Tteokbokki

Tteokbokki is a spicy stir-fried dish that usually consists of cylinder-shaped rice cakes, sweet red chili sauce, and fish cakes. It is considered to be one of the top street food items in Korea, and can usually be bought from street vendors known as pojangmacha. The dish originated during the Joseon Dynasty period, when it was used as a cure, and it was also one of the royal court's dishes. Originally, tteokbokki was called tteok jjim, a braised dish of sliced rice cakes, meat, eggs, and seasonings. Although it was brown in color, today it is red, because the colors changed when gochuang (a spicy chili paste) was introduced in the mid-1900s. What was once a dish for the royals is nowadays one of the cheapest street food dishes in Korea, and recently, there have even been efforts to turn it into a food franchise due to continuous demand for tteokbokki among Korean people.