Hoddeok

[torakris]

I had a hotok for the first time in my life yesterday and I have to admit that until about 12 hours ago I had never even heard of one before.

I was with a Korean friend in what could be considered Tokyo's Korea town (bit for some reason it isn't... ) when we walked past a hotok cart and she HAD to have one. As she was buying them I noticed that they had three flavors, honey (which included brown sugar and peanuts), anko (red bean paste) and cheese.

She bought two of the honey ones as they are her favorite and it was one of the most incredible things I have eaten, I am ready to go all the way back to Shinjuku just to get more!

They look sort of like a thck pancake but don't taste like one. I am sure they are made out of some type of flour based batter but I am not sure how they got the filling inside....

here is a picture:

http://sky.freespace.jp/cutiesakura/pantry...y2002/hotok.JPG

Can anyone tell me more about these?

any other favorite street foods?

[ellencho]

I think it might be pronounced hodduk? Not hod-duk but ho-dduk, like dduk, korean rice cakes. And I think the outside wrapper/pancake part is made from rice flour. Yes and they are delicious straight from the grill.

[Yong Tae Kim]

torakris, the 'hodduk' is a popular street side snack that is mainly sold during the cooler months here in Korea.

From a local TV show that I saw some years ago (chronicling the success story of a local hodduk vendor who became a millionaire from selling these), the batter is basically an yeast leavened flour-based dough that has rice flour (from the type of sticky rice that is used to make mochi) mixed in to improve its chewiness. I also remember seeing salt, sugar, baking powder, and milk powder mixed, but I guess it varies according to the 'secret recipe' used by each vendor.

The very sticky dough is scooped out a big vat containing the dough with one hand and then flattened out. A spoonful of the filling is then placed on the middle and the dough is shaped into a ball. The ball is then dropped onto a hot griddle with plenty of oil and then flattened into a pancake shape.

I think that the filling is basically a mixture of packed brown sugar, rough ground walnuts, and ground peanuts with a dash of cinammon powder thrown in. When the hodduk is fully cooked, this filling melts into a syrupy caramel that always burns the roof of the eater's mouth and and never fails to drip onto one's shirts and pants .

[jschyun]

You can get these in the U.S. but I think frozen and then you pop them in the toaster or microwave them. I think I've only had the red bean versions, and the honey/sugar/cinnamon/whatever flavor. Haven't had those in a while.

Not as good as street grilled though.

I love all those stories of people who take a simple item and make millions of dollars of it. My dad told me about a jok bal restaurant in NY, back in the 60's that was very popular and made tons of money. Also, it was probably responsible for gall bladder disease in the region.

--actually, you might be able to get the real thing in the U.S. Anyone? I know that in certain parts of L.A. and Orange County, you can get roasted chestnuts from vendors with those metal roasters, off the street (I saw this at Rowland Heights), as well as little walnut cakes and other type of goodies from bakeries that bake their treats in front of of you. But so far I have not seen any ho dduk operations in CA. I haven't been out much lately.

Edited March 22, 2004 by jschyun (log)

[melonpan]

hoddeok is very much alive and doing well in los angeles.

i am sure there are probably more places, but i know of at least two places that ive been to in the last month.

one is a hoddeok cart next to kaju market (western and 5rd). it is outside the entrance to the supermarket and there is usually one or two ladies inside the cart who will fry up a fresh one for you from the raw balls for $1. they only offer the brown sugar type. and it is no frills, no walnuts or anything. their hoddeok is a little different though because theirs has more glutinous rice flour than flour. the hoddeok are extremely chewy, almost mochi like.

and the other place that sells hoddeok is in the koreatown galleria market (western and olympic), in the lower supermarket level. in the area diagonally opposite from the fresh produce, there is a koko chicken tongdak place in the corner and they sell basically three things there: chicken (rotisserie and deep fried stuff), bung-eo bbang (what you may know as taiyaki) and hoddeok. hoddeoks go for a dollar, and they are more normal in the flour/glutinous rice flour ratio. more doughy and less mochi like. still good and chewy. and like the kaju market hoddeok, they only sell one kind: the brown sugar kind without any nuts in them. you can sit and watch them squish the ball of dough as well as make the bung-eo bbang right in front of you.

