Tteokbokki

Cylindrical Korean rice cakes simmered in a fierce sauce of gochujang, gochugaru, soy, sugar, and anchovy or kelp stock, often with fish cake (eomuk), boiled egg, and spring onion. Bright red, glossy, sweet-spicy at full gochujang intensity, with the chewy bouncy texture of the rice cakes as the textural drama. The signature is the gochujang-gochugaru double-chilli with the sugar moderating but not eliminating the heat: sweet, fermented, deeply savoury, fiery. Korean street food at its most assertive.