[Food]

[Food] Hotteok (Sugar-filled Korean pancake, 호떡)

Hotteok is very popular and common street snack in Korea, chewy and sweet pan-fried bread can be seen any Korean downtown. It's origin is very old as much as Silk Road, China exchanged many culture (including gourmet) through merchants of Silk Road with Arabia and Central Asia, and hotteok which means 'gentile's cake' was one of them. Even there's a historical record which proves the first king of Tang Dynasty enjoyed it too. Then how this Chinese pancake came into the Korean peninsula and changed to hotteok, sugar-filled Korean pancake?

In 1882, the Im-O Military Revolt occurred in Korea so the Qing Dynasty dispatched its army with merchants for supply. On that time, the merchants of the Qing Dynasty brought hotteok and many Chinese gourmet (including jajangmyeon) with them, and the merchants didn't return to China. After the fall of Qing Dynasty, many of them opened Chinese-style restaurant and snack shop in Korea, and that's how Chinese-style gourmet became Korean food. In 1920s, Chinese laborers came into Korea for large construction business, and it ignited boom of hotteok in Korea.

Originally, hotteok was baked in oven but it was changed to pan-frying on huge iron pan since production of cooking oil in Korea. Since then, hotteok sellers used cooking oil or margarine to deep or pan-fry hotteok for better taste, and cheaper and convenient recipe :)

Today there are many variation of hotteok recipe, people stuffs nuts, seeds, vegetables, sweet potato noodle, brown sugar, cheese, ice cream and more into hotteok. Moreover they also changed recipe of hotteok mix which are using or adding stick rice powder, rice powder, green tea powder, mixed grains and more. I guess people of the world always find better, easier and tastier way of any food.

Hotteok is more popular in the winter because it's 'hot' cake with 'hotter' stuffing, it needs sizzling iron pan or pot to cook too. You never want to cook hotteok under blazing sun, do you?

Hotteok with vegetable and sweet potato noodle

Hotteok with ice cream and cheese

Instant green tea flavor hotteok mix

You may find instant hotteok mix at nearby Korean grocery shop, how about trying hotteok today? :)

Bon Appétit!

 [Food]

[Food] Gungoguma (Roasted sweet potato, 군고구마)

My father used to bring home Korean street food after a hard day's work, and one of them was gungoguma (roasted sweet potato). Roasted sweet potato is a typical and common Korean street food from decades ago. A Gungoguma street vendor uses a huge, cylindrical goguma roaster which has six smaller cylinders within to contain sweet potatoes and bake them. We don't see as much gungoguma (roasted sweet potato) today as in the olden days as they have been replaced by 24-hours convenience stores :)

Gungoguma (roasted sweet potato) roaster

Gungoguma roaster in convenience store

Goguma (sweet potato in Korean) is harvested from the summer to autumn seasons but you can find it regardless of the season. It is usually steamed, deep-fried or roasted because of its very sweet taste and smooth texture :)

When goguma is roasted, its skin becomes very crispy and its inside becomes very sweet and soft with a golden color. Its sweetness tastes as good as pure honey. So people use an oven, pan and grill to cook sweet potato at home to derive excess sweetness from it.

Goguma used to be a Korean's best friend since it was imported from Japan in the 17th century. Goguma's origins can be found in Central and South America before coming to Europe, China, Japan and Korea. In the 17th century, Korea was in a chaotic situation due to power conflicts concerning the rule of the Korean peninsular. Everyday people were naturally left in a fatal famine so goguma acted as an emergency crop because sweet potato could be easily farmed. Some people, including officials, even recorded manuals on how to farm sweet potato to increase its production in the country.

Today, Koreans who have more advanced cooking instruments and skills make a variety of sweet potato dishes including chips, bread, cake, pizza, drinks and more. However, in my personal opinion, gungoguma (roasted sweet potato) is the most popular and best tasting among all sweet potato dishes because it derives the greatest sweetness from sweet potato :)

If it is a bitterly cold day, how about savoring some gungoguma (roasted sweet potato)? Bring some sweet potatoes home, and bake them for warm sweetness :)

Bon Appétit!

 [Food]

[Food] Bungeoppang (Fish-shaped bun, 붕어빵)

Bungeoppang is a very typical Korean street snack which resembles carp. We can usually find it in winter because it needs an iron oven that bakes it into a fish-shaped bun. You don't want to bake a bun in front of a crazy hot oven in hot days, do you? :)

In the winter season, you can find many street vendors who sell bungeoppang and hot fish cake soup together because people want to eat hot street food on their way home or take it as a hot snack home :)

A street vendor in Seoul that sells bungeoppang and hot fish cake soup

Bungeoppang originates from Japanese taiyaki (snapper-shaped bun) which flowed into the Korean peninsula around 1930. Bungeoppang has become very popular in Korea since the 1990's with its retro trend. In the beginning, there was only sweet red-bean paste bungeoppang.

However, Korean cuisine created its own style of fish-shaped bun with varieties of stuffing such as vegetables, custard cream, sweet potato paste, pizza sauce, ice cream, mint chocolate, kimchi and more.

