Tteokbokki

One of my favorite snack would be tteokbokki. For anyone who is familiar with Korea, would have heard about this spicy rice cake soup as translated in english, one way or another. It's very popular with schoolchildren here and there are stores selling this everywhere.

By the way I don't think it's a soup like translated, it's more of like rice-cake in spicy sauce for me. Whoever coined the term spicy-rice cake SOUP is at fault here. But whatever shortcomings it may have, it makes up for it's taste. One caution though, it's very spicy! I first thought it's very weird to mix spicy with sweet. Yes, it's sweet n' spicy but in a good way.

It's very easy to make; I just put 'tteok' (cylindrical rice cake), gochukaru (red-pepper powder), broth, some fishcake, and vegetables (carrots, cabbage but I prefer none) and boil it till it reaches a ketchup-like consistency. Others put ramyeon noodles, eggs, and even smother kimbap pieces in it's sauce but for me, I'd stick with the basic. For presentation purposes, I sprinkled it with sesame seeds... It doesn't do much for the taste but it adds a distinct flavor and a crunch element.