Sliced Korean rice cake soup is a traditional Korean dish eaten during the celebration of the Lunar New Year.
Eating a bowl of Korean rice cake soup called Tteokguk is said to represents growing another year older. So, Korean can never miss a bowl of rice cake soup not only in their home country but also abroad on lunar new year.
Daniel Kim, manager for Kim Enterprises, said “we have sliced rice cake soup called Tteokguk because it’s a way for us to add a year to our lives and it’s very important because that’s how we age.”
It's been over 40 years since Kim family’ Mill started business in Sydney. Manager Kim Daniel explains the love of rice cakes of the first generation of immigration grandmother.
“Our history goes back from my grandma when she first came to Australia I think roughly the 60 like neat the 70s and there weren’t much Koreans but she wanted to share the Korean culture with the country Australia and so as that kind of started my father then started taking over her hands and then it came to me”
The process of making the Korean rice cake called Garae-tteok, the main ingredient of rice cake soup, is not simple.
Daniel Kim, Manager for Kim Enterprises Source: SBS Korean
Daniel Kim explained “we start up with the rice, raw rice and we put it into a tub and we bloat it up for around 6 hours so that will be a day before”
“We stat grinding it and then it becomes a rice flake and with the rice flake we put a bit of water and then we start mixing it so that once we start steaming it, it actually has some kind of tension to become a rice cake and then after that we will be steaming it, once it is steamed for around 30 to 40 minutes, we press it down to a rice cake called Garae-tteok” He said.
“From then we then put it into trays Garae-tteok and then from that we put into the cooler for a day so it gets hot enough for us to slice it. Once we slice it we can pre-pack them and that becomes rice cake”
Recently, Korean food has become popular in Australia and Daniel Kim, who inherited his grandmother and father's love for rice cakes in Australia, says there are so many things to do in Australia in the future.
Daniel said “I have a passion for Korean culture and how we need to share what Korea has to Australia and also to the Korean Australians as well.”
