You can tell when a vendor has had some success at one of the many food expos during the year. It looks like sugar cane juicers hit it big.
There are three major areas where I check for street food trends, Insa-dong, Myeong-dong, and Hongdae. I first saw this in Hongdae last month, and I saw it again last weekend in Myeong-dong. Last year it looked to be fresh squeezed lemonade and, to a smaller extent, coconuts with straws stuck in them. Now we have vendors with stainless steel machines squeezing the juice out of sugar canes. When dunked in ice, they are surprisingly refreshing. Though I don’t see myself outright craving a cup.
Was giving an all-day private tour yesterday. One of the things we had was Insa-dong’s Ddong Bbang (“Poop Bread”). It’s a lot like IngeoBbang/BungeoBbang (the fish-shaped pastries). It’s a pancake batter cooked in a mold and filled with red beans. Just shaped like a pile of dog poop.
The first time I saw these was at the Samziegil Building in Insa-dong. There was a stand on the ground level. Now there’s a shop on the top floor. If you go into Jonggak Station there’s a kiosk called Dong Bang. They sell poop bread with different fillings.
Curtis File has written a story for Yonhap about the popular Noryangjin food stalls and the movement by restaurants and convenience stores to kick them out. This may sound familiar to you, as it’s where we posted about the unique Poktanbap “Bomb Rice” (and recipe). It’s one of the coolest street food areas in Seoul. It’s a shame–a crime–that the corporate franchises are getting them kicked out. I don’t know the details of how the system is done there, but it seems like a good compromise is to have the stalls register with the government and pay taxes. I seriously doubt that would appease the franchises, as I’m sure that’s the bone they grabbed on to. They want the competition out of their area.
And the Seoul government has a reputation for being ashamed of its street food culture.
Food stalls become source of livelihood and bad business (Yonhap)
Based on Tammy’s and Seoul Sub–>Urban’s posts, I wanted to check out this “Bomb Rice” Poktanbap 폭탄밥 in Noryangjin. I was in the area anyway. To find it, leave Noryangjin Station (line 1) and cross the overpass away from the fish market. Turn left, and head towards a row of street food vendors. The Bomb Rice is in front of the McDonald’s.
But the entire row of vendors was interesting itself. One criticism–or disappointment–people have of Korean street food is that even though it’s good, there’s little variety. Every vendor basically sells the same stuff–odeng, sundae, twigim, ddeokbokki with the occasional hoddeok, bungeobbang and egg bread stand. Like the apartment building architecture, Korean street food is just factory stamped copies of each other.
But this place is different.
They had the tried-and-predictable standards, but there were also vendors that sold fried rice, deopbap, omurice, hot dogs, little rice balls, curry ddeokbokki, and there was the lady who sold bibimbap and Poktanbap.
I ordered the small “botong” bowl for W2,000. She warned me it was spicy, and I told her it was okay. I had prepared by getting some drinks at the local GS25. She got a small styrofoam bowl and filled it with a scoop of rice, topped it with a slice of American cheese, ground beef, crunchy flying fish roe, roasted seaweed confetti, fried seaweed, two spoonfulls of gochujang, crushed walnuts, a pinch of shredded coconut, and a gorgeous runny fried egg she grilled on the flattop per order.
Yes, coconut and walnuts.
I sat down on the stoop in front of McD’s and stirred it up. Took a big bite. It was HOT! Deeply and pleasantly hot. The coconut was a surprise, but it was such a small presence that it subtly smoothed out the other ingredients. The fish roe kept it interesting with its crunchiness. Compared to much street food and fast food, it was relatively healthy. And my stomach was burning the rest of the day. I want to go back and have another. I think a small bowl is all you need.
But get this, even though this area was different, it was popular. I think it’s also located near post-graduate cram schools for people training to be lawyers and such. It was all college-aged kids, and they were standing in line for these items. In Korea, the university areas are the breeding grounds for new culinary ideas. New foreign franchises tend to open near the women’s university because, seriously, more Korean women overwhelmingly occupy new types of restaurants than men. But this area was well represented by both genders.
Young man enjoying a large bowl of Poktanbap
Is it an anomaly or a sign of things to come? I hope the latter.
Fried RiceDeopBap and Curry RiceSays "Oga-ne Pancake" but has hot dogs. Need to investigate closely next time.Kimchi Jjigae DeopBap? Interesting.
