The taste of winter? Street snacks!

▲Bungeoppang / Source : Naver

 There is a saying in Korea. "People should always carry 3,000 won next to their hearts (inside pocket)." This means having some cash just in case you meet a street-food cart or food truck. There is a variety of street food in our country and many people enjoy them. From here on, we will introduce the street food for winter.

 The first is Bungeoppang (붕어빵), the representative Korean winter street-food. It is a fish-shaped bread and is baked in a fish-shaped mold with sweet red bean paste in glutinous rice dough. The sweet red bean paste in the warm bread fills the mouth warmly and sweetly. Although there are fewer fish-shaped buns than in the past, they are the most common street food in winter.

 The second is Hotteok (호떡). It is difficult to find this food these days, perhaps because of the hassle of making it. It is a glutinous rice dough filled with sugar, cinnamon powder, and nuts, and then fried in oil.

 Hoteok, with its crisp, chewy outer dough and a sweet, savory sauce, can be said to be the second best winter street snack. Cinnamon powder added to the sauce keeps the sweet taste from getting worse.

 The third is fish cake (어묵). Fish cake is always with Bungeoppang. Fish cakes cooked in a broth flavored with various vegetables and spices are easy to find everywhere. If you see fish cakes that are steaming hot on a cold winter day, you'll never get past them. If you put fish cake soup in a paper cup, you will feel your cold hands and body melting away in a moment

 The fourth is hoppang (호빵). This food contains soft red bean paste inside the soft, light bread. Named hoppang for blowing the wind with a "ho-ho" mouth, the dish is common in convenience stores and markets rather than on the streets. Convenience stores and hoppangs are like a formula, with winter really coming when convenience stores start selling hoppang. These days, there are pizza hoppang, sweet potato hoppang, vegetable hoppang, and other ingredients that go inside. These hoppangs are easy to find at convenience stores.

 The fifth is a roasted sweet potato. Like the aforementioned "Hotteok," roasted     sweet potatoes can only be bought from a specialist seller. It's not common, but you can sometimes see people selling sweet potatoes on machines that look like drums lying on their sides. The freshly roasted sweet potato has a yellow, moist filling, unlike its dark exterior. In addition to regular sweet potatoes, there  are also sweet potatoes that have different tastes, such as chestnut and pumpkin sweet potato.

 So far, we have introduced Korea's winter street snacks. Eating warm food while walking along the street feels delicious in contrast to the cold air outside. It is also the delicacy of winter and a small but certain happiness. Why don't you find and enjoy a wide variety of street winter snacks this winter? Enjoy the winter!

▲ Hoppangs / Source : Naver