In South Korea, you might be by no means removed from scrumptious road meals to fulfill your cravings. Skewers of tangy chargrilled hen, seafood pancakes with kimchi pizzazz and golden fish-shaped waffles with a candy shock filling could make for a full meal.
Eat Korean fashion – not strolling however rubbing shoulders with locals round stalls or beneath cozy pojangmacha tents with a cup of soju (a Korean spirit). It’s a straightforward method to see and taste-test some Korean flavors in chew dimension.
Listed below are a number of the hottest to sink your enamel into on the streets of South Korea.
Tteokbokki (spicy rice muffins)
In case you hate spice, look away now. Tteokbokki comes with a vibrant pink or orange sauce referred to as gochujang, made by fermenting soybeans and pink chilis right into a sauce that’s used extensively in Korean dishes, most famously in bibimbap. Nicely into the evening, you will see that road stalls and pojangmacha stewing rectangular pans of tteok (rice muffins that resemble overblown penne pasta) within the effervescent gochujang.
Tteokbokki was only for the royal court docket to eat, however now even partygoers cease on the road to replenish on it. The chewy rice muffins style impartial and nearly demand the spicy and candy sauce. Dressed-up tteokbokki variations add slices of fish muffins, boiled eggs or ramyeon (ramen or wheat noodles).
For a fast and handy model, attempt tteokkochi, the place the rice muffins are threaded onto a skewer.
Gimbap (Korean sushi)
It appears like sushi, however that is its Korean cousin, gimbap: dressier with a seaweed (gim) wrap and glazed in taste you’ll be able to nearly see. The rice (bap) and seaweed are evenly infused with perilla oil, and the rolls are given a kick with a aspect of kimchi. Fillings are very similar to sushi with meat, spinach, surimi, tofu, pickled radish and egg roll, however they will embrace butter lettuce or herbaceous perilla (Korean shiso-like herb) rolled into the gimbap to carry the freshness.
Gimbap are at their most mouth-watering as petite rolls, however they will are available in hefty, rice-filled slices, which make for quick starvation busters. These rolls are ubiquitous at road stalls and markets, and contemporary variations may even be present in comfort shops everywhere in the nation.
Korean fried hen
Sure, Korean-style fried hen (yangnyeom tongdak) is a fusion meals, the origins of which return to when American troopers met Korean tastes throughout the Korean Warfare. However what a fusion! Tender, smaller hen items are drizzled with finger-licking spices or hen in spicy honey sauces, sesame seeds, garlic, peanuts and chili flakes.
The spice-shy can attempt Korean fried hen with a crunchy coating beneath a nest of grease-cutting spring onion threads. The mixture of Korean hen with beer (mekju) is so proper, with the beer and a aspect of pickles cleansing the palate for extra. It is no surprise this combo, referred to as chimek (hen plus mekju), is in style in bars and informal diners, however you’ll additionally discover Korean fried hen at road stalls. The small boneless bite-sized items are nonetheless double fried, giving them a particular crackle. A small field is a good way to fulfill a craving or attempt parmesan taste for max fusion.
Twigim (Korean-style tempura)
Koreans don’t tiptoe round frying their road meals. Twigim are varied components that style nice fried in a batter (assume Japanese tempura however extra substantial): succulent squid, a hash of greens, candy potatoes and even boiled eggs. You can be arduous pressed to seek out twigim outdoors of Korea, so replenish. Decide up the items you need with tongs and pay for all of them on the finish.
Mandu (dumplings)
Korean dumplings (mandu) come deliciously fried or boiled in a noodle soup. As a road snack, the almost certainly alternative is kimchi mandu, crammed with candy onion, floor pork and a number of spicy kimchi that you would be able to see shimmering orange by way of the tender pores and skin. Kogi mandu are full of gingery floor pork and inexperienced onions. These pockets of taste are heat and scrumptious, however generally spicy sufficient to warrant a warning from the chef. Dumplings are served six or seven to a plate. Dip them in soy and vinegar sauce and chow down.
Additionally mandu in title however steamed as an alternative, jjinppang mandu are tender fluffy buns with varied fillings, often coarse pink bean paste, pork, or pork and kimchi.
