My craving for piping hot food intensifies as the winter kicked in. Thereโs nothing like comfort food to warm-up amid the cold winter in Korea. Fortunately, Korean winter food is to die for and been popular within the nation for years and years, a few have indeed been around for more than a century.
Several of my favorite Korean winter treats found on the streets. As temperatures drop, supermarkets, carts and stalls selling these foods increase in numbers. People take a bite from these tasty treats before continuing their journey to make them warm up.
Tteokbokki
Tteokbokki aka spicy rice cakes widely popular dish in Korea. A very distinctive spicy, yet sweet, flavorsome dish.
The main ingredient of tteokbokki is garae tteok, rice cake formed into a long white cylinder shape. It combined with eomuk (fish cake) and different types of vegetables like onions, cabbage, and carrots.
The whole thing coated in red pepper sauce and served hot. Street stall vendors provide free cups of hot eomuk broth with Tteokbokki. Prices vary by store to store, place to place. Usually 2,500 to 3,500 won price per serving with complimentary refills of eomuk broth at street side stalls.
Kkochi eomuk
Kkochi eomuk, or fish cake skewers just another street food snack that Koreans like to eat as temperatures fall.
On skewers, Eomuk is cooked and then boiled in a broth with radishes and kelp flavoring. Eomuk is not spicy and is a perfect substitute to help soothe the spiciness of tteokbokki.
Unlike Tteokbokki, and itโs the menu to look for when you want to quickly warm up your body.
Kkochi eomuk normally costs between 500 and 1,000 won and is mostly sold at the same stands as tteokbbki.
Bungeoppang
Amid the freezing cold winter season, finding food carts on street corners selling Bungeoppang quite easier. Bungeoppang usually made by pouring flour batter into the bungeo (carp)-shaped black cast iron mold and filling it with red bean past.
The sight of freshly baked Bungeoppang and its sweet fragrance wafting through the air as a warning for many Koreans that winter really arrived. Bungeoppang comes in a range of types and flavors, such as ingeoppang (mini-Bungeoppang) and choux cream filled Bungeoppang
Prices vary according to location, but generally 3 to 5 Bungeoppang sell for 2,000 won.
Hotteok
Hotteok made from the dough of sticky rice flour and filled with a mix of sugar, peanuts, and cinnamon. Then the round and flat pancakes lightly fried in oil.
Some stalls offers variety of hotteok like stuffed with vegetables or seeds. You should be very very careful before you take the first bite. Although the brown-sugar filling is delicious but it pretty hot at the beginning.
Like many of the other street foods in Korea, hotteok is a steal at only 1,000 won a piece, although the price may vary by region.
Korean street foods will surely warm your hands and hearts in winter. Try these treats, only available in Korea, for a unique Korea experience!
If you find this article intriguing and pleasant, share it with your friends. For more Korea travel tips like this, subscribe toย KoreabyMeย site and readย my other published articlesย on the site. If you want you can follow me onย Instagramย too!