Taiyaki (Snapper-shaped bun of Japan)

Bungeoppang (Carp-shaped bun of Korea)

So, you call yourself a street snack and bread lover? Then look out for a bungeoppang street vendor in Korea if you have a chance to visit :) It's cheap, crispy and sweet :) I'm sure you will be so happy with a large paper bag filled with warm bungeoppang in your embrace :)

Bon Appétit!

 [Food]

[Food] Hodugwaja (Walnut Cake, 호두과자)

Hodugwaja is a very popular and friendly snack (and cake) in Korea today that you can find at every express highway rest area. It has a hard and crispy outside, but soft and sweet red bean paste with crunchy walnut.

Walnut originates from Iran. It was imported to China by Zhang Qian (China's famous traveler) and passed to Korea in 1320. Mr. Cheong-Shin Yoo, who was a royal trading officer in the Goryeo dynasty, brought walnut to Korea and planted it in today's Cheonan city. That is how Cheonan became so famous for walnut cake.

The couple Mr. Gui-Geum Joh and Mrs. Bok-Soon Shim, who opened a bakery in Cheonan, wanted to invent bread that used Cheonan city's special product for customers who visited their bakery for a cup of tea. That's how hodugwaja was birthed in Korea.

Freshly baked hodugwaja

Hodugwaja gift box

Bakers usually fill hodugwaja with sweet and red/white paste from red bean, with a piece of walnut. But today, they use  variety of fillings such as custard cream, chocolate, cream cheese, fruit paste/cream etc.

Anyway, hodugwaja has become a very common sweet snack that you can find on the express highway, which people still love for its sweet, savory and crunchy taste.

A hodugwaja shop in the express highway rest area

So, if you have the chance to go to any express highway in Korea, visit any rest area and try hodugwaja :) It will 'sweeten up' the boredom spent in the car.

Bon Appétit! 

 [Food]

[Food] Ppeongtwigi (Puffed grain, 뻥튀기)

Ppeongtwigi (Puffed grain, 뻥튀기) is a very typical Korean snack made of grains (usually rice and corn). The origin of ppeongtwigi goes back to the early 20th century in North America. Dr. Alexander Anderson invented a machine that puffs cereal, and it was imported to Japan. Then this cereal puffing machine came to the Korean peninsula when Japan colonized Korea. This is how Ppeongtwigi became a typical snack in Korea.

The machine puffs any ingredient (grain, rice cake and even dried fish) at an extremely high pressure and heats it into a bigger and wider size. Ppeongtwigi is used in weight loss diets because it can expand a small amount of any grain into a bigger amount, but it actually has high carbohydrate content so it will 'puff' your body bigger if eaten too much.

Ppeongtwigi machine which looks like a canon

It was a very popular snack for children from 1960~1970 found in any street or town in Korea but its glory quickly faded due to the invention of better and tastier snacks. Today you can usually find a ppeongtwigi machine at a traditional Korean market.

Nevertheless, many people still like to eat ppeongtwigi as a snack so you can easily find a ppeongtwigi seller or shop near a major supermarket and mart.

It tastes a little sweet, crispy, crunchy and light :) It melts in your mouth very quickly if you take a bite. People also make ppeongtwigi into many shapes such as huge macaroni, cylinder, walking stick, drill, etc. Today they are often coated with sugar or any other sweet flavor (chocolate, caramel etc), like popcorn. 

Ppeongtwigi specialty store in Gangneung, Korea

Caramel-coated corn ppeongtwigi

Cheese, chocolate, caramel-coated corn ppeongtwigi from the left

Moreover, ppeongtwigi topped with ice cream has been very popular among young people for a few years so it is highly recommended one eats ppeongtwigi with vanilla ice cream :) You can taste the cool sweetness among crispy ppeongtwigi.

Vanilla ice cream topped with chocolate coated ppeongtwigi

Bon Appétit!

 [Food]

[Food] Ddeokmanduguk (떡만두국, Rice cake and dumpling soup)

Most Korean restaurants and Korean-style noodle shops advertise this menu for the winter season as people prefer hot soup to warm their frozen body.

Ddeokmanduguk (떡만두국, Rice cake and dumpling soup) is a typical winter dish in Korea, which is easy and quick to cook (if dumplings are pre-prepared).

Most Koreans love Korean-style Wangmandu ('King-size dumpling') - which is as large as an adult male's fist - stuffed with many vegetables, tofu and meat. Koreans enjoy these dumplings with hot soup or ramen soup for better taste.

Koreans like to put dumpling in beef-stock, anchovy-stock or ramen soup which gives a great flavor to the dumpling. Dumplings give a very nice flavor when boiled in these soups because dumplings absorb the soup within. People love the flavor of dumpling fillings melting into one's mouth with hot soup.

Dumplings are stodgy and warm, and Koreans love carbohydrates for meal (usually steamed rice or noodles), so it is very obvious that ddeokmanduguk is a popular winter menu in Korea :)

I've got some frozen kimchi-mandu (kimchi dumpling) in my freezer which I will put in my ramen for today's lunch :)

Bon Appétit!