I think Roboseyo or Fatman introduced me to this. We were on a mid-town street food excursion, when they said we had to try this HoDdeok 호떡 (pronounced HO-dock with a very hard /d/ bordering on a /t/). I like HoDdeok. My first impression of these sweet molten lava-stuffed fried goodies was that of New Orleans beignets. They just needed some powdered sugar and a cup of chicory-laced cafe au lait.
There are increasing variations of these yeasty discs. With the “well-being” craze, we have seen oil-free ones cooked in non-stick enclosed iron pans (similar to the method for making takoyaki) and HoDdeok mixed with green tea powder. I still have an aversion to any bread product that is green.
But the Insa-dong HoDdeok speaks to the southerner in me. The yeast-risen wheat dough is mixed with corn meal to give it an extra crunch and nutty aroma, which is why there have been lines wrapped around two side-by-side Insa-dong HoDdeok stands in the winter. I’m tempted to call them Korean Hoe Cakes.
It looks like this idea of incorporating corn meal in fried dough street food is spreading. I’m starting to see this in Myeong-dong, which is the incubator for Korean street food trends, where the tornado potato and takoyaki got their starts on the peninsula.
My question is, where are they getting their hands on corn meal? That’s not a normal E-Mart staple.
I just noticed these in Insa-dong. Actually, I didn’t notice them in Insa-dong. We were so rushed with doing street food munching video footage for SBS that I didn’t investigate this further until I downloaded my pics at home. If I had been paying closer attention and not heeding the producer who wanted me to buy a hoddeok (in summer, have you), I woulda gone for one of these.
What are they?
They look like hoddeok with japchae inside. It looks like the same rice and corn flour mixture that’s in those famous Insa-dong hoddeok, which I call “Insa-dong hocakes.”
Gonna have to try one next time. People love japchae. People love fried dough. Together at last!
We saw this in Insa-dong this past weekend. They’ve actually been there for a few months. The Insa-dong and Jongno areas tend to be where new street foods are introduced, outside of Myeong-dong. That’s where the Chuncheon-style dalkgocchi (chicken on a stick) started, where they grill thick morsels of chicken and veggies over charcoal. It’s also the home of some of the most popular hoddeok in Seoul, with lines around the cart. I think the secret is they use corn meal in the batter.
This little operation has bulgogi-stuffed and sweet-potato-and-walnut-stuffed breads that are cooked tandoori style over charcoal.
CAUTION: These little buggers are hot and remain so for a long time, even on the outside. These will be quite useful in the winter as hand warmers.
We got the bulgogi version. I didn’t immediately taste much charcoal smoke, but it had a nice toasted quality that will make me buy these (2,000 won) every time I’m back in the area.
The weather gets cooler–it’s street food season. Check out these Eggy Bread (Gyeran Bbang 계란 빵). They’re a bit like French Toast but more… eggy. They have a slight sweetness but not overpowering, and they are perfect for a late night street food crawl.
I came across this monster outside of Anyang Station. There’s a good string of pojang machas (street food stands) to the left leaving the station. There is some good healthy competition and innovation going on there, including the chicken-on-a-stick stand with bowls and bowls of sauces you can brush on your grilled chicken.
This is like a typical odeng/eomuk (fish noodle) stand–except that the noodles have been soaking in a hot bath of crab essence.
See them back there?
I didn’t ask if you could actually get one of the bad boys themselves. The odeng itself was freakin’ spicy–even for me. But it was amazing. The stand had the normal soy-based brushing sauce and a wasabi-based one. It also had a tub of crab odeng without the heat.
The Myeong-dong area is full of shops. It’s also full of street food stands. They all tend to sell the same thing–which is usually the latest trend in Korean street food. Last year there were rows of Takoyaki stalls. Now they’re all gone. Everyone is doing these spiral cut fried potatoes.
Cool concept. It looks like they’re from a central producer because the vendors get the raw spiral cut potatoes from sealed plastic bags that look like they came from a restaurant distributor. After buying a Spiral Potato, the customer coats it in a dish of cheese powder.
These aren’t too bad, but they are also easy to screw up. They can get over fried and hard as a rock if not eaten fresh out of the fryer, like the Goguma Sticks (Sweet Potato French Fries).
Like the Takoyaki stands, be prepared to see Fried Spiral Potatoes leave Myeong-dong and head into the suburbs.
