Short answer
Korean street food is the hot, cheap, hand-held snack food sold from carts, stalls and market alleys in Korea. The classics are tteokbokki, kimbap, fish cake skewers, hotteok and Korean corn dogs, each easy to eat standing up.
Korean street food is the hot, inexpensive, hand-held food sold from carts, tented stalls and market alleys across Korea, meant to be eaten standing up within minutes of being made. The core snacks are tteokbokki (chewy rice cakes in red sauce), kimbap (seaweed rice rolls), fish cake skewers, hotteok (sweet filled pancakes) and Korean corn dogs.
What counts as Korean street food?
Korean street food covers any quick snack sold by a vendor and eaten on the spot. The Korean word often used for this kind of casual, snack-style eating is bunsik, which also names the small restaurants that sell the same dishes indoors.
The snacks fall into four groups: chewy rice cake dishes, fried things, filled pancakes and sweets, and rolled or wrapped rice. Most are cheap to make in volume, travel well in a paper cup or on a skewer, and taste best straight from the pan. Many are tied to cold weather, which is why winter is considered the best season for street stalls in Korea.
Several of these dishes are also easy to find in a Korean grocery, either as ready food or as packs of rice cakes, fish cakes, seaweed and sauces for cooking at home.
What are the most popular Korean street foods?
The most popular Korean street foods are tteokbokki, fish cake skewers, kimbap, hotteok and Korean corn dogs. Each one has a distinct texture, which is a big part of why people love them.
| Snack | What it is | Taste | Heat level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tteokbokki | Cylinder rice cakes simmered in a gochujang sauce | Sweet, savory, chewy | Medium to hot |
| Odeng (fish cake) skewers | Flat fish cake folded on a stick, sold in hot broth | Savory, soft, brothy | None |
| Kimbap | Rice and fillings rolled in seaweed and sliced | Mild, nutty with sesame oil | None |
| Hotteok | Yeasted pancake with a brown sugar and nut filling | Sweet, warm, crisp edge | None |
| Korean corn dog | Skewered snack in a batter and panko crust, fried | Crunchy, sweet and salty | None, sauce optional |
| Gyeran-ppang | Small oval egg bread, baked in a mold | Sweet, soft, eggy | None |
What is tteokbokki and how is it eaten?
Tteokbokki is a dish of cylinder-shaped rice cakes (tteok) simmered in a sauce of gochujang (Korean chili paste), sugar and anchovy or kelp stock. It is the best-known Korean street snack.
The rice cakes are dense and springy, closer to a soft dumpling than to bread. Street versions usually add flat fish cake and sliced scallion, and some add a boiled egg. Vendors serve it in a paper cup with a toothpick or fork, and the sauce thickens as it sits. Home cooks often add instant noodles or cheese. A separate guide on this site explains tteokbokki in more detail.
What are fish cake skewers?
Fish cake skewers are strips of pressed, fried fish paste (called odeng or eomuk in Korean) folded onto a stick and simmered in a clear, salty broth. They are one of the most common winter street snacks.
The fish cake is soft and slightly bouncy, with a mild seafood flavor. At many stalls the hot broth is ladled into a paper cup and offered to everyone, which is part of the experience. Odeng is also the usual fish cake added to tteokbokki. Fish cake is made from ground white fish and starch, and it often contains wheat, so people with allergies should read the label on packaged versions.
What is kimbap, and is it the same as sushi?
Kimbap is a Korean roll of cooked rice and fillings wrapped in dried seaweed (gim), brushed with sesame oil and cut into bite-size rounds. It is not sushi, though the two look similar.
Kimbap rice is seasoned with sesame oil and salt, while sushi rice is seasoned with vinegar and sugar. Typical fillings are egg strips, carrot, spinach, pickled yellow radish (danmuji), burdock root and imitation crab, and beef bulgogi is a common filling in more filling versions. Kimbap is eaten at room temperature as a snack, a lunchbox item or picnic food, usually without soy sauce for dipping.
What is hotteok?
Hotteok is a round Korean pancake made from yeasted wheat dough, stuffed with brown sugar, cinnamon and chopped nuts and pressed flat on a griddle until the outside crisps and the filling melts into syrup.
