KOREA FOUNDATION

What is it that stops people from hurrying home after a long day? The answer of course is street food, luring pedestrians with its delicious aroma. As coworkers stop to chat together and fill their stomachs, they are likewise filled with happiness and warmth. Street foods bring joy to customers everywhere, but their styles and tastes differ from one country to another.
  In Korea, tteokbokki is the consensus choice. Usually eaten with hot eomuk soup, made with Korean-style fish cakes, it warms up the heart and body with its spicy, salty, sweet flavor. An ample meal in its own right, tteokbokki can also serve as a perfect finishing touch when you are already starting to feel full but crave just one more dish to top off your meal. Teokbokki recipes and franchised shops are growing ever more diverse, but quite a number of people still prefer to eat tteokbokki from street food stalls. Tteokbokki literally means “stir-fried rice cake,” but flour tteok seems to be enjoyed more than rice tteok these days, and the humble spicy red tteokbokki with few extra ingredients still enjoys the greatest popularity. It is a simple dish, but it still offers every chef the chance to show off their skills, and no two plates of tteokbokki taste the same.
  In neighboring Japan, kushikatsu eases the hunger of people on the street. It is a dish of deep-fried skewered pork and vegetables originating from Osaka. Nowadays, kushikatsu is also made with chicken, beef, and all kinds of vegetables and other ingredients. Cabbage is usually served on the side to reduce the overall greasiness, and the well-known secret to enjoying the dish is to dip it into the sauce just a single time. If you take a sip of draft beer after biting into your fresh fried kushikatsu, you will feel refreshed as you find the taste of oil in your mouth disappears immediately.
  China’s chòudòufu, or stinky tofu, is more famous for its strong odor than its taste of fermented beans. A pungent brine is made by fermenting vegetables and seafood, and tofu is soaked in it for hours until its texture turns spongy. The tofu can be eaten as-is, but if it is deep fried until crispy and sprinkled with chili sauce, the smell isn’t quite so strong while the taste is much more delicious.
  In the United States, love for hot dogs is so great that many communities even celebrate a Hot Dog Day. The street food was introduced to the US by German immigrants in the 1860s. Hot dogs differ by region, and locals in New York, Chicago, Texas, and California all proudly proclaim their local hot dogs to be the best. Koreans will be glad to find that kimchi bulgogi hot dogs, the latest dish to emerge from the American melting pot, are becoming an increasingly common sight on local menus. Whether you’re in the mood for a light snack or a full dinner, with so many options available to us, why not try picking up an order or two of street food on your way home this evening?

Written by Kim Shinyoung
Illustrated by Jeong Hyoju

#Tteokbokki #Kushikatsu #Choudoufu #Hotdog