Are You Really a Macho Man?- Introduction of Korean rice cakes in hot sauce, ‘tteokbokki’

    Have you ever heard of ‘Macho’ man?
Definitely you have many times. Well, this word, ‘Macho’ originated from a Spanish, ‘machismo’. And it means ‘excessively masculine’ or ‘unfearing’, ‘very strong’, ‘who loves strong liquor’, ‘who loves hot food’, and ‘very tough’.

Can You really enjoy hot food with hot chilli?

  In Korea, there is a very popular food named 'tteokbokki'. If you come to Korea, you can enjoy it all over the country, and you can easily find a lot of street vendors making it on the sidewalk. Then, what does ‘tteokbokki’ mean? 'Tteok' means ‘rice cakes’, and ‘bokki’ means ‘stir-frying’, but actually, it is a kind of rice cakes in hot sauce. And there are two kinds of ‘tteokbokki’ in Korea. One is flour based food type of tteokbokki, and it is made from garaetteok, a kind of Korean traditional food as popular as it is selected as a leading export food by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Korean Government, which looks like a long cylindrical bar.

 To make this kind of tteokbokki, they make garaetteok thinner as about a quarter size in diameter than common one, or slice the common one, and flavor the tteok with red-pepper paste(gochujang) to make it hot. The other is a royal court cuisine, and they flavor the tteok with soy sauce.

  Tteokbokki was originally developed in the royal court long ago, and at that time, it wasn't hot like that of these days because they made it with tteok and beef pickled in soy sauce with various spices. And hot tteokbokki that we usually associate with tteokbokki is often called 'royal court tteokbokki' these days, but they make it mainly with red-pepper paste(gochujang) and sugar so that it tastes very hot and sweet.

The general recipe of this kind of “tteokbokki” is as follows.

1. Mix marinade mixed with hot spices like red pepper paste and sweet condiments like sugar or starch syrup with tteok well.

2. Put it in the griddle.

3. Boil it down stir-frying it.

4. In some places, they make racy flavors by adding ketchup, pepper, or mustard on it.

  There are many kinds of tteokbokki according to the added food supplies, such as cheese tteokbokki, gopchang(intestine) tteokbokki, ramen tteokbokki. The common feature of these foods is extremely hot! But whoever he or she is, the one who has once tried it must seek it again and again!

  Korean shindang-dong Grandma's tteokbokki is so popular that many chain stores have been opened, and it is also as popular as they eat it very often as their staple food or snacks without distinction of age or sex. It has an extremely hot and moderately sweet flavor, and the flavor can be changed to an unlimited extent according to the kinds of the sauce or additives.

  Well, every Macho man in the world, who is by far the best to eat hot food. Would you like some tteokbokki? Until you have finished it, please try to endure without drinking any water.

  When your Korean girlfriend or children are with you, please don't act a Macho man, thinking or saying, "They say that Korean tteokbokki is so hot, so hot, but I think I can enjoy it.", or as soon as you try it, you'll have streaming eyes and runny nose, and on your back and forehead, you will be completely running with sweat. Ha-ha...^^

  (You know what? Even though “tteokbokki” is that much hot, Wonder Girls, a Korean girl singers’ group eat it very well without batting an eyelid.) Anyway, if you once have tried tteokbokki, you will surely pester your girlfriend to go to eat it again. Yes! This is tteokbokki!!

<Various Photos of Tteokbokki>

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To celebrate introducing Korean tteokbokki here, if you leave your replies, exact address, and e-mail address here, we will send some tteokbokki now sold as a snack in Korea to the first 5 arrivals free. If you want to know the recipe of it, please ask about it to your Korean friends around you. Because the recipe is mainly known to only Korean people. Well, please look for your Korean friends near you now.