California Market (Gaju Market)

450 S Western Ave

Los Angeles, CA 90020

(213) 382-9444

Galleria Market

3250 W Olympic Blvd

Los Angeles, CA 90006

(323) 733-3800

edit: corrected address for kaju market

Edited July 13, 2004 by melonpan (log)

[jschyun]

Thanks! I'm more amazed with the Galleria than ever. I used to think it was only a place for overpriced clothes and such.

Also, I found them at Ranch 99 but I haven't bought them yet. Apparently this was originally a Chinese dish that Koreans made their own.

[jschyun]

By the way, I was just in Northridge and saw the HUGE Galleria Market there. I went inside and it's probably the most upscale Korean market in the U.S. that I have ever seen. Unbelieveable!

[melonpan]

By the way, I was just in Northridge and saw the HUGE Galleria Market there.  I went inside and it's probably the most upscale Korean market in the U.S. that I have ever seen.  Unbelieveable!

thank you for the tip. i will most definitely go as im always game for checking out new (to me) supermarkets...

we went out to the market today to make fish soup tonight and we made a small diversion to kaju market because i wanted to get a few pictures there...

the green sign reads 'gaju maket'. the yellow sign posted on the cart reads 'it's the gu family's sweet rice hoddeok'. (click on pic for larger image.) it seems that the Koo family runs a place called Koo's Grill on 6833 whittier blvd in LA.

the top white sign reads:

sweet rice pan cake

sweet rice hoddeok

$1 each

your mouth will freeze "kkong kkong" (the sound of freezing hard)

red bean shave ice dessert (paht bingsu)

$3.50 each

these hoddeok are kind of see-through due to the high sweet rice content of the dough. they are NOT filled with brown sugar. i guess my memory was off. these are honey filled! but still no nuts or anything.

for contrast, heres the hoddeok sold at ktown galleria. definitely more bready, but they also have sweet rice powder in theirs because its chewy. these, by the way, are indeed filled with nothing but brown sugar.

(click on pic for larger image.) to the far right, the little guy in the chef hat is holding a bag of delimanjoo which is a hot little corn biscuit usually sold in subway stations in korea. ive also seen them at mr lee's sandwich shops (banh mi anyone?) in orange county.

the big yellow banner above the yellow "KOKO's" sign says: "today carp will eat hoddeok". (very silly. hehe.) then the second line reads: "bung-eo bbang HONEY hoddeok". bung-eo is carp and carp bread is something you might know as taiyaki. its a bready snack filled with sweet red bean paste. also, im not sure why the word HONEY is so prominently written in a red circle because the hoddeok sold there is brown sugar. huh. i should have asked. maybe they used to be filled with honey.

white sign to the right of the chicken reads "hwanghaedo mandu". hwanghaedo is a province in north korea. i guess they make good mandu there...

beneath the yellow KOKO's sign, under the red and orange stripes, the awning reads "bung-eo bbang" "hoddeok" "kabobs" "odeng kabobs" "rice jjol myeon" "udong" "ddeokbokki" "dad's soondae". wow. i guess theres a couple of foods that americans dont usually eat when they go out for korean. kabobs. jjolmyeon. soondae... the kabobs are pretty much what youd expect. grilled random foods like chicken, beef, or whatever the owner wants. odeng is fishcake and theyre pretty good as kabobs too. jjolmyeon is a delicious dish of noodles that are thick like japanese udon but chewy like korean naengmyeon. it is almost always served with a gochujang paste based sauce. SPICY, chewy goodness. better than bibim naengmyeon. soondae is blood sausage with rice noodles.

so i guess i was also quite wrong about what is served at kokos. i just assumed it was just chicken and bungeobbang and hoddeok... a lot more apparently! mostly snacky stuff.

heres the lady (nice manicure) squishing the ball flat on the grill! yumms!

this sign at koko's says that hoddeok are 1 for a dollar, 6 for $5.

bungeobbang are 50 cents each, 7 for $3.

[torakris]

thanks for all the information and the great pictures!!

