Click here for more articles by Kormedi.com. At the Chuseok table, people may carefully limit their portions of braised short ribs and jeon (pan-fried battered dishes) but feel free to help themselves to japchae, a popular glass noodle dish that looks like a vegetable side dish. However, the main ingredient in japchae is not vegetables but starch. The dish also contains oil and sugar, which can significantly increase its calorie count depending on how much you eat. Glass noodles are made primarily from sweet potato starch and are a high-carbohydrate food, containing about 350 kilocalories per 100 grams before cooking. When boiled, they absorb water and increase in weight, lowering their calorie content per 100 grams, but their carbohydrate content remains unchanged. A generous serving of glass noodles can add a substantial amount of carbohydrates to a meal, much like eating an additional serving of rice. Because japchae contains vegetables and has no broth, it may not look particularly filling, making it easy to go back for more. When eaten alongside rice, songpyeon (half-moon-shaped ri