Tteokbokki All Grown Up at Bbun-Shik

Tteokbokki (떠볶이) consists of thick, stubby fingers of rice cake drowned in spicy sauce. Sometimes the rice cakes, called tteok, are stuffed with cheese or mashed up sweet potato. With all those delicious, simple carbs, it's easy to see why Korean kids love it so much. 

However, there is not much in it for the more rounded palates and stricter dietary needs of adults. There are no rich sources of protein, no vitamin rich veggies, and not near enough fiber help you out in the morning. So what is a tteok-bokki loving adult to do? 

You could try out Bbun Shik (뿐식).

Yubu-jeukbokki before and after

Bbun Shik is a new restaurant in downtown Pyeongtaek by the fountain. They advertise themselves as a "Fusion Tteokbokki" restaurant. And while there are western influences in their menu, the West doesn't mix much with East there. What they do fuse together are kid's food and adult food. Think of them as dietary training wheels for high-schoolers transitioning from cheap, unsophisticated, unbalanced kid's food to moderately priced, nutritious, mature, adult food. 

The set menu is the main feature at Bbun Shik. For 16,900 to 24,900 won you can get a three course, tteokbokki centered meal large enough for two or three people. Accompanied by Eat Korea's robotic taste tester, the NetBot, we chose the A2 set. For 17,800 won we got a variety of mature twists on common kid's fare. 

To start, our tteokbokki was upgraded from the typical dixie cup of spicy rice cakes to something called yubu-dong jeukseok tteokbokki (유부동 즉석 떠볶이). At first glance, I wasn't even sure there was any tteok in yubu-dong jeukseok tteokbokki (Let's call it "yubu-jeukbokki"). Before cooking, it looked like many of the stews found in Korea: a big pile of veggies. There were these two big Japanese-looking dumpling-like things on the top, though, which I later found out were yubu-dong. Sure enough, though, there were pieces of tteok (plain and cheese filled) at the bottom of the pile. There really wasn't that much tteok, maybe fourteen pieces. But, if you're trying to be at least moderately healthy, that shouldn't matter. The cabbage, kimchi, carrots, eggs, bean sprouts and noodles make up for it. As for the spice factor, the store owner asked us if we could handle spicy food. We said yes, but by my reckoning the yubu-jeukbokki wasn't that spicy. Although, after 54 months in Korea my tastebuds have probably been burned senseless.  

Gorgonzola Pizza & Honey

On to the next part of the meal, served alongside the yubu-jeukbokki was the only evidence of the west on the menu besides cheese: pizza. This wasn't your elementary student's Pizza School pizza, though. This was one of those crispy, thin-crusted gorgonzola pizzas that have become so trendy in "western style" Korean restaurants these days. In keeping with the trend, the pizza came with a dish of honey. And kudos to Bbun-shik, not only was the crust fresh, crisp and light, but they gave us a lot of honey too. 

Cheese Bokkeum Bap

Lastly, our meal came with a choice. If you order the A2 set you can end your meal with either nalchi-al jumokbap (날치알 주먹밥), flying fish roe rice balls, or cheese bokkeum bap (치즈 볶음밥), cheese fried rice. The NetBot and I aren't very adult anyhow, so we went with the cheese bokkeum bap. A yummy choice as you can see by the photo. 

The fusion of youth and maturity doesn't stop at the food, though. The music, as described by the
NetBot, was a combination of Korean opera and house music. I missed the opera part, so I can't verify that part, but I did pick out some Daft Punk and Jamiroquai on the speakers. 

Maturity levels may be mixed throughout Bbun-shik, but they at least know where to place their priorities. As any good parent encourages good hygiene and responsibility, the place is spotlessly clean, and the service is prompt, attentive and friendly. Adult life is a bore, though. They have to mix it up somehow. The large storefront window makes a perfect outlet for childish fun. In the room is an aluminum cup filled with colorful dry-erase markers. If you ask nicely the owners will let you graffiti their front window. Yeah!

2014.12.12 | 지도 크게 보기 ©  NAVER Corp.

