Let’s settle into the busy streets of Seoul once again, but this time, in the traditional markets. As you walk through the streets full of street food vendors, a vast array of aromas will hit your senses, ranging from pungent, spicy scents to a soft, savory scent. Korea offers a wide choice of street foods to match your tastes, whether you like sweets, fried food, or spicy food.
My go-to street food is called hotteok, which is a pan-fried dough with a sugar and nut filling. Hotteok is a food that is loved across generations, as my grandfather, dad, and I all love this traditional snack. It just so happens that our first stop is the hotteok vendor whenever we visit a traditional market! As you can see in the picture below, the vendor will usually fold the dough in half to fit it in a cup that you can easily hold. But don’t be fooled! The cup will get very hot and it will become a struggle to hold it and eat it at the same time. If you are willing to risk the mess of the molten sugar running down your hands or the side of your face, hotteok is a worthwhile snack to try. It even cost less than a dollar, making it a very affordable snack whenever you are feeling the temptation to eat a sweet snack!
Right beside the hotteok stand, there is often a fried-food stand, showing off the delicious mix of fried goods. In America, you would typically think of fried foods such as fried potatoes, cheese, or dough, but Korea has a whole new world of fried foods! These stands often sell fried shrimp, fried noodles wrapped in seaweed, fried squid, and fried blood sausages. The crispy outer layer gives you the perfect crunch while the insides are nice and hot to warm you up. My personal favorite happens to be the fried medley of vegetables including sweet potatoes, potatoes, carrots, and scallions. These fried snacks are often sold in a set so you can try all the different flavors of fried foods. If you’d like to bring out the flavor even more, try dipping it in soy sauce!
If eating fried foods alone sounds greasy to you, I strongly suggest you order a side of spicy rice cakes and fish cakes (tteokbokki & eomuk) pictured below. They are also very commonly sold at traditional markets along the streets, as it is often known as the Korean soul food. In tteokbokki, the spices in the rice cake sauce are just enough to suppress the greasy flavors that can come from fried foods. If you’re a fan of spicy foods, try dipping your fried snack in the sauce! A lot of Koreans choose to eat this way, as I also do. If you’re not a fan of super spicy foods, the eomuk (fish cakes) is another perfect combination. The fish cake is a chewy food that is cooked in a sweet and savory soup to give it a sweet and savory flavor. Just like the fried food, it is also often dipped in soy sauce to give it an extra layer of flavor.
The last street food I will mention in this blog is fried chicken! Korean fried chicken is a culinary icon of Korea, as you can almost always see at least one fried chicken store on every block (I thought this was a joke until I actually started counting as I walked through the streets…). The fried chicken sold on the streets is called dakgangjeong, which can be coated with a sweet and spicy sauce or a spicy sauce. If spicy flavors don’t fit your tastes, the vendors always offer plain fried chicken, which is equally as good! The fried chicken is on the more expensive side (~15 dollars per box but still worth your money), so it is very common to order one box for a group of four to five people. It only promotes our culture of sharing food!
What I loved about traveling in Korea was that I never had to worry about being hungry. There was always food to be found in every corner of the streets in the city with enough variety to fulfill whatever craving I had at the moment.
