I first tried tteokbokki (also known as toppoki, ddukbokki, ddeokbokki or dukbokki) when my husband and I went to South Korea on holiday in 2018. We were totally blown away by the food in Seoul. I had always considered myself quite a foodie and thought I knew more or less what Korean food was all about, but on that trip I realised I had only ever scratched the surface. The food in Korea is incredibly varied and so so so delicious! My husband and I quickly found ourselves heavily in to the street food scene exploring what the city had to offer. And so we came to Tongin market which has been around for about the last 75 years or so and is basically a covered street market lined with grocery shops and food stalls.

This market was also recommended by Mikey Chen who has a YouTube channel called Strictly Dumpling. This is one of my favourite YouTube food channels, this guy basically travels the world eating and man can he eat! He really knows his Asian food too.

Anyway, I digress. What makes this market particularly unusual is that rather than pay for food with cash or card, you first purchase these old fashioned looking brass tokens and you pay the vendors using these tokens instead. I’m not sure why they have that system, but it kind of added a bit of fun!

Anyway, it was at Tongin market that I first tried tteokbokki and I loved it, I had never had anything like it before. These rice tubes were chewy, and spicy and a little bit sweet (but definitely still a savoury item), it was something just totally new to me. When I got back to the UK I decided I had to try and make the dish myself at home.

I had no idea what the dish was called or even what it was I had eaten. Keep in mind that my travels in Seoul mainly involved me looking at food and pointing at it to order, then looking blank faced whenever anyone said anything but the most basic of Korean words to me. I managed to get down the basic few essential words, hello, goodbye, please, thanks, sorry. One, two, three. But that was about it. So I wasn’t really sure where to start when I got home. I just started googling about Korean food and that is when I stumbled across tteokbokki I knew I had hit the jackpot.

I’ll be honest, I have never been able to recreate the exact dish as I had in the market, I don’t even know if technically speaking I was eating tteokbokki! I think it was probably some close variant on the tteokbokki dish cooked in a different way. The one in the market was quite dry whereas the versions I have found online and have posted here have sauce. However, what I will say, is that this version is still absolutely delicious. I have actually tried a few different versions in my ongoing quest to find that magic recipe, and this is my favourite to date which is now a regular in my home.  Tteokbokki is now also a regular order when I go for Korean food too!

Even if I haven’t found whatever it was I had in that market I am so glad I found tteokbokki! Still, harnessing the power of the internet and the food-loving community out there, can anyone help me work out what it is? Here is a photo that I took that day of some of the food we had in the market. You can see what looks like tubular rice cakes in the bottom left. What is this food called?! Please let me know in the comments!

This tteokbokki recipe is based on the recipe on the blog Seriouslyeats, however I have adapted it to taste based on previous trial and error and also because I was not able to get all the authentic ingredients and so have used some substitutes.

I’m no expert in Korean food, I’m just sharing a recipe, but if you’d like to learn more there is a great piece on Koreanbapsang.com which is a good read.

Time: 1hr

Servings: about 4 large portions (more if just having a little as a snack)

Ingredients

• 500g (1lb) rice cakes (tteokbokki tteok)

• 100g (3 ½ oz) frozen fishballs – here you would traditionally use Korean fish cakes which come in thin slices but I couldn’t get any, hence used frozen Chinese fish balls, the type you’d usually use in a hot pot.

• 175g (50z) pointed white cabbage, chopped into bitesize pieces or shredded if preferred

• 2 spring onions, chopped (plus an extra one for garnish at the end)

• 1 tsp sesame oil

• 1 tsp sesame seeds

• 1 hard boiled egg per person to serve (optional) – this dish often comes with an egg but it’s just an optional extra topping, it’s not an ingredient within the dish, so by all means, leave it out if preferred.

 Sauce

• 750ml (3 cups) dashi stock using stock powder (traditionally you would use anchovy stick using dried anchovies, but I couldn’t find this)

• 1 piece of dried kombu (seaweed)

•  1 tbsp gochugaru (these are Korean chilli flakes which have a slight smokiness too them and can be quite fiery). This is the one I use, it has heat for sure but not too hot which is perfect for me.  

• 3 tbsp gochujang (this is Korean chilli paste. If you cannot get hold of this, I would suggest not making this dish, I have heard some people use sriracha in Korean dishes where they can’t get gochujang, for some dishes I’m sure that is a fine substitute, but for this one, the gochujang is essential in my opinion. Luckily it’s pretty readily available in supermarkets these days or even Amazon or other online stores)

• 1 tbsp soy sauce

• 1 tbsp sugar

• 2 cloves minced garlic

Method

Soak the rice cakes in water for 10 minutes.

Make the stock by putting the water on to boil and adding the kombu and frozen fish balls. Let it bubble away for a few minutes so the seaweed can add flavour to the stock then add in the dashi stock powder. Remove the kombu and discard.  

Add the rest of the sauce ingredients and stir, bringing to a boil and then reduce the heat.

Add the rice cakes and boil for about 10 minutes. Remove the fish balls and slice or leave whole if you prefer. I like to slice them so that you have more mouthfuls with fish ball.  Reduce to a simmer to thicken the sauce but stir regularly so it doesn’t stick.

Add the cabbage and spring onions and simmer for another 5 minutes.

Season to taste with additional sugar and soy then add the sesame oil and stir.

When you serve the dish, top with sesame seeds, a few extra slices of spring onion for colour and a hard-boiled egg cut in half if you fancy.