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Blog: Is Ssallo Byeol Gluten Free?

I don't often eat snack foods, but when I do I eat original flavor Ssallo Byeol (쌀로별 오리지날). Unlike other Korean snacks it can't moonlight as a sugary breakfast cereal. It has the caramelized salty-sweetness of soy sauce instead. It also it doesn't crash my energy level like the other snacks do — a key trait for a snack if you're a teacher.

Anyhow, I always assumed it was only made with rice, because ssal (쌀) means rice. So I got really excited when I saw it at MiniStop, a Korean convenience store chain, last week. It was the first day of the year that was warm enough to sit outside and write in the park, so I was preparing a small picnic for myself. Naturally, excited by the prospect of a gluten free snack, I bought the lumpy, tan rice balls.

Later on I was sitting on the floor of a Korean style gazebo — the kind traditionally used by scholars and poets to muse and compose. With my iPad in my lap, a bottle of ice tea at hand, and a pile of empty string-cheese wrappers nearby, I contemplated just how gluten-free Ssallo Byeol really was.

It took me approximately 15 minutes more or less to translate the ingredients. To cut down on time one can look for mil (밀), the Korean word for wheat. This is what my friend Lauren Andrews does. She is one of the few people I know who lives in Korea with celiac disease. However, I wanted to be as complete in my translation as I could just to be sure. This is what I found:

Imported rice with a list of related ingredients and import information I could not completely translate. I also found white sugar and starch syrup. I wondered what the source of the starch was, but as I read on I found out it didn't matter. Next up on the list was tapioca starch and a mix of soy sauces. And in that mix was — wheat (dundundun!). Next on the list was brewed soy sauce, tomato juice, pea protein, red pepper paste, wheat starch (more dundundun!), some special salt I can't completely translate, and onion powder. Lastly came the usuall and not at all bizarre allergy warning that it was manufactured in a facility that processes milk, peanuts, and shrimp. Korean snacks are processed with shrimp?! Yes. In fact, there are a lot of shrimp flavored snacks in Korea. Shellfish alergenated people beware.

I can eat shrimp. But I can't eat wheat, so goodbye crispy rice balls that betray your gluten free origins.

 

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Dear Stomachs,

Consider the opportunity to contemplate a table of uniquely bizarre foods while gazing upon the Yellow Sea. On one dish is a pile of squirming octopus tentacles. On another plate you see something that was once alive and may still be, but now it resembles a Cadbury cream orange goo. On yet another plate you discover sometimes writhing strips cut from a disturbingly phallic sea worm. Nearby is a bucket of enormous, live shrimp on ice. The man next to you casually snatches one out of the pail, snaps off its head off and peels it in one motion before dipping it in a red sauce and eats it. If seafood is not to your liking, on another day you might find yourself in town with Western friends eating grilled sheep or cow intestines while cautioning your dinner-mates about the intact "cream-filled" ones. This is the life of the writer of Eat Korea.

Eat Korea strives to be a guide to the amazing and sometimes bizarre world of Korean and expat food. In this land I found useable blankets, ear-muffs and coffee mugs taped to cereal boxes at Lotte Mart. I picked boiled silk-worm pupae out of a dixie-cup at a green-tea festival nestled in the verdant slopes of a tea plantation. I enjoyed the most amazing noodle soup on the planet under the grime dripping tarp of an outdoor restaurant hidden under an overpass. Heads and all, I ate dried, tiny fishies dipped in ketchup while standing on a mountain top. I was invigorated by the flesh of "man's best friend." And I even tasted a fresh apple and seaweed salad during an unexpected stay in a Korean hospital.

Eating in South Korea is always an adventure. But you do not have to explore blindly. Whether you are thinking of visiting the country, moving here or even if you already live here, Eat Korea is your guide to the adventure of Korean cuisine (But primarily in Pyeongtaek).

Yes, sometimes it is moving. But go ahead. Meok-aw 먹어 (Eat!) !

Sincerely,
Michael T.S. Farrell

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