Tteokbokki

Tteokbokki
Hangul	떡볶이
Revised Romanization	Tteokbokki
McCune–Reischauer	Ttŏkpokki

Tteokbokki
Alternative names	Ddeokbokki
Course	Snack
Place of origin	Korea
Region or state	Korean-speaking areas
Main ingredients	rice cake, gochujang, fish cakes
	Media: Tteokbokki;

Tteokbokki, also known as Ddeokbokki is a popular Korean snack food which is commonly purchased from street vendors or Pojangmacha.^[1] Originally it was called tteok jjim (떡찜), and was a braised dish of sliced rice cake, meat, eggs, and seasoning. Tteok jjim, an early variant of modern tteokbokki, was once a part of Korean royal court cuisine.^[2] This type of tteokbokki was made by boiling Garaetteok, meat, vegetables, eggs, and seasonings in water, and then serving it topped with ginkgo nuts and walnuts. In its original form, tteokbokki, which was then known as gungjung tteokbokki, was a dish served in the royal court and regarded as a representative example of haute cuisine. The original tteokbokki was a stir-fried dish consisting of garaetteok (가래떡, cylinder-shaped tteok) combined with a variety of ingredients, such as beef, mung bean sprouts, green onions, shiitake mushrooms, carrots, and onions, and seasoned with soy sauce.^[3]

Modern history

Following the Korean War a new type of tteokbokki became very popular. While the older version was a savory dish, this latter type was much spicier, and quickly became more popular than the older traditional dish. In addition to traditional ingredients, this tteokbokki used gochujang, a hot paste made from chilli peppers, along with fish cakes. Other ingredients added to tteokbokki include boiled eggs, pan-fried mandu (Korean dumplings), sausages, ramyeon (which then becomes rabokki/labokki 라볶이), a variety of fried vegetables, and cheese. These days, many kinds of tteokbokki are popular such as seafood tteokbokki(해물 떡볶이) or rice tteokbokki(쌀떡볶이). Flour tteokbokki was popular in early days, but rice tteokbokki is more popular these days.

Sindang-dong in Seoul, where tteokbokki was first sold, is still very famous for the dish and treated as the mekkah of tteokbokki. Since Tteokbokki has become one of the most popular dishes, one will easily find a place to enjoy eating Tteokbokki in Korea.

Variants

Haemul tteokbokki(해물 떡볶이seafood tteokbokki)
Gungjung tteokbokki (궁중 떡볶이Royal court rice cakes), also called Ganjang tteokbokki(간장 떡볶이) due to the usage of soy sauce.
Cheese tteokbokki(치즈 떡볶이)
Tteok kkochi(떡꼬치), tteokbokki on a skewer