Food Stories: History of Seaweed Soup

Koreans have seaweed soup on their birthdays. In Korea, long ago, Gray Whales were the native species(they became extinct now), and Korean ancestors were used to finding them on the coast. Gray Whales were famous for making an abrupt appearance and dissapear like a ghost so, in Korea, they're called as Guisin Whale, which means Ghost Whale. They figured out that these Gray Whales ingest seaweed after giving birth to their offsprings and presumed that seaweed helps the mother for the recovering after delivery. In fact, for this reason, seaweed soup was for the mother but these days sons and daughters eat it on their birthday and parents cook for them(also eat together). Although the person who eats the seaweed soup has changed from its origin, still Koreans meditate on their parents'-especially their mother-interminable love and gratitude for them while eating it.


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