Hanbang Herbs in Korean Cuisine

[amsci99]

I thought that you would be the perfect person to other enquire about Hanbang herbs which are used in Korean cuisine. I am afraid other than siberian ginseng/korean ginseng, milk vetch and jujube, very little of the many varities of herbs are mentioned anywhere.

Some years back, I watched a late night Korean food and entertainment program (from MBC) on the local food channel which featured the dish, 'Dak Doritang' and the chef included siberian ginseng, milk vetch and a bark like herb into the chicken broth. I never managed to figure what the herb was since the English subtitles referred to it as birch bark which is not a herb. Managed to track down the VOD but can't access it,

http://www.imbc.com/broad/tv/ent/delicious/vod/index.html?kind=image&progCode=1000826100176100000&pagesize=5&pagenum=33&cornerFlag=1&ContentTypeID=1

Nonetheless I had the opportunity to view the following program available from a Hong Kong cable channel TVB8, which I think featured the same bark like herb I am looking for.

리얼미식기행 the Chef

http://www.qchannel.co.kr/thechef/main.asp

The VOD has been taken off now but it's available for free for those located in the US & Canada (which excludes me) at

http://www.dramafever.com/drama/1785/1/The_Chef/

I can't remember which episode, it may be either the 3 episodes on the Jiri Mountain or on the Midland National Highway. Nonetheless, in one of these episodes where the 3 chefs went to the mountains, they had free range chicken soup which was cooked with that hanbang herb I am looking for. Based on the substitles (which are often not accurate) I think it's either the bark of the Alder tree or bark of the Omija tree.

I seek the assistance of korean speaking members on the forum to confirm this. My thanks and appreciation in advance.

[loki]

Please provide better links or information about what you are asking for. You need to find the actual video and do a screen shot of it or find the Korean name of the herb. The name of the video and minute/seconds would also be OK. I can't search through an hour and a half of videos searching for an herb being mentioned.

Birch can be used as an herb (It might be considered a spice if dried, but lets not quibble). Sweet birch Betula lenta is/was used as a source of wintergreen oil in North America. There are likely Asian counterparts. If you've heard of birch beer - that's what it's flavored with (a type of root beer really).

If I could see the herb, maybe I could ID it. I'm a botanist and foodie.