Rice Cake Street

One of the busiest places in Seoul a few days before Lunar New Year’s Day or Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving Day) is the rice cake street in Nakwon-dong. The shops located in downtown Seoul are frantically flooded with orders for tteock, or rice cake, for ancestral memorial services. Some ten tteok houses stand on the roads surrounding Nagwon Shopping Center’s 15-story building that has gray shabby-looking concrete walls. Most people associate the center with the Hollywood movie theater, musical instrument shops and cheap restaurants serving haejangguk, a soup for relieving hangovers. Self-proclaimed gourmets also think of Agu-jjim (steamed anger fish with bean sprouts in hot red pepper sauce). But rice cakes are still one of the symbols of the commercial district around the Shopping Center. Just 20 years ago, some 30 tteok shops enjoyed a thriving business in the area with the famous nickname of “rice cake street.” However, as fast food restaurants popped up one after another, rice cake shops gradually lost young customers to them. As a result, only ten places are now left to maintain the precarious existence of “the street.” When was the street formed in the area? Walking down to Jongro 3-ga at Anguk Subway Station, you will see a signboard reading “The First Nagwon Rice Cake House” in front of Kyodong Elementary School. This place, opened in around 1915, is the oldest cake maker in this area. The word “First” in the signboard is not an exaggeration at all. Goh Yee-ppo, the late grandmother of current owner Lee Kwang-soon (63) first opened the shop. Right before the country’s liberation from Japan, Goh handed over the place to her fourth daughter Kim In-dong (83), the mother of current owner Lee. The founder and her descendants of three generations have been running the place. Lee says, “Court ladies who were forced out of the palace at the end of the Chosun Dynasty began to sell rice cakes here. My grandmother said she learned her technique from these ladies.” A variety of rice cakes are displayed on the shelves, including garae tteok (long white rice cakes), songpyeon (small rice dumplings with sweet stuffing), gyepi tteok (rice cakes coated with cinnamon powder), injeolmi (steamed and pounded glutinous rice coated with bean powder or hulled red bean powder) and yaksik (a sweet rice dish). This place also offers hobak tteok (pumpkin rice cakes), kool tteok (honey rice cakes), sool tteok (wine rice cakes), maguseogi (steamed rice cake filled with chestnut and raisins) and “nutritious” rice cakes which are getting popular as snacks. Five-colored gyeongdan (rice dumpling covered with colored powders made from sesame seeds, beans, cinnamon, chestnut, etc) and sinhaeng tteok are commonly used for big and small family occasions such as birthdays or weddings. With a 90-year history, it is not uncommon for the place to prepare tteok for the 100-day celebration (marking 100 days after birth) and the wedding of the same person. This place also has many regulars who have come for decades as well as notable customers such as the family of the late Chung Joo-young (the founder of the Hyundai Group), the family of former Assembly Speaker Lee Jae-hyung, and former United Liberal Demorats leader Kim Jong-pil. Walking past the “Original Nagwon Rice Cake House” about 30 meters toward the direction of the Nagwon Shopping Center, take an alley next to the Center. You will see all the tteok places on the alley, including Sonil Rice Cakes, Cheil Rice Cakes, Wonjopyong, Yang Rice Cakes, Nam-moon Rice Cakes, and Seoul Rice Cakes. Agu-jjim restaurants also come into sight between those tteok shops. Keep walking down the alley, and you’ll be greeted by a row of restaurants serving soondaeguk and haejangguk at only 1,500 won, or about 1.5 dollars. If you cross the road to Hollywood Theater, you can also see a few tteok places such as Saemaeul Rice Cakes, Minsok Rice Cakes and Jongro Rice Cakes, all of which are at least 30 years old. However, all the proprietors say that they are having a hard time doing business. Hah Doo-yee, who runs Sunil, says, “Changed tastes of people have of course affected the rice cake business, but the heaviest blow came from economic recession. In the past, we used more than ten sacks of rice simply for garae tteok, which is primarily ordered during the Lunar New Year season. We also had to prepare orders for gifts. In contrast, now five or six sacks of rice would be enough to cover all the demand. Particularly, corporate orders for gift tteok has dropped sharply.” Not long ago, Hah began to sell 3,000-won rice cakes as snacks. The most popular type is “maguseori tteok,” steamed rice cake filled with chestnut, raisin and pumpkin, but he says even it does not sell well these days. Experts say tteok is not inferior to any other food in terms of taste and nutrition. Though it seems to be “tasteless” at the beginning, you can slowly appreciate the delicate taste and aroma. That’s why someone once called tteok the “food with a thousand tastes.” It won’t be easy to change your tastes overnight. But, at this time of the year around “Seol,” the country’s major holiday, it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to try some rice cakes at one of the places on the Nagwon-dong street.