Exploring Seoul: Tteokbokki Town

Cate — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 00:14:27 +0000

I love the social, hands-on aspect of going out to eat here. In addition to Korean Barbecue, there’s a lesser-known (outside of Korea) dish called Tteokbokki, which I’ve heard described as the Korean equivalent of macaroni and cheese because it’s simple comfort food. We decided to go to Seoul’s “tteokbokki town” to experience the phenomenon for ourselves.
We took the subway to Sindang-dong, and not far from the station exit, we saw this and knew we were in the right place.

It literally reads “Sindang-dong Tteokbokki town” in Hangul. The street has a number of restaurants, and they all specialize in Tteokbokki.
This restaurant is the original, and while they apparently don’t serve the traditional version of the dish, it was the most crowded restaurant on the street. We took that as a good sign.

The menu is simple – they only serve one thing, and you order based on how many people are eating. Since there were two of us, we paid 10,000 won, or under $5 per person.

All the tables have a burner in the middle. The waitress brought us a HUGE pan with noodles, rice cakes, onions, cabbage, hard boiled eggs, chili sauce, and fried dumplings and we started cooking our dinner.

The restaurant provides aprons for diners, because the cooking process can get a little messy. As you can see, I was not the only person wearing one!

Mike (who opted not to wear an apron) took over stirring duty as the water began to boil.

After a few minutes of cooking, the sauce thickened and the noodles were cooked.

Each person gets a small metal plate and fork, and you serve yourself from the pan. It’s a really tasty, filling (and cheap) dinner!

Cate's World Kitchen » tteokbokki

Exploring Seoul: Tteokbokki Town