Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation has announced ten promising export items post-Covid era. The list includes kimchi, gochujang or korean spicy paste, fresh fruits, ramen, snacks, beverages, vegetarian products, home meal replacements, ginseng, and tteokbokki. Out of these items, tteokbokki is worth paying attention to in that it’s a Korean food that has slowly begun gaining a reputation. Tteokbokki is a byword for Korean street food, made by stir-frying garaetteok or rice cake stick, fish cake, scallions, onions, and cabbage with gochujang. With ‘mukbang’ taking over YouTube by storm all around the globe, this dish has gained the most recognition especially among traditional Korean recipes that use rice cakes.
Tteokbokki’s history goes back to the Joseon period. One of the royal court cuisines enjoyed by the kings of Joseon dynasty was in fact tteokbokki. Although today, it’s most common to make tteokbokki with gochujang, back then it was made with soy sauce-based seasoning, mixed with meat, vegetables, and rice cake. You can still enjoy this version of tteokbokki today, now called Gungjung Tteokbokki, or royal court rice cakes. The flavor is similar to that of bulgogi, making it easily enjoyable by people who can’t eat spicy food.
Modern tteokbokki with gochujang sauce was introduced after the Korean War, which means that this is a South Korean food that’s hard to find in North Korea. It is said that tteokbokki was first discovered when Ma Bok-Lim accidentally dropped rice cake in a Chinese dish jjajangmyeon, leading her to think of a recipe where rice cake and gochujang-based sauce is stir-fried together. Ma Bok-Lim then began selling it in Sindang-dong in Seoul, popularizing the dish. At first, it was only made with rice cake, vegetables, gochujang, and black bean paste, or chunjang, but as time went by, more variations of tteokbokki were developed. Examples include Jeukseok Tteokbokki, or on-the-spot tteokbokki, where different toppings such as ramen, dumplings, and boiled eggs were added; Rabokki, which is made with instant ramen; and Cheese tteokbokki with cheese sprinkled on top. Many different products geared toward convenience like microwaveable retort tteokbokki and tteokbokki with seasoning powder are also available today.
Every Korean has at least one memory of eating tteokbokki in his/her childhood, whether it be buying cup-tteokbokki, sold in paper cups, after school, or ordering different types of flour-based snacks like fish cake, sundae (Korean sausage), kimbap, and fritters along with tteokbokki to share with friends. Now that you have more family time at home due to Covid-19, why don’t you make another memory by making sweet and spicy homemade tteokbokki?
Soak the tteokbokki rice cake in water until they are softened.
Cut the large green onion on a bias
Directions
Pour water into a saucepan. Add the rice cakes and bring to a boil.
When the water’s at a rolling boil, add the gochujang, chili powder, sugar, and soy sauce.
Once the soup is moderately reduced, add a handful of scallions.
Recipe Note
･ You can add additional ingredients such as fish cake, sausage, boiled egg, onions, and cabbage to taste. When adding in the extra ingredients, do so after dissolving the sauce well.
･ Sprinkle some cheese on top of the finished tteokbokki and wait until the cheese has melted, and you will have cheese tteokbokki.