Myeon (noodles)
Bowls of noodle (myeon) soup won’t sound like road meals, however in fast-moving Korea, every thing is prepared for a fast meal between meals. Settle down with naengmyeon (a North Korean dish of chilly buckwheat or candy potato noodles with cucumber, radish, beef and a boiled egg in an icy broth) or preserve heat and glad with sujebi (hand-torn noodles in a clam and vegetable broth) and bites of uncooked inexperienced chili.
Bungeoppang and gukhwa-ppang (pink bean waffles)
In any city in Korea, you may discover cute fish-shaped candy muffins on the streets. These bungeoppang have a golden brown, waffle-like exterior that’s each tender and crispy to chew into, giving method to scorching candy pink bean paste. Bungeoppang do not include any precise fish, and also you’ll discover road distributors pouring a kettle of batter into molds of different shapes, too, akin to chrysanthemum-flowers to make gukhwa-ppang.
Hotteok (Korean donuts)
Hotteok are generally referred to as referred to as Korean doughnuts, however they’re extra like spiced, crammed plump pancakes. The theater of watching the balls of dough pressed and fried into disks till they’re golden brown is half the pleasure. A winter crowd can kind simply to look at the hotteok, nonetheless shimmering with warmth, being crammed with a mix of cinnamon, brown sugar and generally sunflower seeds, which immediately turns right into a grainy caramel.
It’s scorching stuff and one which burns whenever you inevitably can’t wait to chew into the hefty, aromatic pancake oozing with the scrumptious fillings, which may embrace black sesame seeds, peanuts, pink beans and honey. It is a candy tooth’s dream.
Gyeranppang (egg muffins)
Actually “egg bread,” gyeranppang is an rectangular golden muffin with a moist complete egg baked on high and a dusting of parsley. Dense and comforting, and each savory and candy, it’s a highway to habit.
Pajeon (pancakes)
Savory pajeon pancakes are a full meal on the go. The plain model is full of leeks and inexperienced onions, whereas haemul pajeon is crammed with a lot of squid and generally shrimp or mussels (relying on how fancy the stall is), after which fried in batter. Go a slice of the cakey morsel by way of the soy dipping sauce whereas it’s nonetheless scorching and contemporary off the pan.
If you would like one thing vegan and gluten free (with out the dipping sauce), attempt nokdu bindaetteok, a conventional thick pancake manufactured from a singular batter of mung beans. They’re yellow, puffy and particularly in style at Gwangjang Market in Seoul.
South Korean road meals on a skewer
Korean road distributors know that placing something on a skewer makes road meals simpler to deal with with much less waste. Skewered road meals choices may be as easy as juicy corn cobs grilled on scorching coals, and even envelopes of wood-fired candy potato or slices of sundae (blood sausage) may be eaten with toothpicks or chopsticks. Listed below are a number of different treats you are more likely to see on the streets of South Korea.
Odeng (fishcake skewers)
Odeng are scorching, easy-to-eat fishcakes on a skewer. If you’re spice- or meat-shy, odeng is your street-eat savior. The primary taste is a tender and easy fishcake. The fishcake is both elongated or flat and folded over, and the skewers jut out from steaming vats of broth. This scorching soup is a delicate seafood and inexperienced onion-infused broth that Koreans say cures hangovers. It’s in style in winter and plenty of Koreans drink the soup alongside soju to mood the alcohol’s hearth.
All the pieces is self-serve. Simply ladle the satisfying broth, assist your self to the skewers and the stall keeper will rely up the sticks whenever you’re performed. In bigger locations, you’ll discover totally different coloured skewers that correspond to totally different costs on the worth board.
Eomukba
Eomukba is a skewer of fried fish cake with touches of carrot and perilla leaf wrapped round surimi. It is a fast-food cross between the fried snacks of twigim and the fish muffins of eomuk.
Gamja canine
It is a corn canine (battered sausage) additional fried in batter with a crust of French fries (sure, actually). It is the type of enjoyable meals that reminds you of being at a fairground.
Dakkochi
Dakkochi are grilled hen and inexperienced onion skewers that hum with a smoky charred taste beneath a sticky tangy barbecue sauce.
