I'll stir fry you in my wok. Classic, warming, street food: Korean chicken, rice cakes, and ddeokboki.

Today we took the kids to the outdoor ice skating rink. We were all getting a bit hungry and the fare being sold at the ice rink was a little nutritionally devoid–while delicious when hungry and in cold weather just not enough to hit the spot and really be called lunch. Packaged sausage on a stick, hot chocolate mix in a cup for 3,000 won (2.50 USD) and instant ramen.

So off we went on our voyage to discover the perfect kimbap place. The Korean answer to a sandwich is full of veggies, rice and wrapped up in a seaweed layer then topped with sesame seeds like the perfect present.

Being new years day our options were becoming more and more clear that there were very few options indeed. But then across the street with a bike sign for the previous store that occupied the now restaurant--the signs of the perfect roadside kimbap shop.

A plastic curtain hangs around the tiny entrance and only two chairs next to a pull up bar to the woman’s kitchen. Steam rose off of the folded fish cakes on sticks. The ones where you just pick them up and eat them as much as you want and pay at the end. Pour yourself a warm cup of broth and a tiny cup of spicy green pepper soy sauce for dipping and you are on the way to being perfectly warmed up on a cold day.

There's a tv far back in the kitchen and behind that her living area or office. I can see it is small and dark and has a bicycle in there. I wonder if she uses it to explore the bike trails in the park or just to work or if maybe she only needs her bike and no car.

We ordered 2 kimbaps, one with the house name and one tuna. Ddeokboki spicy rice cakes and 1 soy sauce chicken.

We ate the fish cakes on a stick as appetizers while we marveled at the lady cooking everything fresh right in front of our eyes as we sat on barstools with a full view of her kitchen.

Signs are all in Korean and say that posting on youtube and facebook is a lucky thing to do. Signs read: I give a lot so be healthy!

She fired up an old iron fire pit and put rice cakes, thinly sliced fishcakes, and gochujang red sauce in a pan. Then she turned to her kimbap set-up. Vegetables are already cut and laid out in their compartments. She laid the rice on the rectangle shaped dried seaweed and stuffed them full of thinly sliced vegetables and roots along with full sesame leaves. She sprinkled sesame seeds on them and boxed them up. The sushi-like rolls were so full of the contents that vegetables were peeking out of the sides of the box.

Like in a dance, she checks the ddeokbok and swirls it around once, turns around and pulls out the raw chicken and the fry dough batter and starts up the big iron cast fry wok that looks like it was made during the time of the Korean war. She throws the battered chicken in the wok and lets it snap and fry.

She boxes up the ddeokbokki and browns some more rice cakes in plain cooking oil to throw in with the freshly fried chicken and then boxes that up.

We pay 19,000 won (14.50 USD) for the whole lunch fest, even including the fried chicken. Our baby blows her kisses. She tells us to call her grandma. I loved the whole fresh family kitchen just a step from the road vibe.

We brought back our goodies to the ice rink to share with the kids. They run out excitedly because it really is all of their favorite food. Dipping the kimbap in the ddeokboki sauce, eating a rice cake, and then dipping the chicken in the ddeokboki sauce was street food heaven. We ate on benches in the riverside park. Stars hung in the trees for the new years and Christmas decorations remained.

Street food inspires my cooking at home. It is easy, fast, and always loved by my kids.

Ddeokbokki

Ddeokbokki is easily considered and fondly remembered as a childhood comfort food for Koreans. I’ll admit it was a bit of a put off when I first encountered it. I worked in a late night English academy and the middle school and high school students would be holding little paper cups with the red sauce rice cakes that could easily work as a Halloween dupe for severed fingers. But I got around to trying it and really worked up an appreciation for rice cakes and all the little add-ins.

Now there is most definitely a secret ingredient in rice cakes. Back in the days when the population was before its deep declining time as is the time now there was always a very very long line in front of the one old rice cake shop in downtown.

Naturally, this rice cake shop has been profiled on many tv network programs. The shop is so old and unadorned and the lady sits out by the front window with a large grill showcasing the food using a large spoon stirring the sauce and adding rice cakes, fish cakes, and cabbage. There are really only 2 things on the menu. Rice cakes and dumplings. There are only 3 drinks available Cool Pas (usually in peach or plum flavor some kind of juice mixed with yogurt–probably yokurta–a very sugary liquid yogurt drink), cola, and water. Most people go for the Cool pas as that is the classic combo with ddeokbokki.

Now, let me repeat, back before covid and population decline, it was a really really long line for this lady’s ddeokbokki. Every single day and several times a day. So naturally I also waited in line to try this magical rice cake that would beg people to wait hungrily in the street for this classic favorite.

And it is good. It really has the best flavor profile of any rice cake I had. But I knew the flavors the second I tasted it. The secret is red ddeokboki sauce plus slightly sweet Korean curry powder.

Below are three types of Ddeokbokki. Ddeokbokki can be spicy or not even if it is red. It is usually slightly sweet. For those that prefer to make an easy no spicy version the curry version is great. Japanese or Korean curry mixes will achieve the same sweet and savory flavor.

Get in line Secret Ddeokbokki

1 package of ddeokbokki rice cakes. They will be rice cakes about 1 and ½ inch in length in long oval like shapes.

¼ cup Curry powder–Korean or Japanese prepared powder or (cumin, corn starch, sugar, )

1 tablespoon Gochujang The kind that comes in the square tub packaging. It is dark red, sweet, and a tiny bit of heat. (You can add a little tiny bit to a lot to adjust your heat preference)

Flat fish cakes 1 package

A quarter Cabbage

2-3 Boiled eggs

Spring onion (for topping optional)

Sesame seeds (for topping optional)

Instructions

Cut the fish cakes lengthwise in about ½ in strips.

Cut the cabbage in small chunks and some in thin slices around 1 or 2 in in size.

Cut the boiled eggs in half after peeling them.

Rinse the rice cakes in water and them add them to the pot with enough water to cover them. Boil for about 5 minutes or until they are looking a little plumper and have a nice marshmallowy squish to them.

Throw out about half of the water.

Add all ingredients to the pot. Add curry powder. Mix until combined. Add more water to adjust your desired thickness. Curry should be sauce-like.

Pull it off the heat and eat on a plate. Can add spring onion and sesame seeds for garnish.

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