![]() Made from pulverized rice, the cakes have a texture like a giant noodle and for Soll are always round, a shape that represents the sun. ![]() "I would climb onto something precarious and inhale the aroma of the steaming soup while salivating with anticipation until one of the women discovered me and chased me out of the kitchen." Dduk Gook is by far the most important food eaten for Soll. "The best part of Soll for me was sneaking into the kitchen while the mothers were occupied and peering into the huge pot of rice cake soup ( dduk gook) boiling over the fire," Lee writes in her cookbook, Eating Korean. (The advice Lee gets every year? It is time for you to have children.) "You can't eat until you've bowed to everyone, so that's why you start early in the morning," says Lee. "Here in America, we still go to the oldest uncle's house in the morning." The younger people bow to their elders, who in return give them money, candy, fruit-and plenty of advice. "Because we live in a stratified culture, it is about paying respect to people who are older than you," she says. Lee remembers donning her new hanbok (the traditional Korean dress) and visiting numerous uncles for Soll when she was a young child in Korea, a tradition of paying respect to elders that she and her family continued when they relocated to the United States. "You are getting ready to renew your life, like any New Year." Continuing the theme of renewal, only new clothes are worn on New Year's Day. "In the old days, it was all about exorcising bad spirits," Lee explains. ![]() Therefore, in preparation for the New Year, it is traditional in Korea to thoroughly clean your house. In Korea, Soll is a "time to sweep away the misfortunes of the previous year and look forward to new endeavors," Lee says. "China is such a big monster in Asian culture." "Chinese everything is so well known," jokes Korean-American cookbook author Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee, who is neither surprised nor offended that Chinese New Year overshadows Korea's Soll or Vietnam's Tet. (Because the lunar cycle is about 29 days, the date of Lunar New Year changes on the Gregorian calendar every year.) Despite its roots in ancient China, many other Asian countries, including, notably, Vietnam and Korea, follow this same lunar calendar and have their own celebrations, complete with symbolic foods. The holiday, also known as Lunar New Year, falls on the first new moon of the first month on the lunar calendar, which is thought to have been established by Emperor Huang Ti of China in 2600 BC. C onsidering it has the world's largest population, it's not surprising that China is most known for its New Year celebrations, heralded with firecrackers, feasts, and preparations for the coming year.
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