Rice is a staple in many Asian countries, and South Korea is no exception. Besides being the main source of carbohydrates, it’s also used to make different types of sweets.
We wanted to try some of them, and were on an active lookout for shops that sold Korean rice cakes. One of them was Jongchun 1975 Ikseon, located within the Ikseondong Hanok Village.
From the outside, it looked like a quaint little coffee shop, similar to many others in the neighbourhood. However, when we walked it, we were greeted with table-after-table and shelf-after-shelf of traditional Korean snacks.
Individually-wrapped mugwort rice cakes caught The Wife’s eye. They were similar to the Teochew chi kak kueh that she loves from Poh Guan Cake House in Singapore, but with a Korean twist.
Besides the more traditional offerings, the rice cakes also came in modern flavours like strawberry and cute shapes like green apples and baby bunnies.
The shop sold drinks as well, and there were tables and chairs for dining in, but most customers opted for takeaway.
Breakfast wasn’t included in our hotel booking, so we decided to buy back some of the rice cakes to have the next day.
The mugwort one was a given, but it was difficult to choose among the numerous other choices laid out in front of us. It took us a while, but we eventually picked out three items.
The following morning, I made ourselves some freshly-brewed pour over coffee with the drip bags that the hotel had conveniently provided.
As I was brewing each cup, I couldn’t help but feel somewhat handicapped without my trusty timer scale. There was no way to tell exactly how much water I was pouring, and at what speed.
It felt a bit weird to brew without my usual equipment, but at least there was a gooseneck kettle in the room. I wasn’t expecting much, but the coffee turned out to be surprisingly good.
The full-bodied medium roast provided a nice counterbalance to the sweet rice cakes. Curious to taste how different it was from our local chi kak kueh, we tried the green mugwort one first.
It had a coating of soybean powder and the skin was less bitter, with a milder grassy flavour. Also, instead of salty green bean filling, the Korean version had a sweet red bean paste on the inside.
Both were chewy, but were otherwise quite different and distinct. If we had to choose between the two, we’d probably go with our Singaporean one.
Strawberry with soybean paste and rice castella with honey were the other two items that we selected. The colour and scent of strawberry was unmistakable, with a natural flavour that indicated that real fruit was mixed into the rice dough.
The rice castella (as translated by Papago) had a very familiar taste and texture. It was like the steamed rice cakes found in Singaporean markets, except slightly denser. The honey filling was not too sweet and had a slightly grainy consistency that was quite pleasant.
A few days later, as we were walking back to our hotel in Dongdaemun, we saw a small shop in the subway station selling various rice cakes. It didn’t look as fancy as Jongchun 1975 Iksun, but they had a similar selection.
We wanted to try something new, and picked out a box of multi-coloured mini “dumplings”. They were kept in the fridge overnight and microwaved briefly the next morning. I still had extra coffee drip bags left over, and made pour over coffee to go with our light breakfast.
Each mini rice cake was filled with liquid honey, and we didn’t zap them for too long to prevent any unintended explosions.
They were warmed up just enough to soften their skins, rendering them soft and chewy. Despite sporting different colours, they all tasted quite similar. Not too bad, but nothing particularly special.
Overall, I was glad that we managed to sample different types of Korean rice cakes. Even though we’d probably find something else to have for breakfast in future trips.
