By Tim Alper

If you're planning to be in Korea for the summer, prepare for sky-high temperatures, heavy monsoon rains and sauna-like humidity. However, no matter how oppressive the heat, summer food always gets gourmets across the country and beyond in the mood for gastronomical glee.

Certain items only make their way onto menus in the summertime. These include kong guksu ice-cold wheat noodles served in a chilled broth of ground soy beans, often topped with ice cubes to keep the refreshment going right down to the last mouthful.

This snow-white dish is almost impossible to find at any other time of the year, but in the summer it becomes almost ubiquitous. Indeed, not only tofu restaurants, but also just about any other type of eatery you care to mention usually adds kong guksu to the menu in the June-to-August period.

Fans of refreshing food may be tempted to seek out year-round favorites, like naengmyeon cold noodles served with sliced beef and a boiled egg in a chilled beef broth, or dongchimi a chilled radish kimchi fermented in a water-based brine, usually served as an accompaniment to a main dish.

As refreshing as naengmyeon and dongchimi are, however, it may come as a surprise to hear that these dishes are traditionally considered cold-weather food. Indeed, the very name dongchimi means “winter kimchi.” This may seem baffling, but those familiar with traditional Oriental medicine and philosophy will know that people like to fight fire with fire. Common wisdom has it that consuming cold food actually helps the body builds up a resistance to external cold.

The very opposite is the case in the summer. High-temperature food, it is said, can actually help the body cool down gently. So on the hottest days of the year, people seek out not cool salads, but bubbling-hot samgyetang, a whole spring chicken boiled in broth and stuffed with jujubes, rice and ginseng.

This soup, often served in a ttukbaegi earthenware pot that retains stovetop heat for long periods of time, is a time-honored favorite for most visitors to Korea. High in protein and easy on the stomach, it can be curiously welcome on oppressively hot days, when many complain of appetite loss.

In fact, many people believe that protein-rich dishes provide a "stamina boost" on the most humid days of the year, and that eating them on the boknal, or “dog days of summer,” according to the traditional calendar is good for one’s health. Other summer favorites include freshwater eel, which is also in-season at this time of the year. Eels are usually served grilled with salt or marinated in a sweet-and-spicy marinade, although some purists prefer jangeo tang, a rich-tasting eel soup seasoned with ground wild sesame seeds.

Korean summers also offer plenty in the way of seasonal fruit and vegetables. Early in the season, small, hard, green plums called maesil make their bow. These are typically bought in bulk, especially by older people, and are too tart to be eaten raw. Instead, they are typically pickled, fermented into sweet wine-like liquors or used to make tea.

If maesil sounds like too much hard work, diners can also sample chamoe melons. This fruit’s name literally means “real cucumber,” which is no coincidence. Except for its sweet taste, everything else about the chamoe is cucumber-like, from its thin skin -- edible, but usually peeled prior to consumption -- to its small seeds and crisp texture.

Chamoe have been a hit for generations. In fact, many of the celadon pottery masterpieces from Goryeo times (916-1392) were fashioned to resemble ripe chamoe, proof of the fruit’s enduring popularity.

Visitors will also be glad to find familiar fruit here in great abundance. Korea’s hot, rainy midsummers make for perfect watermelon-growing weather. Indeed, no matter where you are in the country at this time of year, you are almost certain to see farmers selling cannonball-sized watermelons from the back of vans and trucks. These giant fruits are a pain to carry home, but are an unfailingly sweet and refreshing tonic to the energy-sapping heat.

If you crave vegetable variety, the hilly northeastern province of Gangwon-do is worth a visit, as its most famous crops -- corn and potatoes -- are both in season in the summer. Corn on the cob is pleasantly firm. It's usually served steamed, often by street vendors, and proves an affordable and healthy mid-meal snack.

The summer heat is often fierce on the Korean Peninsula, but if you're a culinary adventurer at heart, summer specialties unfailingly make the hottest months of the year well worth braving.

Tim Alper is a writer and columnist, originally from the U.K., who has lived in Korea for more than ten years.