Korean bunsik guide: tteokbokki, sundae, odeng and twigim

Walk into a bunsikjip, one of Korea's no-frills snack bars, and you'll find that ordering tteokbokki, sundae, odeng and twigim together is about as common as it gets. Those four dishes lined up side by side on a single tray are a sight every Korean knows well, haha.

The word bunsik (粉食) literally means "food made from flour". It's generally said to have caught on after the Korean War, when rice was scarce and the government encouraged people to eat wheat-flour dishes. These days it's used loosely for a whole range of fairly inexpensive Korean snack-style food.

A very long time ago, I popped into a bunsikjip on my own and, because I was hungry, ate these four things. There was nothing special planned – it was just a solo meal to take the edge off my hunger.

So this isn't a review of that particular place! I'm writing it to introduce friends from abroad who are new to bunsik to what each of these dishes actually is.

Tteokbokki, sundae, odeng and twigim: the bunsik set at a glance

What I'm introducing today is a set you'll often see at Korean snack bars.

You'll find much the same line-up at pretty much any bunsikjip in the country, so I won't name the place and will just talk about the food itself.

In the photo, the four dishes sit on a red tray. The plate at the top left is sundae: a Korean-style sausage made by stuffing pig intestine with glass noodles (dangmyeon) or glutinous rice, vegetables and so on, then steaming it. Ours came cut into bite-sized pieces. On the right-hand side of the plate there's some sliced offal too. Sundae usually comes with liver or lung on the side, and the best-known way to eat it is dipped in salt or seasoned salt.

The basket at the top right holds the twigim. Twigim is the catch-all name for anything coated in a flour batter and deep-fried.

The bowl at the bottom left is odeng: eomuk, a fish cake made from fish paste, served in a hot broth. The eomuk is usually simmered with Korean radish (mu) and spring onion. In Korea, this dish goes by both odeng and eomuk.

The bowl at the bottom right is tteokbokki: garaetteok, long cylinders of rice cake, cut into lengths and simmered down in a sweet and spicy gochujang (chilli paste) sauce.

Tteokbokki: from gochujang sauce to all sorts of flavours

Up close, the rice cakes in the tteokbokki are chunky cylinders and the sauce has a smooth, glossy sheen. Sesame seeds and finely chopped spring onion are scattered on top. Right in the middle sits a crisp-looking, half-moon-shaped piece of fried twigim, and next to it there's something white and round as well.

Tteokbokki isn't a one-flavour dish! The sweet and spicy gochujang version like this one is the most famous, but there's also a mild tteokbokki made with a soy sauce seasoning, which was eaten at the royal court during the Joseon dynasty. If spicy food isn't really your thing, it's worth seeking that one out. Depending on the place, they might add eomuk, boiled eggs or ramyeon noodles, and there are tteokbokki with a whole new flavour, such as cheese or carbonara sauce. Even under the same name, it can look quite different from one place to the next.

Rice tteokbokki vs wheat tteokbokki: what's the difference?

Texture depends on who makes it, the product and how long it's boiled, and people's preferences differ too. The points above are just generally reported tendencies – there's no rule that one is better than the other.

Tteokbokki sauces: more variety than you might think

Menu names and flavours can vary a little from place to place.

Sundae: snack-bar glutinous rice sundae vs specialist sundae

Sundae is sold at snack bars almost as often as tteokbokki. On this plate it's cut into bite-sized pieces, and the cross-section shows it's tightly packed with filling. You can see little green flecks dotted about too, a bit like spring onion.

To be honest, snack-bar sundae feels to me as though it's been factory-made and bought in, because the shape and filling are all so uniform. It's a different thing altogether from the sundae you get at a specialist sundae restaurant. That said, this is only my impression from what I've eaten, so I can't say every snack bar is like that.

At a specialist restaurant, the choice opens up considerably. Byeongcheon sundae from Chungcheong Province has a high proportion of vegetables and seonji (congealed blood) and tends to be clean-tasting, while abai sundae, associated with the Hamgyeong and Pyeongan regions, is thick and very filling. Baegam sundae from Yongin in Gyeonggi Province, pi-sundae from the Jeolla region and Jeju sundae are well-known varieties too.

Sundae can feel quite unfamiliar to visitors from abroad. Even so, the chapssal sundae (glutinous rice sundae) sold at snack bars is one of the easier ones to start with – and it's tasty too! If the offal served with it puts you off, you don't have to eat it. When you order, just say "sundae-man juseyo" ("just sundae, please") and they'll give you sundae only.

Odeng (eomuk): in a bowl or on a street-stall skewer

Some places serve odeng like this, in a bowl with its broth. In the photo, square-cut pieces of eomuk and rolled-up eomuk sit in a clear broth, with chopped spring onion and pieces of gim (dried seaweed) as well.

At street stalls it's done slightly differently. You get eomuk threaded on a skewer along with hot broth in a paper cup, and it's often dipped in soy sauce. Since you can eat it standing up in a couple of minutes, it's the perfect snack for a quick stop when you're passing by.

I'm not sure about summer, but with winter just around the corner, odeng really is the best! One sip of piping-hot broth on a cold street and you can feel your whole body thaw out.

Odeng broth comes in two kinds

The flavour of the broth and how spicy it is can vary from place to place.

Twigim: as a set or picked one by one

The twigim came in a paper-lined basket. There was a mix of types: one rolled in seaweed and fried, one that looked like dumpling wrapper, one that was white inside, and some flat pieces fried golden brown. Where I went, they served the twigim as a set like this.

Usually, though, twigim are sold separately and you pick them out one by one. They used to be cheap, but prices have gone up so much that it's hard to call them cheap these days, sob.

Everyone eats them their own way. I just give mine a quick dip in soy sauce. Some people dunk them right into the tteokbokki sauce – that's entirely down to personal taste!

Final thoughts: come to Korea and you're bound to meet bunsik

If you come to Korea, I reckon more than 90% of travellers will end up eating bunsik. You don't need a fancy restaurant – it's everyday food where tteokbokki, sundae, odeng and twigim all come together at one table, and you'll run into it pretty much anywhere you walk.

Flavours and prices vary a little from place to place, and it's hard to call it as cheap as it used to be. If spicy food is a bit much for you, start with odeng broth; if the sundae offal puts you off, just order sundae on its own. And if you're here for the cold winter that's on its way, I'd recommend having a sip of hot odeng broth out on the street!

Other dishes worth ordering at a snack bar

Menus and prices vary by place and region.