Tteokbokki

Seoul's most beloved street food — chewy cylindrical rice cakes in a sweet, spicy and deeply savoury gochujang sauce with fish cakes.

Tteokbokki — spicy rice cakes — has undergone a remarkable transformation in Korean food history. Originally called tteok jjim, it was a royal court dish made with soy sauce, not gochujang (chilli paste), and eaten by the aristocracy (yangban class). The spicy street food version we know today was created in 1953 by a woman named Ma Bok-lim in Seoul's Sindang-dong neighbourhood, who added gochujang to the dish by accident or experimentation. Her restaurant became famous and Sindang-dong became known as Tteokbokki Town. The transformation from a royal dish to street food is a rare and fascinating culinary journey. Tteokbokki is now one of the most popular street foods in South Korea and a global export of Korean food culture.

Use gochujang not gochugaru for the sauce base. The rice cakes must be chewy — if they are soft they are overcooked. Fish cakes (eomuk) are traditional and essential.