Tteokbokki

Tteokbokki , or simmered rice cake, is a popular Korean food made from small-sized garae-tteok (long, white, cylinder-shaped rice cakes) called tteokmyeon (떡면; "rice cake noodles") or commonly tteokbokki-tteok (떡볶이 떡; "tteokbokki rice cakes"). Eomuk (fish cakes), boiled eggs, and scallions are some common ingredients paired with tteokbokki in dishes. It can be seasoned with either spicy gochujang (chili paste) or non-spicy ganjang (soy sauce)-based sauce; the former is the most common form, while the latter is less common and sometimes called gungjung-tteokbokki (royal court tteokbokki). Today, variations also include curry-tteokbokki, cream sauce-tteokbokki, jajang-tteokbokki, seafood-tteokbokki, rose-tteokbokki, galbi-tteokbokki and so on. Tteokbokki is commonly purchased and eaten at bunsikjip (snack bars) as well as pojangmacha (street stalls). There are also dedicated restaurants for tteokbokki, where it is referred to as jeukseok tteokbokki (impromptu tteokbokki). It is also a popular home dish, as the garae-tteok can be purchased in pre-packaged, semi-dehydrated form. The first record on tteok-bokki appears in Siuijeonseo, a 19th-century cookbook, where the dish was listed using the archaic spelling steokbokgi ( ᄯᅥᆨ복기). According to the book, tteok-bokki was known by various names including tteokjjim (steamed rice cakes), tteok-japchae (stir-fried rice cakes), and tteok-jeongol (rice cakes hot pot). The royal court version was made from white tteok (rice cakes), sirloin, sesame oil, soy sauce, scallions, rock tripe, pine nuts, and toasted and ground sesame seeds, while the savory, soy sauce-based tteok-bokki was made in the head house of the Papyeong Yun clan, where high-quality soy sauce was brewed. In this version, ingredients such as short ribs were common. The name tteok-bokki also appears in the revised and enlarged edition of Chosŏn mussang sinsik yorijepŏp [ko], where it is described as a soy sauce-based savory dish.

Source: Wikipedia