Young People’s Cafe Tteokbokki in Seoul
In the world of Korean cuisine, there are few dishes that reach further into the hearts and stomachs of the people than tteokbokki. The sticky rice cakes in a spicy gochujang sauce can be found on street corners as small tented restaurants and in brick-and-mortar spaces.떡볶이창업추천
On a recent Friday at noon, most of the tables in this large restaurant in an alley in Sindang-dong were occupied by customers from young to old. Each table had a black steel tray brimming with sliced sticks of tteokbokki, the signature ingredient; gochujang, or red hot pepper paste; fish cakes; vegetables; ramen noodles; and fried dumplings or boiled eggs. People chatted and laughed as their food cooked over a single burner tabletop stove.
The dish is popular among young people because of its affordability and convenience. It is served in tteokbokki restaurants that usually start as small tented trucks on streets or even at sidewalks and are quickly expanded into brick-and-mortar spaces to cater to the ever-growing demand. Most tteokbokki restaurants offer several kinds of tteokbokki, including Soondae (Korean blood sausage), a seafood like squid or Alaskan pollock, and Sundae, a type of pig’s intestine stuffed with dangmyeon, barley, and pork blood.
Besides traditional gochujang tteokbokki, many restaurants also have creative variations with ingredients like curry, cheese, jajang, and rose sauce. These unique flavors make the popular snack more than just a street food for locals.
Ma Young-su, 89, founded one of the first tteokbokki restaurants in the country. She began selling boiled tteokbokki mixed with red pepper paste at her street stall in 1953, and it became so popular that Ma started a chain of tteokbokki restaurants. Ma retired in 2009, but her family continues to run the restaurants.
A new all-you-can-eat DIY tteokbokki parlor has opened in Flushing, Queens. Witch Topokki goes hard on the dish, offering ten iterations of chewy rice cakes alongside toppings like ramen flavors, vegetables, and a variety of fish cakes and stuffed mushrooms.
The space is cozy and welcoming, with a large table that can seat about 20 diners at once. There are paintings, posters, and sculptures from various artists on the walls that give a homely vibe to the restaurant. Most importantly, the restaurant is dog-friendly and the owners are very kind to their visitors. They even provide a special menu for dogs! You can find the menu on their website. In addition to the Tteokbokki, they have Butter garlic fried potatoes and Korean ice cream. These desserts are perfect to balance out the spicy flavor of Tteokbokki.청년다방