Hoddeok – Sweet Filled Dough Cakes

I am in love with street food all over the world. For some reason, every street corner in Korea seems to be filled with vendors selling everything from dried seafood to potato spirals on a stick. In the winter, the aroma of roasted chestnuts fill the air, as an old man hands you a handful of the hot treasures, wrapped in newspaper, to warm your hands and your stomach.

One of my all time favorite street snacks in the “hoddeok” (pronounced with a hard “d” sound, like in the Spanish word, “t??o”). It’s a flattened dough pancake filled with a sweet filling. I like the cinnamon and brown sugar ones best. The come sometimes with or without chopped nuts. It’s cooked over low heat until the sugar melts, getting sticky and syrupy.

1Hoddeok

It used to be a winter food, but is now available on the streets year-round.

One of the most popular places to get it in Seoul is in an alley that leads up to Samcheongdong. You’ll see a line that leads up to a little window where the ahjumma are frying up their delicious hotcakes.

2Hoddeok

What makes theirs so special? They mix in green tea (“nokcha”) in their dough. You can kind of see the green flecks in the photo below.

4Hoddeok

For only W700 each, you can get two of them for just over a dollar. One for you and one for a friend. That is, if you really want to share. Better be a good friend!

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