[Seoul - Hongdae] 홍대 조폭 떡볶이 Hongdae Jopok Ddukbokki - Famous rice cakes, soondae, and tempura

My friends and I stopped off at one of the more famous bunshik joints in Hongdae for a quick bite (홍대 조폭 떡볶이)

Another one of those great foods for winter is ddukbokki and other traditional bunshik foods like soondae (blood sausage) and fried veggies and seafood.

Read other ddukbokki (Korean spicy rice cakes) posts

Learn how to make your own ddukbokki with my ddukbokki recipe.

If you're not familiar with the food, I'll introduce it a little.

The word bunshik refers to flour-based foods. So, in this case the coating on the fried foods, the rice flour that goes into making the rice cakes, and the (sweet potato) flour that makes the noodles that are put into the sausage casing.

Let me be the first to say, sundae (Korean blood sausage) is not my favorite food...or even top 30...in the word. It's the texture...the flavor is fine, but I just can't get over that texture. For me, the issue isn't even the whole "blood" part of the blood sausage - most of the time the sausage doesn't actually include that much blood...mostly food coloring these days.

With that being said, I am actually a fan of the soondae at this place. The flavor was SUPER good, which made up for the texture. It wasn't overly mushy or overly chewy.

If you're a newbie to soondae 순대 or feel a bit squeamish at the idea of blood sausage, definitely try it here.

They also served the sausage with some nice organ meats that weren't overly cooked or anything. (Also, not a favorite food texture of mine).

To eat sundae, Koreans typically eat it in the tteokbokki 떡볶이 sauce. It's also typically served with some rock salt (as you see in the picture).

We also ordered a serving of the ddukbokki and a serving of the mixed fried foods (pumpkin, squid, kimbap, etc).

These were also quite good!

The 튀김 (twigim) is also typically eaten with the ddukbokki sauce!

I highly recommend ordering all three of these together because the flavors complement each other so nicely.

Also, since this is the "typical" way of eating these foods, why mess with tradition?

Location:
From Hongdae Station (Line 2) exit 9, walk straight to the intersection and cross the street. Turn left and walk past Forever 21 and keep walking straight until you get to the Tony Moly on the main street. There, turn right and walk straight, cross the street by the Adidas and keep walking straight, crossing the next big street by the Cafe Ti'Amo. Then walk a little more and the 홍대 조폭 떡볶이 should be on your left right by the Hans Kitchen.

You'll see see some guys cooking ddukbokki outside the main entrance.

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