Although we are passing the holiday time of the year, that does not mean winter is over yet! The temperature is lowering every single day and won’t be stopping anytime soon! What else is more comforting than warm food in the cold?
In a country where its average winter temperature is 25°F, people still find their way out of their homes to enjoy the streets of South Korea during the winter months! In a country where street food vendors fill every corner and every other street, it has come to offer some of the best foods to find during the winter!
We have compiled a list of our top Korean foods to try in the winter time. Check it out below!
1. 떡볶이 (Tteokbokki)
Tteokbokki is a rice cake dish often served with fish cakes in a sweet and spicy pepper sauce made with gochujang! This is known as the most popular street food offered in South Korea and is best served shared with someone else
2. 호떡 (Hotteok)
Hotteok is a sugar pancake that is often served as a street food. It is usually filled with different nuts and spices. This street food is often served and eaten during the winter because of the higher calorie intake!
3. 팥죽 (Red Bean Porridge)
Red Bean Porridge is a common food eaten during the winter solstice. It usually contains a small bird egg or a rice cake ball that will resemble an egg in it. Traditions say eating this porridge will help drive evil spirits away. The red color is supposed to symbolize positive energy that could defeat evil. Cooking and eating the porridge is said to prevent bad luck, illness, and fight bad spirits!
4. 계란 빵 (Gyeran Bbang)
Gyeran Bbang is another popular street food found almost exclusively in winter time! It is a poundcake type bread with an egg baked in the middle of it! Although there are many different variations of this “egg bread,” they all share the common tastes of sweet, salty, and simply delicious!
5. 붕어 빵 (Bungeoppang)
Bungeoppang is a Korean pastry very similar to an original Japanese dessert called Taiyaki. They are fish-shaped bread shells filled with an assortment of flavors! The most common flavor fillings include red bean, custard, and of course— chocolate! There are a wide range of versions of these “fish breads,” and the options are endless! They are a very popular Korean street food and are best eaten shared!
Is there a favorite of yours that we missed? Which of these delicious snacks have you tried before? Which one is your favorite to eat in the cold winter months? Let us know!
Ceilidhmh is a dancing machine, but when she isn’t dancing to groups like VIXX, Boyfriend, BTS, EXO, or BAP (and basically every other group that exists) she is either watching a Korean drama, cosplaying, filming, studying for her college classes, and or creating fan art! Basically K-pop has taken over her life for many years… Although she loves boy groups the most, she finds herself falling for every K-pop group she comes in contact with and falls deeper and deeper every day.