Sinadong Toppokki 신당동 떡볶이 with Capsaicin Sauce

There is a part of Seoul that is called Toppokki Town 떡볶이 타운. It started with small restaurant called Sinadong Toppokki 신당동 떡볶이 in 1953. These ladies produced 떡볶이 Toppokki or Ddukbokki, which is a dish similar to Budaejeongol in which a communal bowl is share with lots of goodies are boiled and cooked together. Now as grandmothers, with their pictures all on the wall, you see their fame from TV shows, newspaper, and magazines. You’ll still see some of the grandmothers working to this day.

What’s kinda cool here is that they give you these little red aprons for you to wear so you won’t get the spicy sauce or food on your clothes. This is sort like a crab place giving you a bib.

This large shallow bowl is filled with vegetables, meats, rice cake, fish cake, hard-boiled eggs, noodles, instant noodles, and spices. Then you fill the bowl to the brim with water. The spices include a spicy chili paste and chili pepper powder. On top of that, we had them squeeze a sauce out of a bottle called Capsaicin – yes the very stuff that spicy chili are made of. It was already a bit spicy without it, but with Capsaicin – this brought the level of pain to a whole new level for myself. The rice cake, fish cake, and noodles start to cook and break down to thicken the water into a gravy-like sauce. Only the brave will spoon it like soup to drink. I tried it but I almost choked on the heat. I was told to quickly eat the instant noodle first before they get that undesirable mushy texture. The egg is interesting since you take the solid powder yolk and break it down and mix with the spicy gravy to make a unique mixture that is pretty yummy. Aside from water, which is useless, to help you cool down, you also get a side of cooled pickled radishes. These radishes, which are almost fluorescent yellow in color, was a nice break from the intense spice. As my Korean couterparts, Mr. B and Miss J, were enjoying this meal, I was wondering why did they ask for Capsaicin Sauce.


When we were finished, Sinadong Toppokki also gave us soft serve ice cream. Ice cream on this cold winter day seem unbelievably crazy. But after the throbbing pain on my lips and tongue, nothing felt better. I mean nothing.

This little area is called Toppokki town, since it is famous for the many different toppokki restaurants in the area. The other copy-cat restaurants realized the great business and notoriety from the Grandmother’s Toppokki restaurant and decide to build restaurants close by. But Sinadong Toppokki is the biggest and best in Toppokki Town.

What to Order: Toppokki 떡볶이 and ice cream!
What not to Order: I dare you to try it with the capsaicin sauce

Rating
3 Pigs
Price Range 2 $/¥/NT

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신당동 떡볶이
Sinadong Toppokki
South Korea Seoul Jung-gu Sindang-dong 304-518
02-2232-8930

http://www.신당동마복림할머니집.com/

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