We never miss street food and
traditional markets when travelling abroad or another area.
Let’s see what kind of street food
you must eat in Korea!
No.1 Teokbokki(떡볶이)
“Tteok”([ttək], 떡) means rice cake and “bokki[bokki], 볶이)
means stir fried dish.
It is a dish of cylindrical rice
cakes braised in spicy sauce with vegetables.
The original style was different
from today’s one, which was stir-fried with beef and soy sauce instead of spicy
sauce. It was a court cuisine.
Tteokbokki is the most famous,
representative, and traditional street food with a long history in Korea.
Most of all school zones have Tteokbokki restaurants where the students eat
together with friends after school. Tteobokki always accompanies some other
dishes such as Eomuk([əmuk],
fish ball soup), fritters, dumplings, soondae([sunde],Korean
sausage), gimbap(seaweed rolls), hotdog and so
on. Tteobokki can
be a good dipping sauce for accompanied dishes. The restaurants have been too
small to have seats inside and it was small kitchen or stalls rather than restaurants. So,
people order and eat standing outside.
But it has been changed. The restaurants
have been upgraded as Tteobokki style has been. But all Korean
people are always missing the flavor of Tteokbokki in school zone in childhood. It
tastes simple but good enough. Some Korean people travel only to taste Tteokbokki famous in each citis like a pilgrimage to the Holy land.
Nowadays there are some Tteokbokki franchise. Hereby I’d introduce 4.
I’d recommend both eating on the
street and in any franchise restaurant.
Jaws Tteokbokki(죠스 떡볶이)
Very simple menu and affordable set
menu for 1,2,3 & 4 persons.
Depending on the area, they have
menu in English. Basically they have menu with photos.
Tteokbokki here has light & spicy flavor. Spicy level is not selectable.
Shinjeon Tteokbokki([ʃidndƷən] 신전)
Tteokbokki here has unique flavor and scent
likely curry. They have 3 spicy levels. If you select the highest level, you
could take an ambulance.
I’m spicy food mania and a spicy-holic. That famous “Spicy chicken noodle(the ingredient for spicy noodle
challenge) is not hot to me. But this is really killing. The spicy flavor lasts
long.
Dongdaemoon Yeoptteok([doŋdemun jəpttək]동대문 엽떡)
It means “geeky spicy Tteokbokki from Dongdaemoon”
Tteokbokki costs KW9,000 or KW14,000 for 2 or 3
persons.
And rice roll covered with dried
seaweed flakes is famous. I
t’s good and relieves the spicy flavor.
And they also have a set menu which
includes fritters and rice balls. There are 3 menu depending on how many persons.
Dookki[dukki], 두끼
The 3 above are the restaurants
they serve ready cooked or precooked Tteobokki.
But Dookki is a buffet style restaurant and
you can cook Tteokbokki with various ingredients from the
self-bar and eat as much with fritters, Eomuk soup, ramen, fried rice, sodas, etc as you like.
Don’t forget to eat stir-fried rice
with the leftover Tteokbokki sauce, rice, chopped kimchi and
dried seaweed flakes after eating Tteobokki.
You can see the menus and recipe in
English here. https://www.dookki.co.kr/en/
It costs about 7 dollars/person and
you may be extra-charged(1 dollar/person) for possible leftover.
Sindang-Dong Tteokbokki Town
There is a district specialized in Tteokbokki in Seoul.
There are a lot of Teokbokki restaurants. All have similar
tastes.
But, out of them, 2 are famous.
One is MaBokRim.([maboŋnim], 마복림. Ma is an old lady’s first name
and BokRim is her name.)
It became famous since Mrs. Ma was cast for a CF for a brand of Red chilli pepper paste “Gochujang” which is
the sauce to make Tteokbokki.
And the other is “I Love Sindangdong”.
They have a DJ booth and a stage
where they have live shows. They open 24 hours and have parking lot. I prefer
this restaurant.
DJ show is at 12 am( for 2 hours,
Off on Mondays) and live guitar shows at 7, 9, and 11 pm.
*Cool Peace[쿨피스)
All Tteokbokki restaurants sell this beverage.
There are a few flavors such as peach, pineapple, apricot, etc. This relieve
the pain in your tongue due to the spicy flavor.
It gives “Cool Peace” to your
tongue. But Dookki does not sell this.
You can find
Recipe for Tteobokki : Here
Instant Tteobokki(only 2 & half mins) : Here
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