How to Make Korean Street Food at Home
From crispy hotteok to sizzling tteokbokki, Korean street food is some of the most exciting in the world. You do not need a market stall to make it — here is how to bring five classics home.
Korean Street Food Culture
Korean street food (pojangmacha) is an institution. In every Korean city, market stalls and food tents line the streets selling everything from spicy rice cakes to stuffed pancakes to skewered fish cakes. The food is fast, cheap, intensely flavoured, and designed to be eaten standing up with a wooden stick or a paper cup. Recreating it at home is easier than you might think, and most of the key ingredients are now available in the UK.
Hotteok (Sweet Stuffed Pancakes)
Hotteok are yeasted dough pockets filled with brown sugar, cinnamon, and crushed peanuts, then pressed flat and fried until crispy on the outside and molten on the inside. CJ Beksul's hotteok mix makes the process straightforward — add water, let the dough rise for thirty minutes, stuff with the included filling, and fry in a lightly oiled pan. Press each pancake flat with a spatula while cooking. The result is dangerously good — crispy, sweet, and so hot inside that you need to let it cool for a minute before biting in.
Eomuk (Fish Cake Skewers)
Fish cake skewers are the quintessential Korean street food — sheets of processed fish cake threaded onto sticks in a zigzag pattern and simmered in a light anchovy-kelp broth. The broth is served in cups alongside the skewers, and on a cold day it is one of the most comforting things in existence. Samjin fish cake sheets are available frozen on Amazon. Thread them onto wooden skewers, simmer in dashi or anchovy stock for fifteen minutes, and serve with soy sauce for dipping.
Korean Corn Dogs
Korean corn dogs (hotdog on a stick coated in a sweet, crunchy batter and sometimes rolled in sugar or potato cubes) went viral on social media and for good reason. CJ Beksul's corn dog mix handles the batter, and you supply the sausages and mozzarella sticks. Deep-fry until golden, roll in sugar, and serve with ketchup and mustard. They are ridiculous and wonderful.
Tteokbokki
The king of Korean street food. Chewy rice cakes in a fiery gochujang sauce, often with fish cakes and boiled eggs. The sauce is a simple mix of gochujang, gochugaru, sugar, soy sauce, and water, simmered until thick and glossy. Buy fresh or frozen rice cakes from an Asian supermarket for the best texture — they should be chewy and slightly resistant to the bite, not mushy.
Tips for an Authentic Experience
Korean street food is meant to be shared and eaten casually. Set everything out on a table, eat with your hands and chopsticks, and do not worry about presentation. The charm is in the mess and the informality. A few bottles of soju or cans of Korean beer complete the atmosphere perfectly.