[melonpan]

looked up 호떡 and found out that the "ho" comes from the sino korean "胡", which means 'manchurian barbarians' .

i dont know if hoddeok is really a manchurian (or ching dynasty chinese) treat, or if it is something korean that korean people imagine is manchurian.

[Ben Hong]

Given the dominance and influence of the Chinese juggernaut on her neighbours for millenia, it would not be surprising to discover that this treat is of Chinese derivation, as many, many things are in that region.

[jschyun]

I was at 99Ranch today, trying to remember where I saw hodduk. I realized what I was thinking was hodduk was probably the red bean shau bing. I'll have to do some more research, but my guess is, the Chinese from the Shandong province came to Korea and somehow popularized this treat, along with chiachiangmyun, jjampong and the other usual suspects.

[jhlurie]

--actually, you might be able to get the real thing in the U.S. Anyone? I know that in certain parts of L.A. and Orange County, you can get roasted chestnuts from vendors with those metal roasters, off the street (I saw this at Rowland Heights), as well as little walnut cakes and other type of goodies from bakeries that bake their treats in front of of you. But so far I have not seen any ho dduk operations in CA. I haven't been out much lately.

Okay, now I have a mission to poke a bit around the heavily Korean enclave in Northern New Jersey to see if they have these. I may get stared or giggled at like usual, but I'm going to try.

[melonpan]

some links...

first, a photo of some really young hoddeok peddlers from long ago... link to photo. (context.)

the rest of these will be boring to most i guess. the recipes are in korean... although this is an english language forum, im still posting them here for the sake of reference...

• nadias hoddeok blog entry - great photos
  
• haeuns hoddeok blog entry great photos here too... (beautiful green tea cake photo)
  
• bw0863's blog interesting photo of a green colored mulberry leaf hoddeok (towards bottom). this page is a little frustrating bc the photos of insadong hoddeok and one of freshly made green tea hoddeok from jong-no seem to be missing. argh....
  
• ottogi companys recipe for hoddeok featuring ottogi products of course. but the recipe doesnt seem gimmicky, seems legit enough
  
• carrot veggie hoddeok recipe!
  
• pingk.coms secret hoddeok recipe
  
• vegefoods hoddeok
  
• donga papers hoddeok recipe...?
  
• someone's chocolate hoddeok recipe
  
• recipe from 'cooking encyclopaedia'
  
• hoddeok recipe found on a bulletin board
  
• alacook.coms hoddeok
  
• paper about the history and culture of bread (wrt korea) written by someone in a history dept (univ cheolla bukdo). this has no recipe...
  

[GaijinGirl]

Intregued by this thread - does anyone know where to find hodduk in NYC? (Barring that, then at least the an-filled fish pastries?) This thread has made me extremely interested in trying, but there's nothing I could find in K-Town on 32nd street....

Thanks,

--Janet

[melonpan]

no taiyaki that i know of, but there is something else thats good: takoyaki~!

when i was in nyc i walked past a place called otafuku.

otafuku

236 East 9th Street

Manhattan 212-353-8503

its a take out window. they werent open the morning i walked by so i couldnt get any to try but i remember thinking "wish i had one of those in my neighborhood!" (which at the time was true. i had no idea i was going to end up in LA!)

yaaay for manhattan.

other places to look for hoddeok and taiyaki/bungeobbang are edgewater or fort lee. and closer to you, flushing! dont forget flushing!

[GaijinGirl]

Flushing's where I've been thinking of searching - I don't know the neighborhood *at all* - but that just makes it adventurous, of course.... :) (I know Chinatown in Manhattan pretty 'durned' good.)

And oh yes, Otafuku. :) Good place - a little on the pricey side, but where else in NYC can you get Okonomiyaki???? (Which does taste great - the tako balls were nice, also.)

:) --Janet

[Laksa]

Okay, now I have a mission to poke a bit around the heavily Korean enclave in Northern New Jersey to see if they have these.  I may get stared or giggled at like usual, but I'm going to try. 

