Bosintang

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A pot of bosintang

Bosintang (보신탕) is a traditional South Korean soup that includes dog meat as its primary ingredient. The traditions entail that the meat comes from dogs specifically bred for consumption, but numerous investigations by journalists, broadcasters, and animal protectionists find several examples where other breeds have been used as ingredients. The soup is believed to provide additional virility,^[1] to those who eat it. The meat is boiled well together with many kinds of vegetables and seasoning for a long time. The taste is enhanced by the addition of garlic, ginger, Welsh onion, some kinds of herbs, perilla seed, and hot pepper.

1 Culture
2 Names
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Culture

Bosintang first came to Korea from China during the Three Kingdoms period.^{[citation needed]} At that time, ancient Korea had a hierarchical class system where the upper-classes consumed far more meat than the lower classes.^{[citation needed]} The lowest class people rarely ate meats of any kind.^{[citation needed]} Dog meat was one of the few animal protein sources available to all classes of Ancient Korean society, and it was consumed as a tonic food during the three hottest days of the year.^{[citation needed]} Oxen and hens were also common meat sources, but both types of meat were something that the poor could not afford to eat regularly because the animals were a necessary part of crop and egg production.

In modern South Korea, bosintang is not an everyday dish. Although consumption of many types of meat has risen, some of South Koreans still occasionally consume bosintang as a traditional tonic and consume it during the hottest days of the year.^{[citation needed]}

The negative image and publicity that dog meat generates internationally has led many restaurants (especially outside of Korea) to use lamb or goat meat as a substitute, and publicize bosintang as a "traditional" goat-meat or lamb stew, avoiding any mention of the dish's original recipe.^{[citation needed]}

See dog meat#Korea for more information on the culture and legal situation of dog meat consumption in South Korea.

[edit] Names

There are many different names for this dish in the Korean language, some of which may be considered euphemisms. The meat is called dahn'gogi (literally "sweet meat") in North Korea, as Kim Jong-il is said to have suggested. At the 1988 Summer Olympics at Seoul, the name boshintang was banned for the more euphemistic yeongyangtang.

Revised Romanization	Hangul	Hanja or mixed script	Translation
bosintang	보신탕	補身湯	“invigorating soup”
yeongyangtang	영양탕	營養湯	“nutritious soup”
boyangtang	보양탕	補養湯	“invigorating soup”
gaejang(guk)*	개장(국)	개醬(국)	“dog soup”
sacheoltang	사철탕	四철湯	“soup for all seasons”
dangogitang	단고기탕	단고기湯	“sweet-meat soup”
gutang	구탕	狗湯	“dog soup”
gujang	구장	狗醬	“dog soup”
jiyangtang	지양탕	地羊湯