Tteokbokki: A nostalgic dish for Koreans

Tteokbokki (볶이) is more than just a food for Koreans. It is a part of their culture and history. The Korean tteokbokki recipe and ingredients may vary by region and era, but its essence remains the same: it is the comfort food of Koreans. The restaurant in Seoul I'll mention below has been on the list of 'Tteokbokki restaurants in Seoul' for 40 years. It has preserved the legacy of its founder's mother-in-law and has created many happy memories for its customers.

Koreans grew up with tteokbokki. The enticing aroma from the street stalls on their way back from school is a lasting impression that they cherish. 

The most popular version of tteokbokki recipe today is the spicy one with gochujang, a red chili paste. It is credited to Ma Bok-rim (马福林, 1920~2011), who invented it by accident. Before that, tteokbokki was a dish made with rice cakes cut into small pieces, mixed with various vegetables, and seasoned with soy sauce. It was a royal dish in the late 19th century of the Joseon Dynasty, according to the cookbook <The Book of Poetry> (是議全書) by an anonymous author. It was called "tteok-steamed" or "tteokjapchae" and it was made with "white sputum rice cakes, sirloin, sesame oil, soy sauce, green onions, and mushrooms." How did such a luxurious dish become a common snack?

In 1953, right after the Korean War, Mr. Ma went to a Chinese restaurant to treat a special guest. The owner was giving out rice cakes to each table, and Mr. Ma left them in a bowl of salty rice by mistake. He found out that it tasted surprisingly good. He went home and made his own version of tteokbokki with gochujang instead of the expensive chunjang, a black bean paste. He opened a shop in Sindang-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, selling tteokbokki with a sauce made of gochujang and chunjang. It became a national sensation in the 1970s. There were many snack shops in the area that catered to teenagers, and some of them had DJs playing music requests. Enjoying tteokbokki with their favorite tunes was a fun activity for the young generation back then.

A family's source of income (한 가족의 생계)

Kim Jin-sook's mother-in-law started selling tteokbokki in the 1980s at a market in Galhyeon-dong, Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul. She did not have a signboard for her stall.

"My mother, who is ninety-two years old this year, was in her mid-forties, and my husband was eleven. There were three girls' high schools nearby, so there were many students. There were no school meals at that time, so many kids came to eat tteokbokki during lunchtime. They kept coming even after they graduated, so the stall was always busy. My in-laws had a big family, and my mother supported them with her business."

Kim married Kim Wan-yong, the fourth son of her mother-in-law, in 1992. Ten years ago, when her mother-in-law had a hip surgery and could not work anymore, the whole family took turns to help. Her husband also quit his job and joined the stall, and one day he asked Kim, 'Do you want to come with me?' She agreed. Her youngest child, who was in the third grade of elementary school then, was on summer break, so she had some free time. She followed her husband and assisted him for about a week, and her mother-in-law, who was watching, asked her if she wanted to continue. She was not sure, but she said yes, and that's how she became a tteokbokki seller.

In 2015, the market was demolished due to urban redevelopment, and they opened a new shop on the same site. They also put up a sign for the first time that says, "Galhyun Market's Grandma's Tteokbokki."

"My mother was over 80, but she hated being called Grandma," Kim said with a smile. "That's when my husband and I opened this shop together. The menu is the same as my mother's at the market. Tteokbokki, sundae, two kinds of dumplings, boiled eggs, seaweed rolls."

The basic recipe is from my mother-in-law, but the sauce is slightly different. We make it less pungent and more mellow. It's not too sweet, salty, or spicy. We also choose the ingredients carefully for health and hygiene.

My husband arrives at the shop at 7 a.m. He spends an hour getting ready, filling the water, steaming the sundae, boiling the eggs, and doing the basic preparations.

"There are a lot of flour rice cakes for the Korean tteokbokki recipe, and it's hard to separate them one by one. Some rice cakes are already separated, but they don't taste good. We touch them one more time, so our customers can enjoy something more delicious. There are 324 pieces of rice cakes in one tray, and we sell about 10 tray a day."

After 2 hours of preparation, the shop opens at 9 a.m. I come to the shop around 10 a.m. There is no specific division of roles between us. We both cook and serve customers. You have to do everything to run a business, so we both know how to do anything."

Kim Jin-sook and Kim Wan-yong, the owners of 'Grandma's Tteokbokki at Galhyeon Market' in Galhyeon-dong, Seoul, have continued the shop that their mother started more than 40 years ago and work hard every day for the customers who come to enjoy the old flavors. Before, they had three employees, but because of the coronavirus situation, they only had one part-time employee and the couple did all the work.