I stopped by Han Ah Reum in Ridgefield, NJ, after lunch today and bought some of these. I don't think they're hodduk, but I bought them from the same counter that sells hodduk. Can anyone tell me what they're called? They're filled with red bean paste and I believe they're deep fried. Tastes really good:

As you can see from the picture below, there are lots of samples laid out on the counter in the store. Three out of four samples were filled with red bean, and I like what I bought the best, even though I also sampled the hodduk (I think).

The top item looks like hodduk but it's savory, and is filled with a green onion like vegetable. I spoke no Korean and had difficulty communicating with the counter ladies in English. One of the ladies asked me if I was Chinese. I said yes and she gave the name of the top item in Chinese - Jiucai shaobing, or Jiucai youbing (couldn't figure out what she said exactly) and it does taste a lot like Chinese cong youbing (scallion pancake) but with jiucai (Chinese chives).

I had wanted to ask them if they had brown sugar or honey hodduk because I didn't want to get both items with the same red bean filling. I now regretted not having persisted more with gestures and other ways of communicating.

I also sampled very delicious pastel colored frozen candy thingies that look like they were sitting on solid blocks of a frozen substance that's not ice. It was much much colder and looked like a science experiment. Did not end up buying as I was worried if they would survive the hour long drive home in 90+ degree weather.

Edited for clarity

Edited August 30, 2004 by Laksa (log)

[GaijinGirl]

Laksa,

I think I'll dedicate a shrine to you as a bearer of great food knowledge.

Hahn Reum in Ridgewood, NJ, hmmmm? And I was just thinking that I wanted to stay out of the city for the week (convention and all.) Since I'm of German-Russian heritage myself, I speak *no* Asian language, so I was thinking of bringing the pictures posted earlier in this thread with me if I go - they could read it and let me know if that's actually Hodduk....! (Still pending on getting the Keuh Keuh, incidentally...!) (You wouldn't believe it from the stuff I post about, but I'm actually quite thin....!)

--Janet (Pitchblack70)

[GaijinGirl]

Okay...make that Ridgefield....!

[Laksa]

Since I'm of German-Russian heritage myself, I speak *no* Asian language, so I was thinking of bringing the pictures posted earlier in this thread with me if I go - they could read it and let me know if that's actually Hodduk....!

Janet, you could do no worse than I did, and will most likely do a lot better with the pictures.

I read somewhere that Han Ah Reum has branches in NY - there's thread dedicated to Han Ah Reum on the NJ board.

Okay, here's the lowdown on store locations from their website. I don't know if every store will have a sweets counter though. Doesn't hurt to call ahead but you already knew that.

[origamicrane]

hi all

errr....

anyone able to provide a translation of one of the recipes from melonpan's post??

[GaijinGirl]

I've have just come back from Hotteok nirvana, aka Ridgefield Hahn Reum. (Thanks, Laksa!!!!!)

I brought the pictures of the Korean signs from this thread, ran to the baked counter, and pointed. It worked like a dream! The very nice counter lady read it, and knew exactly what I wanted. I am now stuffed with three Hotteok, and one fish pastry with sweet bean filling.

(PS: I've been to the Hahn Reum in NYC, and it doesn't compare at all. Actually, the prebaked goods, such as Baram rice cake, are the same, but NOTHING compared to the fresh stuff that was at Ridgefield!) Yum, yum, yum, yum.

But I didn't bring a camera, so no pictorial, I'm afraid. I also picked up two Korean beers for my husband, who's a brewer. Granted, he's partial to Belgian beers, so I don't know if he'll be crazy about them, but I know he'll want to try them out....

Laksa, as usual, you rule. (So does Pan.)

[Laksa]

I brought the pictures of the Korean signs from this thread, ran to the baked counter, and pointed. It worked like a dream! The very nice counter lady read it, and knew exactly what I wanted. I am now stuffed with three Hotteok, and one fish pastry with sweet bean filling.

I'm delighted that you found it. Did you get any brown sugar or honey hodduk?

[GaijinGirl]

It was definitely the sweet hodduck, tasting primarily of honey, some cinnamon, and a bit of grated nuts, I think. Now that I think it over, the cinnamon was probably actually brown sugar.