Korean street food guide: tteokbokki, hotteok, bungeoppang and where to eat
TUREFF• •0
Street food is one of the best things about Korea: cheap, filling and everywhere, from market alleys to the stalls outside subway exits. Here is what to try, when to find it and where to go.
Year-round classics
- Tteokbokki: chewy rice cakes simmered in a sweet and spicy red sauce made with gochujang. Often served with fish cakes and a boiled egg. Spice levels vary; ask "an maewoyo?" (not spicy?) if you are cautious.
- Eomuk (also called odeng): fish cakes threaded on long skewers and kept in a hot broth. You help yourself from the pot, and the broth is free, poured into a paper cup. Tell the vendor how many skewers you ate when you pay.
- Sundae: Korean blood sausage, filled with glass noodles and pork blood, sliced and served with salt, and often liver and lung on the side. Milder than it sounds.
- Twigim: deep-fried snacks such as vegetables, squid, sweet potato, dumplings and boiled eggs. Dip them in the tteokbokki sauce.
- Kimbap: rice and fillings rolled in seaweed. Mayak kimbap, small rolls with a mustard dipping sauce, is famous at Gwangjang Market.
- Tornado potato (hoeori gamja): a whole potato spiral-cut onto a skewer, deep-fried and dusted with seasoning. A festival and tourist-street favourite.
- Dakkochi: grilled chicken skewers glazed in sweet or spicy sauce.
Winter favourites
Some snacks appear mainly when it gets cold, and seeing their stalls return is a sign of the season.
- Hotteok: a pan-fried pancake filled with brown sugar, cinnamon and chopped nuts. The filling turns to hot syrup, so bite carefully. Busan's version, ssiat hotteok, is stuffed with seeds.
- Bungeoppang: a fish-shaped waffle filled with sweet red bean paste, sometimes custard. Sold by the bag. The stalls have become scarcer in recent years, which has led to apps and maps where people share their locations.
- Gyeranppang: a small, slightly sweet loaf of bread baked with a whole egg on top.
- Gun goguma: roasted sweet potatoes, sold from barrel ovens.
- Gunbam: roasted chestnuts.
Hotteok is sold in some places all year, but most stalls are at their best from late autumn to early spring.
Where to go in Seoul
- Myeongdong: in the evening the main street fills with stalls aimed at visitors, with everything from tteokbokki to lobster and strawberry skewers. Very convenient and busy, and prices are higher than elsewhere.
- Gwangjang Market: Seoul's best-known traditional market for food. Sit at a counter for bindaetteok (mung bean pancakes), mayak kimbap, yukhoe (raw beef) and noodles. Go at lunchtime on a weekday to avoid the worst of the crowds.
- Namdaemun Market: hotteok, kalguksu alley and dumplings.
- Tongin Market: buy a tray with old-style coins and fill it from different stalls (the dosirak café).
- Mangwon Market and university areas like Sinchon and Hongdae: cheaper stalls aimed at locals and students.
- Outside Seoul, Busan's BIFF Square and Gukje Market are famous for ssiat hotteok and eomuk, Busan being the home of fish cakes.
Paying
- Many stalls now accept cards and Korean mobile payment, but small stalls and market vendors often prefer cash, so carry some.
- Some stalls in tourist areas take foreign cards; others only Korean bank transfers. When in doubt, have cash.
- There is no tipping.
- At pojangmacha (covered street tents) that serve drinks and larger dishes, you sit and order like a restaurant and pay at the end.
Etiquette and tips
- Eat beside the stall or at a bench rather than walking through crowds with sauce.
- Throw rubbish in the stall's bin when there is one; public bins are scarce in Seoul.
- Do not double-dip in the shared sauce or broth pot.
- Point and hold up fingers if you cannot say the name; vendors are used to it.
- Go a bit hungry and share: the best way is a little of many things.
What is your favourite Korean street snack, and where did you find the best one? Share it, or ask what to try, in the comments.