2015개정 영어 능률(양) 4과 본문

 

영어 능률양 4과 본문.hwp

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4 – Some Like It Cold, Some Like It Hot

 

What else do you expect in summer in Seoul, besides the long days and hot, sleepless nights? It was summer again in Korea, and I was melting like an ice cream in a child's hand on Seoul's hot summer streets. Luckily, in the middle of the city, I found the perfect thing to freshen me up and met the perfect person to help me out. After taking a relaxing walk along the back streets of Jongno, I happened to drop into a noodle shop, enjoyed their cold noodles, and met a kind old man.

"We enjoy cold noodles when the summer heat arrives," Mr. Kim said. He also told me that we are healthy only when the degree of coldness and hotness of our body is balanced. This is exactly what I read about in a book on Korean culture and philosophy: When our yin and yang are out of balance, our body is in need of a good tune up. "Of course, during summer in Korea, that is often easier said than done, and that's why we have cold noodles in summer," he added.

 

From this old man, I learned that naengmyeon is wonderfully diverse, but that the two main versions are mulnaengmyeon-water chilled noodles, and bibimnaengmyeon­mixed chilled noodles. When you want something cool and refreshing, go for mulnaengmyeon. When you want something a little drier and spicier, try bibimnaengmyeon.

Naengmyeon, however, is not complete without its cold noodles being topped with hot spices. The real taste of mulnaengmyeon comes out when the noodles are topped with mustard sauce, and that of bibimnaengmyeon when the noodles are served with a red pepper sauce. Thus, it's not just the coldness of the noodles, but the heat from peppers that Koreans have used for centuries to beat the summer heat. As the old saying 'fight fire with fire' goes, enjoying hot spices in the summer helps people stay cool, and this, interestingly, is supported by modern findings in herbal medicine: certain herbs and spices cause sweating, which naturally cools the body.

When we parted, the wise old man told me that a real 'fight fire with fire' experience comes with samgyetang in the very middle of summer. Later, with the summer progressing, the weather kept getting hotter. So I decided to try out my newly attained cultural wisdom, and walked outside along the hot street to find Mr. Kim's cure all, samgyetang.

 

The idea of eating samgyetang sounded good, but I didn't want to try it all alone. So I asked my friend Damil to join me, and then I committed to the experience. After researching nearby restaurants, I decided on one specializing in this soup. When we arrived, the owner of the restaurant gave us a broad, curious smile, and showed us to a table covered with kimchi, hot green peppers, and red pepper sauce. Within minutes, two boiling bowls were placed on our table. With a delight only matched by children on Christmas morning, I blew on the soup to part the steam and catch my first glance of this tasty treat: a whole young chicken stuffed with ginseng, garlic, and rice, served in a clear broth. It all made sense now. I finally understood the old man's wisdom. The ingredients used in samgyetang would take my summer blues away.

I turned the chicken around and investigated it, looking for the most logical place to begin. Still not knowing, I alternated between tender chicken, rice, and broth. I ate every drop. Damil wasn't far behind me, and between the two of us, we ate the entire dish of kimchi, two peppers each and a whole lot of cucumbers. Needless to say, we filled the bone bucket with the empty chicken bones.

We cleaned each dish on the table and stared at each other in amazement. There we were, sweating, full and happy. Then we looked around. We were not alone. The whole restaurant was filled with people, eating and sweating, sweating and eating. There wasn't an unhappy face to be seen.

 

As we left the restaurant, I felt a breath of fresh air. Whether the wind was real or imagined, and whether the benefit of the soup was real or imagined, I felt truly refreshed. With that feeling came a sudden understanding of the 'fight fire with fire' wisdom: enjoy something really hot, let the body breathe out, and find yourself refreshed in a breeze.

Finally, Seoul's summer heat felt as cool and fresh as the late fall in Los Angeles. Damil and I didn't go home right away. We stayed around to enjoy the summer evening, laughing and talking about another 'fight fire with fire' experience—the chance of enjoying spicy ramyeon after taking a boiling bath at a hot spring.