Roasted Chestnuts & Sweet Potatoes

The colder it gets in Korea, the more people crave roasted sweet potatoes and chestnuts. When the professional polling agency RealMeter did a survey in November 2017 on the favorite winter snacks of adults, around a fourth picked roasted chestnuts and sweet potatoes. Read more to find out why.

Written by Kim Samuel

© gettyimageskorea

Since Korea has four seasons, wintertime means enduring frosty temperatures and thus higher demand for warmth whether in setting, food or affectionate gestures. The traditional Korean song “Chestnut Ballad” reflects this sentiment:
The wind is blowing / blowing at the Yeonpyeong Sea / It’s breezing money / (Chorus) Hurray for roasted chestnuts

At rituals commemorating ancestors, chestnuts are served to symbolize abundance. In line with this spirit is the term “breezing money,” a chant that describes how a fisherman is delighted by his bountiful catch. Back in the days, chestnut merchants roamed chilly streets humming this ballad and awaiting the warmth of spring while roasting and snacking on chestnuts.

Roasted chestnuts have a rich legacy in Korean history. A folk song from the Goryeo period, “Jeongseokga,” includes the following lyrics: “I will plant chestnuts in the most brittle, unyielding piece of land and part ways with my lover if the chestnut bears fruit.” Even “Chestnut Ballad” employs romantic descriptions, implying a natural connection between the sweet flavors of chestnuts and the doting sentiments of lovers.

© gettyimageskorea

Since old times, chestnuts have been eaten raw or steamed with rice. On the first full moon of the lunar year, I chewed on raw chestnuts hoping for its nutrients to bestow finer skin. Between drinks, it was a hearty snack to munch on. The vitamin C in chestnuts enabled my body to promptly break down alcohol while granting my skin the suppleness it yearned for. Discarding its outsides into the fire and roasting the insides are another way to enjoy this nutritious snack.

Samgukji (Records of the Three Kingdoms), compiled during the Qin Dynasty of China, says “a chestnut as thick as a pear runs across Mahan (the former land of the Baekje Kingdom).” Gongju, Chungcheongnam-do Province, once Baekje’s capital, has long been famous for its chestnuts. A chestnut festival lights up the city every winter featuring the direct roasting of chestnuts in large furnaces. Underneath the blackened chestnut crusts is chestnut’s fragrant surface that whets the appetite.

The insides of well-roasted sweet potatoes are soft and golden. © imagetoday / Department and convenience stores now sell roasted sweet potatoes. © Yonhap News

Steaming sweet potatoes is another popular winter snack in Korea. The saccharine sweetness of the vegetable is due to the heat-induced morph of starch into sugar. The ideal temperature to maximize sweetness is 60 degrees Celsius. Sweet potatoes used to be tossed into a burning pile of dried leaves or coals left from campfires. Besides ensuring that embers didn’t spark off dangerously and start a fire, waiting for sweet potatoes to roast was a pleasantly idle activity.

Today, the sweet potato is increasingly popular for its low calories and bountiful nutrients. Heating it up requires neither more ingredients nor tools besides an oven. Further simplifying the easy preparation process, even pots specifically designed for roasting sweet potatoes were introduced. Pumpkin sweet potatoes are moister and thus better for consumption than chestnut sweet potatoes. To make up for sweet potatoes’ dryness, milk or over-fermented kimchi are popular complements.

Visitors at the Gongju Chestnut Festival gather around a fire to roast chestnuts. © Yonhap News / Peeling off the burnt skin of roasted chestnuts is a seasonal ritual. © shutterstock