The Original Tteokbokki!

Today we are at Shindang. Shindang is known for the original place where the tteokbokki was born. Born? Like, first started? Yes. Before, tteokbokki was more like a hana-style fried with soy sauce for the king. But after this grandma, her name is Ma Bok-nim, Ma Bok-nim's grandmother, she accidentally created this gochujang-based tteokbokki. After that, I don't even have to explain how it blew up all over Korea, including other countries too, because you guys love tteokbokki as well, right? Yes. Right? Ma Bok-nim's grandmother, she created this gochujang-based tteokbokki, and we are about to taste the original tteokbokki today. You know what I love about Korea? What? They have a whole street or town for tteokbokki, fried chicken, grilled fish, everything. They got a whole street. Like, if you want something, you just go to that street and you're in your heaven of the day. Yep, yep. And I think our faces are really puffy today again. We've been eating too much in Korea. So anyways, tteokbokki it is! This is actually a type of tteokbokki I used to eat when I was in high school, and we call this jjig-seok tteokbokki. So tteokbokki is not cooked, and it will cook on the table. It looks very similar to budae-jjigae, but it's got a lot of tteokbokki. Rice cake. And this is the first Korean restaurant I've been in where they give you a spoon and a fork. They always give you chopsticks no matter what you're eating. It's the first time I've ever got a fork. I don't even know how to use this anymore. This is a little small plate that they give to us, and danmuji. I have to have this danmuji. The sauce is going to get really red and all that kind of stuff. I'm actually going to wear this. They have an apron. Maybe I should wear one too. Protect my clothes. The red will really show up on my shirt. You want to be a cool kid? Yeah, I want to be a cool kid. It's just so fashionable, you know what I mean? So this is like the little water kettle. I really like it. It's so cute. So can we start mixing it around a little? No, no, no. You let it boil. You let it boil first. So what is this thing? This is actually mandu. But it's almost like empty mandu. But it has glass noodles. Glass noodles in it. So in this tteokbokki they have a lot of rice cake. Obviously the fish cake. But their fish cake I noticed is really super super thin. And they also have ramen noodles and jjolmyeon, the Korean chewy noodles. Green onions and some cabbage. The sauce that they're putting on here, this is the secret sauce that Maboknim 할머니 created. Secret sauce? Secret sauce. Maboknim 할머니 said, Nobody knows my secret. Even my daughter-in-law doesn't know it. Now everybody knows it. Now even daughter-in-law knows it. The secret's out. When you order tteokbokki, you either order tteokbokki for two, tteokbokki for three, or tteokbokki for four. They come exactly same thing, it's just more bigger size or smaller size. So we got for two? That's a lot of food for two. All the grandmas are really generous, right? So that's why. They want to feed you well, eat well. How do you know when it's ready to eat? When it starts boiling, then you start mixing all the sauce, the noodles, and make sure keep mixing from the bottom because all the noodles and the rice cake really easy to stuck on the bottom. So you want to make sure keep mixing all those. Honestly, it's kind of really fun way to eat tteokbokki because you get to see how tteokbokki change the stage from not cooked at all. And then when they start boiling, and they start to thicken it up from all the starch from the rice cake and the noodles, it becomes the red color that you normally know what the tteokbokki looks like. Whenever it mix it all good, we need to reduce the heat to about medium to medium low. We start eating all the noodles first because they will cook the first. Okay, so now go ahead and enjoy the little fish cake and the noodles. Right. I almost feel weird eating ramen with a fork still. Am I allowed to? Yes, of course. I love this mixture of ramen and jjolmyeon together. This ramen is more like a little curly and bouncy kind of texture. And jjolmyeon, which is very silky but very chewy. Love the texture together. That is so good. Oh my gosh. Better than the street one. Different level than the regular tteokbokki on the street, right? Oh, totally. Eating with a fork, it feels like it's like Korean spaghetti. Actually, the color looks like a spaghetti. It's not really that spicy though, right? It's a very mild flavor. Rice cake. Is it crazy that that's not even the best part? Rice cake. This is what tteokbokki is supposed to taste like texture-wise. You can ask the chopsticks if you want chopsticks. I mean, on the street, they don't give you chopsticks either. They just give you a skewer. Like toothpicks. Big toothpicks. Tteok and noodles together. Like that. It almost tastes different with a fork though. It really does. One of the things I love about Korean restaurants is they all seem to specialize in their one thing. And they do that one thing fabulously well. I know this is the original one, but I mean, people come here just to get this. This style of tteokbokki. Because in Korean people, we believe. I think as a restauranteur, you should know. If you want to open a restaurant, you have to please everyone and go for it. You have to make all that like 15 to 100 whatever menus really nicely. It's impossible. Golden Retro cannot do that either. When you're just selling out this one type of food this well, then all your ingredients will be fresh. Everybody knows what they're doing. So service will be really fast. You know what I mean? This is what I used to eat when I was in high school. And at home, I love making tteokbokki like this because it's so much more fun to eat this way. What do you like better? This one. You like this style better too? It tastes better. There's more stuff in it. It kind of soaks up all the juice and all the flavor. They make fried rice after all. I think I saw somebody that they came in and they had the rice with the gim. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, they had it. I want that. I want that. Oh my gosh. No, tteokbokki sauce. The fried rice is the bomb. You've got to have it. It's going to be so much food. I don't care. I'm going to have it. You have to have it. It looks delicious. It doesn't matter how full you are. You have to have it. I got some extra sauce on my little plate here. So I'm going to put some rice on there. So mix it in a little bit more. Yeah, that's how you do. Oh, he knows. Natural. It's delicious. It's so simple. It's just leftover tteokbokki sauce. You just make fried rice with simple white rice with gim. The Korean roasted, seasoned seaweed. It just makes it extra special. I mean rice cake and rice together. Rice cake and rice together. Love it, love it, love it. Carbohydrate overloaded. So before you come here, just notice that, okay? Forget about your low-carb diet or high-low. Forget about it. Get ready to take a nap. I think it was awesome. I think so too. That was delicious. When are you coming back? Well, I don't know. It's pretty far away from where we are staying. So tomorrow. I will find a more closer one. Because this type of tteokbokki is all around in Korea. Like all around. Just looking for jigsuk tteokbokki. Then you will find it. So good. So worth it. It was amazing. And I love just to bring back my old high school memories. And I loved it. And it was an honor to taste the first gochujang-based red tteokbokki that was born in here. I mean, grandma is not with us here anymore. Her legacy lives on. So if you are ever around this area, just come check it out. It's definitely worth checking it out. Especially if you love tteokbokki. Must try. Yeah, must try. So thank you so much for watching us today. And we will see you next time. Bye guys. Love you.