In Korea, there’s the saying that eating tteokguk (rice cake soup) makes you a year older. That’s why some people even call it cheomsebyeong (添歲餠, rice cake that makes you older). However, no one’s quite sure as to when this soup was invented. We can only have some idea about its origins through old records such as Dongguk Sesigi, which was published during the late Joseon Dynasty. There are various meanings given to the soup as well. Some believe that people started using white rice cakes for the soup for a clean, fresh new start of the year to come and others believe that it was to wish for affluence as the round shape of the rice cake resembles that of a coin.
