Did you ever think that you could have a working oven assembled on a street cart? One that could produce freshly baked yummy cakes? One particularily memorable street eat Fannypack and I had in Seoul was a snack made from one of these incredible innovations….
Out of these oven comes a cake-like concoction that’s a cross between egg custard and a cake. Basically an egg is cracked into a little muffin tin like thing of batter, then into the oven it goes. What comes out is a soft-cooked egg enrobed in a yummy, buttery cake.
I think the proper way it should be eaten is when the egg is just set…however we haven’t managed to get it at just the right time. Both times the egg yolk was quite cooked. That did not stop me from thoroughly enjoying this though. It was just so soft and eggy…and the fact that it’s so simple…served simply in a piece of folded up cardboard for 3,000W (around $3)…I’m salivating just reminiscing…
The cart above actually does double duty…we believe it’s a husband and wife venture…to the left of the man is a griddle thing where a woman makes the iconic sugar crisps. They’re really cheap…just 1,000W each. Each disc has a shape pressed into it and supposedly, if you can eat around it without breaking the shape…you get another one free! It was really really sweet though…it’s made purely from white and brown sugar after all…it’s very very crispy though, like the inside of a Crunchie bar.
There was also a few stalls of my favorite ho-dduk!!! I’m happy to say that the price point is exactly the same as if you had it here in Coquitlam.
These were thicker though, and very chewy. I would’ve enjoyed this much more if I hadn’t been extremely full the whole time!
I also tried some dried squid. These kept my hand warm but weren’t especially good. When you order, they’ll throw your order onto the press to heat it up. This was 5,000W.
Roasting chestnuts has been modernized too. Here they put the chestnuts into a device much like a bingo machine, and it keeps the chestnuts moving while roasting. Then the lady takes them out and shells them for you. We got a small bag for 5,000W.
Unfortunately these were a miss. They were not as good as we remembered roasted chestnuts to be. Instead of the soft, moist, sweet, thoroughly cooked fluffy chestnuts of yesteryear, these were dry, hard, and tasteless. I think we both prefer the old style of roasting where it’s pushed around a big wok with black sand.
Last but not least, a Korean trip is not complete without having Dukboki (spelled a billion different ways in English). We had originally wanted it mixed with seaweed rice roll but our request was not heard…so it was just rice cake (3,000W).
There was a lot of it though. And man was it spicy. We saw the complete process of a watery liquid turning a fiery red from the continuous addition of red pepper sauce. Very simple ingredients…there was only green onions, fish cake, and rice cake. It’s served in a plastic bag wrapped dish, and once you’re done they just chuck the bag, re-bag the dish, and it’s ready to use again. Extremely efficient.
This also means you can’t leave the cart. But they’re ready for you. In fact all the carts are ready for you, with cardboard laid on the ground to absorb any drippings.
But back to the food…very spicy, but very, very good. It took the both of us a while to finish since it was so spicy…I had to go to 7-Eleven to get a bottle of water (EXTREMELY cheap water by the way…you can get a 2L bottle of store brand for 900W!!). The lady beside us gobbled hers very quickly. Then, to one-up us even more, she drank all the sauce o_O. Obviously she’s used to the spiciness.
