[South Korea] Korean rice cake Tteok
chim-choo-ree
Tteok is a Korean rice cake. It can be eaten as a dessert or ingredient that put in food like Tteokguk or Tteokbokki. Tteok can be made in various ways, such as steaming, pounding, panfrying or boiling. Also, It can be made with various flavours and textures with 소(So, ingredients inside) or Gomul and Gomyeong
Tteok is one of the main foods in Korea. The exact origin is unknown, but it existed during the Three Kingdoms period at least, and there are dozens of tteoks in various provinces in Korea. Even in modern times, many tteok or tteok-related food, such as Banana tteok or tteok cake, are made. There are also some proverbs, phrases or idioms related to tteoks. For example, 그림의 떡(Tteok in a picture) means 'pie in the sky' and 누워서 떡 먹기(Eating tteok while lying down) means 'a piece of cake'.
I suggest 6 tteok stamps considered by popularity in Korea, look and originality (e.g. kkultteok is very popular in Korea, but it looks similar to Songpyeon which used in Chuseok stamp, so It is excluded.)
시루떡(Siru-tteok) - tteok made by steaming bowl called Siru. Stack red beans and glutinous rice alternately and steam. In the old days, reb beans were considered as ingredients for chasing ghosts along with salt, so it used for ancestral rites. Also when family moved, they made the tteok and distributed it to neighbors.
무지개떡(Mujigae-tteok) - Mujigae means rainbow. Tteok steamed in Siru after mixing rice powder with pricky pear cactus, mugwort, water dyed by gardenia seeds or powder or rock tripe. It looks colourful, so It often used for parties or celebrations.
화전(Hwajeon) - 화 means flower and 전 is jeon, korean pancake. Make rice flour, panfrying with oil, and put flower on it. Most using flower is Korean rosebay which bloomed in Spring, but rose or chrysanthemum are used in different season.
인절미(Injeolmi) - Tteok made by pounding soaked rice and then covered by Gomul. One of the most popular tteok in Korea. Very chewy, so if you don't chew well, you may be choken or suffocated. Most using gomul is powder of beans.
오메기떡(Omegi-tteok) - Traditional tteok in Jeju island. It was made of glutinous millet that grew a lot in Jeju Island. It is made by the glutinous millet powder in a round shape, boiling it, and then coating it with gomul.
망개떡(Manggae-tteok) - Traditional tteok in Ulryeong, South Geyongsang. Mangae is tree names. Steaming rice power by Siru, pounding it, rolling it, put So inside and steaming with leaf of Mangae tree.
Siru-tteok (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siru-tteok)
Mujigae-tteok (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mujigae-tteok)
Hwajeon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwajeon)
Injeolmi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Injeolmi)
Omegi-teok (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omegi-tteok)
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