1. Ingredients for Topokki
- Primary ingredients: Rice, rice cake and flour cake
- Secondary ingredients: Basic seasoning (Gochujang paste and sugar), additional ingredients (fishcake or noodle) and vegetables (onion, carrot and cabbage)
2. Taste evaluation
-Spicy: ★★★★★
-Salty: ★★☆☆☆
-Sweet: ★★★☆☆
-Sour: ☆☆☆☆☆
3. Introduction to Topokki
Topokki is one of signature Korean street foods that anybody can enjoy. It’s made of chewy rice cake stir-fried with spicy Gochujang paste.
It used to be a classy food as rice cake stir-fried with meat. But right after the Korean War in the 1950s, an old lady named Ma Bok-rim tasted rice cake on a Chinese food called Jjajangmyeon and loved the taste so she started to sell them on the streets after she added Gochujang paste for Korean people’s appetite. It’s become popular and been enjoyed by people until today since the 1970s as it was aired on the television.
The main ingredient is rice cake bars (garae tteok), chewy rice made by punching the boiled rice with a wooden hammer. It’s one of delicious Korean traditional snacks chewy and light that you can enjoy it without anything.
You could cook Topokki very easilyㅡyou just put rice cake, Korean traditional sauce, Gochujang paste, and sugar in a big pan and boil them until they are properly cooked. It’s mostly spicy because of spicy Gochujang paste yet sweet at the same time.
You can’t make it wrong when you make Topokki even when you put any ingredients because they should be harmonized well. Normally, Oemuk(fishcake) and vegetables are preferred and you can always add noodles or fried tofu. Or you could put cheese, seafood, meat or ham to make it classy.
You’ll probably find this food very easily on the streets in Korea. Why don’t you try it and enjoy Korean food at a reasonable price?
4. Kinds of Topokki
With rice cake seasoned with Gochujang paste and sugar as ingredients, you could add anything to make Topokki.
Normally the owners prepare Topokki to sell for the day and provide dishes one by one while there are ready-to-eat Topokki restaurants that you could boil it by yourself when you are served with uncooked Topokki ingredients in a pan.
There are Curry Topokki and Jjajang Topokki depending on the sauce, and Rappokki(Topokki with noodles), Haesanmul(seafood) Topokki and Ham Topokki depending on ingredients.
There’s also a very exotic cuisine called Gireum(oil) Topokki introduced in many tour pamphlets.
What I want you to try is cart Topokki that you can eat anywhere conveniently. Plus, Jeukseok(ready-to-eat) Topokki on Sindangdong Topokki Street is pretty good as there’s the original Topokki restaurant. This place is easily accessible from Myeongdong and Dongdaemun Gate, famous tourist attractions in Seoul.
5. How to enjoy Topokki even more
The street carts sell Sundae, Twigim(fried dishes) and Eomuk besides Topokki. Buy some Sundae, Twigim(fried dishes), Eomuk or Gimbap together so you could dip them in Topokki sauce. You’ll enjoy the different taste of it.
If you want to try even spicier sauce, you should buy ‘Beombeok’. Beombeok means ‘mixing altogether’ so Topokki mixed with Twigim(fried dishes), Eomuk(fishcake) and spicy sauce will be served.
Here’s a little tip for you. You will get fishcake soup for free from street carts so you could just pour the soup in a paper cup. It’s better than water to cool your tongue.
