Among the Korean cultural heritage is the custom of using potato starch.
The custom refers to a way of life of the people in the northern alpine region who have potato starch as a staple. They obtain starch by grinding clean potato to get the sediment which goes through refining and drying processes.
Around 1824-1825 potato began to be raised in the Musan area of Hamgyong province located in the northern part of Korea. And by the 1830s-1840s it spread from Ryanggang Province in the northern region to Kangwon Province in the southern region, according to old documents.
The people in the northern highlands tended to turn potato into starch favourable for storage and use as cold weather persists for most of the year.
The Korean people, who regarded white as a symbol of nobility and integrity, used to comment on the workmanship and kindness of housewives through the colour of the starch they produced. They often said: “Kind is the heart, white is the starch” and “White starch purifies the heart.”
Typical foods include starch noodles, dried starch noodles, and starch cake soup.
The northern alpine people liked to have starch noodles on ordinary days as well as holidays and ceremonies, characteristically seasoned with pungent spices like pepper and garnishes.
In wintertime, people put coils of noodles on snow-covered roofs or hanged them on ropes to freeze-dry them. Such practice is still carried on.
Starch cake soup is a favourite dish in Ryanggang Province. To prepare it, bits of dough are plucked with hand into boiling water to be done; they are cooled in cold water before being mixed with salty and hot spices and served on a bowl. A bowl of soup will leave a burning taste around a diner’s mouth with perspiration on the brow. People believe that it will drive cold out of body in winter.
There are other starch foods such as pancake and taffy.
The custom of using potato starch is inscribed on the national list of the regional intangible heritage items.
Ham Kwang Hyok
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