It is a cold-weather favorite and is eaten hot, usually out of a paper cup that catches the syrup. The edges are crisp and the inside is soft and chewy. Be careful with the first bite, because the molten filling is very hot. Savory versions filled with vegetables and noodles also exist, though the sweet one is the classic.
What is a Korean corn dog?
A Korean corn dog is a fried snack on a stick, coated in batter and often rolled in panko crumbs or diced potato before frying, then dusted with sugar and drizzled with ketchup or mustard. It is crunchier and thicker than a fairground corn dog.
The popular filling is mozzarella, which stretches into a long cheese pull when the snack is pulled apart. The sugar on the outside gives a sweet and salty contrast. Because the coating is the main feature, Korean corn dogs have become one of the most photographed street foods outside Korea. The separate guide on Korean corn dogs covers the coatings and fillings.
What else shows up on a Korean street food tour?
Beyond the main six, a street food walk in Korea usually includes a few other regulars:
- Roasted sweet potato: whole sweet potatoes baked in a drum oven until the skin blisters and the flesh turns syrupy.
- Gyeran-ppang: egg bread, a warm oval loaf with a whole egg baked inside.
- Twigim: assorted fried vegetables and seaweed rolls, usually eaten dipped in tteokbokki sauce.
- Bungeoppang: a fish-shaped waffle filled with sweet red bean paste.
- Hodugwaja: walnut-shaped cakes with a red bean or walnut filling.
How do you choose where to start?
Start with the mildest snacks and add heat gradually. A good first order is a fish cake skewer in broth, a piece of hotteok and a Korean corn dog, then tteokbokki if you want spice.
Here is a simple order of tasting that balances heat, sweetness and texture:
- Fish cake skewer with broth, to warm up and settle the stomach.
- Tteokbokki, a small cup, so the heat is manageable.
- Kimbap or a corn dog as the filling item.
- Hotteok or egg bread as dessert.
Street vendors tend to sell one dish per stall, so a full tasting means moving between several stalls. At a Korean grocery or cafe in the United States, the same range is found in a more scattered form, with some dishes ready to eat and others sold as ingredients to take home.
What does Seoul Asian Market and Cafe record on its menu?
The recorded information is limited. A listing on Atly names Korean corn dogs among the dishes of the attached cafe, and a San Antonio Current photo caption names charbroiled squid with rice and banchan, plus stone pot bibimbap. Beef bulgogi is also listed. No full current cafe menu and no prices were found for the San Antonio store, so nobody should assume that tteokbokki, hotteok or kimbap are on the menu.
The grocery side is better documented: a San Antonio guide says the market brings in ingredients from Korea and stocks fresh produce, meat, seafood, packaged goods and household items. For the dishes above, that means the ingredients, such as rice cakes, seaweed and sauces, are the kind of thing a Korean grocery normally sells, but the exact stock should be confirmed by phone at (210) 822-1529. See the menu page for what the listings record and the hours and location page before you go.
Common questions
Is Korean street food always spicy?
No. Tteokbokki and some sauces are spicy, but hotteok, Korean corn dogs, kimbap, roasted sweet potatoes and fish cake in plain broth are mild or sweet. Most stalls sell both hot and gentle snacks, so a first-timer can eat a full tour without heat.
What is the most popular Korean street food?
Tteokbokki, chewy rice cakes in a red chili sauce, is the dish most often named as the symbol of Korean street food. Fish cake skewers, kimbap and hotteok are close behind, and Korean corn dogs have become the best-known snack abroad.
Can vegetarians eat Korean street food?
Some of it, but not all. Hotteok, roasted sweet potato and plain rice cakes are vegetable-based. Tteokbokki sauce and fish cake broth are usually made with anchovy stock, so a strict vegetarian should ask what the stock contains.
What do you drink with Korean street food?
Hot fish cake broth is served free at many stalls, and sweet rice punch, barley tea and plain water are common. At a grocery, cold canned or bottled tea and fruit drinks are the easy match for a spicy snack.
Can you make Korean street food at home?
Yes. Tteokbokki, kimbap and hotteok are the easiest because the main ingredients, rice cakes, gochujang, seaweed sheets and pancake mix, are sold at Korean grocery stores. Fried snacks take more practice than the rice-based ones.
Everything practical is on the home page: Seoul Asian Market and Cafe hours, menu and directions.
This article is general information from an independent guide, not from Seoul Asian Market and Cafe itself. For the store’s current details see hours and location.