Street food in Korea: bugs and kebabs

Romantic, ethnic and culinary attraction - all on one small cart in the middle of the street. Koreans love such a snack! If a guy and a girl go for a walk around the city, they will certainly intercept something on the street, a family trip to the countryside is also unlikely to do without such food. In a crowd of people, standing or on the go, without any claims to cleanliness, but together it’s delicious!

Should foreigners have lunch here? Yes - if you have strong nerves and a stomach. In my opinion, people suffering from disorders of one or the other are better off not experimenting, especially if this is your first time in Asia.

To eat or not to eat is a purely individual issue. But a peek and watch is a must! Otherwise, consider that you have not seen the real Korea.

So what does the street menu offer us?

Firstly, of course, odeng. In these mobile edalah, as nowhere else, the influence of Japanese cuisine during the occupation is noticeable.

Oden is a Japanese dish, but it has taken root well in Korea. In fact, these are fish meal pancakes with a small addition of finely chopped vegetables. Sometimes they are also called fish cakes. They come in different shapes. In the street version, this is most often either a sausage, or a strip (pancake folded in half), worn on long sticks. All pleasure is cooked in broth. It can be poured separately into a paper cup to drink oden. Pay attention to the vegetables added to the broth itself. There are a lot of green and red peppers, so the drink is very spicy.

Different types of kebabs (if you mean food planted on sticks) is probably the most common dish in street trading. Kebabs come from anything!

Of the octopus legs, for example. Charcoal grilled.

From oden, in which crab sticks are wrapped.

On this tray, in addition to shish kebabs, there are two more types of dishes that cannot be said about. Firstly, it is Tteockbokki - rice cakes, or as they are called in English, rice cakes, in a very spicy sauce. (Cooked in a large pot in the background). In my opinion, both words are equally not suitable for this dish. No they are not bread, and even more so not cakes. Ttok - white sausages that form the basis of the dish, rather resemble viscous rice dumplings. They are made by beating off heavily boiled empty rice to the state of the test. Further form products of various shapes. Small sausages are cooked in broths or sauces. One of the most common varieties is just the dish in the photo. Sometimes oden and boiled eggs are also added to it. By the way, this dish is just genuine Korean, one might even say - the pride of national cuisine and the taste of home for many Koreans.

Hamul Pajon - pancakes on the right. Or rather, something in between a pancake and an omelet. Either an omelet in which there is too much flour, or pancakes in which there are too many eggs. Leek and seafood, usually small octopuses, shrimps and squids, are added to the dough. One of the very few completely spicy dishes. But in this kitchen, I noticed that what is not spicy is very oily. So, for example, this “pancake” is fried in a very large amount of oil and is very saturated with it.

In the background on the right is a kimbab. Korean version of Japanese rolls. The filling is multi-component: carrots, thin omelettes, herbs, sometimes crab sticks or ham. Also a completely non-sharp thing. And even lean. Hmm ...)

But back to the barbecue. They come also from sausages. True, the taste is completely different from ours. There is probably as much meat there, that is, almost 0%. But unlike their European goods, they don’t even smell like them and taste rather sweet than salty.

Skewers of ttok (those same rice dumplings) are very popular, especially if they are lightly grilled. All dishes are plentifully poured with hot sauce.

Fruits perched on this tray in the background. In this case, strawberries, but on the street you can also buy slices of watermelons, melons, pineapples on a stick or in glasses. And also strawberries in chocolate, one of the latest innovations. Korean strawberries are famous for their taste and aroma. She is really very good! And still natural. The season will be in March. But now, enterprising merchants of the main pedestrian streets are selling it in full. Someone particularly quick-witted guessed that if you trick a strawberry into chocolate, then it could be sold on the street ten times more expensive!

There are also very unusual kebabs - from mussels, for example.

In the background is chicken in batter and hot sauce with the addition of ttok.

And this is a very classic option - from chicken. The sauce is still spicy, but you can ask not to grease the kebab with it. Then, however, it will be quite tasteless, because there will be no salt on it either.

Although there are exceptions. Here, for example, you can choose the sauce yourself and even have mayonnaise.

Yum! As a vegetable supplement to chicken kebab, onions always come, which is not leek, as I always thought, but a batun.

Another typical grill tray. Sausages and onion sticks. Of the new dishes - a hatba.

This is almost the same as the oden. The dough is very similar, but it is formed in the form of sausages and is not boiled, but deep-fried. Inside there may be a filling - shrimp or sausage. Most often they are watered with ketchup or eat just like that.

Such spirals appeared in Seoul not so long ago. These are real potato chips, only on a stick. Potatoes are cut in the form of a spiral with a special machine, put on a stick and deep-fried. Then sprinkle with seasoning - usually cheese or spicy cheese. Very similar to sprinkling ordinary chips from a bag. Yummy.

These “bars” are not really kebabs, but since they are also sticking on a stick ... Remember that, most likely, all the meat will be sweetish. Such a tradition in Asia, if not spicy, then sweetly.

The dough is made from ordinary flour, and inside the filling is made of "meat" (as stated, but the taste is doubtful) or vegetables, or funchoses with vegetables.
In the foreground are grilled octopus cutlets (or bars). I believe that there are as many octopuses as there are "meat" in sausages, but there should be a smell.

And finally, the highlight of the program for foreign guests.

In the foreground is a favorite Korean dish. Silkworm shells and pupae boiled in an island broth. If simpler - bugs.

You cannot eat shells. Why sell them? And to suck! If you can, you can suck out a small amount of "stuffing", that is, a clam with broth cooked alive there. Believe it or not, it's Korean seeds. “Click” from nothing to do. Because there is, of course, nothing.

Another thing bugs! They are both useful and nutritious. They contain a lot of all useful. I will not bore the listing. But the thing is really high-calorie. It is welded and completely harmless. Actually, they are not dangerous in life, these cute creatures. In addition, it is to them that we owe fine silk fabrics.

How does it taste? No way! Absolutely tasteless, perhaps a little brackish. But they smell great! It is for Korean taste. In mine - they smell terrible!