Keeping the secret (비법을 지킨다)

Galhyeon-dong's grandmother's tteokbokki shop is famous among tteokbokki lovers for its taste that hasn't changed for a long time. Kim Jin-sook still keeps the secret recipe of the sauce, which her mother-in-law, Jin Yang-geun, created when she opened the shop in the 1980s, and its excellent taste attracts not only local customers but also customers from all over the country who hear about it.

The most important thing in the cooking process is "priming the boil". The rice cakes, separated one by one, are boiled in water for a while before being moved to a cooking plate. If this process is not done well, the rice cakes will become mushy or hard. The key is to adjust the temperature and time according to the condition of the rice cakes, which vary slightly every day.

"People say, 'I'm going to quit my job and do the tteokbokki business,' but it's actually more difficult than you think."

The secret to a delicious tteokbokki recipe that makes customers come back is the ratio of ingredients for the sauce, the heat of the fire, and the cooking time. It doesn't matter how good the ingredients are, if the proportions are not right, and the heat and time are not right. This process is all a secret I learned from my mother-in-law, so it's a trade secret. About 10 ingredients go into the sauce, including chili powder, red pepper paste, starch syrup, and other things that you can guess. One serving of tteokbokki cost 3,500 won. In April 2020, they raised the price by 500 won from 3,000 won.

"Raising the minimum wage every year means that everything else gets more expensive, including food. But tteokbokki isn't a main dish, it's a snack, so it's hard to charge more for it. I thought about it for a long time, and after six and a half years, I increased the price by 500 won."

Kim says that the amount of one serving is flexible, like a "rubber band." She usually mixes 17-18 rice cakes with fish cakes and gives them as one serving, but he always adds more for students and workers.

She has moved all the tables out of her small shop, which is 10 pyeong (33.06 square meters). Because of COVID-19, she stopped serving customers in the hall. She had a small rice cooker and an induction stove in one corner of the shop, where she and her husband make breakfast and lunch. In the late afternoon, they snacked on some food and closed at 20 p.m. After cleaning and tidying up, they went home around 22 p.m. They ate a late dinner and went to bed, which was their daily routine.

"I only rest on Mondays, once a week. Since I opened this shop, I only took 3 days off: the day after my surgery, the day my son enlisted, and the day he was discharged. Sometimes I just want to relax, but I feel like I have a promise with my customers. They are not only from this neighborhood, but also from all over the country, and I feel bad if they come here for nothing. On my days off, I don't do much. I do some chores and go to the hospital to treat my carpal tunnel syndrome. It's a disease that comes with this job."

The secret to a delicious tteokbokki recipe that makes customers come back is the ratio of ingredients for the sauce, the heat of the fire, and the cooking time. It doesn't matter how good the ingredients are, if the proportions are not right, and the heat and time are not right. 

Tteokbokki is a soul food for many Koreans of all ages, made by boiling white rice cakes with various vegetables and fish cakes in a spicy gochujang sauce. There are different kinds of tteokbokki, such as soup tteokbokki, instant tteokbokki, soy sauce tteokbokki, and rosé tteokbokki, but the most popular one is the soup tteokbokki.

Doing your best every day (최선을 다하는 하루하루)

Kim had a terrible experience soon after she helped her mother-in-law start a business at the market.

"We didn't have proper containers for packaging, so we used plastic bags. One customer took the tteokbokki and came back later. He said the soup leaked and stained his jeans, and he threw the bag of tteokbokki at me. I was shocked and embarrassed."

Some customers gave the couple a hard time like that. One customer called and complained for half an hour that he didn't get an egg. It turned out that his bag was switched with another customer's, and even when he offered to pay for it, he kept yelling. There was also a customer who threw a plate at him because he got the wrong dumplings. A relative who was at the shop stopped him, and a fight broke out, and the police came. After that, the couple decided to "accept whatever the customer says."

Of course, most of the customers are kind and friendly. Some people buy them drinks to cool them down on a hot day, while others bring them vegetables from their gardens.

"Some people who remember their mothers bring their kids to the elementary school reunion. They don't come for the tteokbokki; they come for the memories. Seeing these customers teaches me how to be warm and generous. I think, 'This is what life is like in the world.'"

So Mr. Kim feels sorry that this store will have to disappear someday. He plans to close the store after 10 more years. He is sad, but he doesn't want to pass on this hard work to his children. He might reconsider if his children want to do the tteokbokki business after trying out different jobs and things they want to do.

Tteokbokki is not just a simple dish that fills the stomach. It is also a delicacy that evokes nostalgia and warms the soul. It is made with care from early morning and served on a sizzling plate to customers who travel far to enjoy it. Mr. and Mrs. Kim are dedicated to preserving the flavor of the past, the same one that their mother used to sell to people. They give their best every day.

(Source / 황경신(Hwang Kyung-shin 黃景信)작가)