The #1 Tteokbokki in Korea

On my last day in Seoul, my Korean friend Aju brought me to this very special Korean place that's home to the spiciest topoki in Korea, that many of them locals can't handle it!

Looks familiar? 

Tteokbokki, topoki, ddukbokki, 엽기떡복이 is a super popular Korean street food and is a must try! It's rice cake cooked in spicy sauce and can be served on its own, or coupled with the likes of eggs, dumplings, sausages, fish cakes and topped with mozarella cheese.

It's called Yyupdduk and check-out the self-explanatory restaurant group name (or is it a slogan?) Ttangcho Hot Food ( 땅초 ) 

Housed in a standard 2-storey Korean shophouse, this restaurant is almost always full and I'm about to find out why

That fire tho

Group mentality runs deep in Korean eating culture - they only serve huge bowls of topoki!

I was sure that we were gonna be full by the topoki itself, and I was gonna order the topoki bowl a-la-carte. Aju insisted on the sides - she said that she couldn't eat the topoki on its own. I'd soon thank her for this 

Peek-A-Ju!

AAAAAAND IT'S HEREEEEEE

A closer look at this beauty

THE KOREAN TOOK THE FIRST CUTE BITE

And I did

And I died

Like

ded

kinda died

Whew

After 1 bite 

I cried

in pain

and joy

it was like hell hath no fury like a spicy topoki 

but it hurt like heaven

I could definitely taste the millions of chilli working hard for my money's worth with each bite that I took

Basically me throughout the meal

Aju gave up after a few bites and I think she found it amusing that I was ravenously devouring the topoki the that Koreans had trouble eating.  

I'm bought. It's a definite 5 stars from me and it's the highlight of my gastronomic journey in Korea, aptly had on my last day there :')

I love spicy food so much - it's a pain that's worth it. Look at the picture above - oh them tears of joy. 

If you cringed at what I just said, don't bother coming here unless your tongue is numb/has lost its ability to taste spiciness or you've been fed chili padi since young and have sky-high tolerance for spicy food.

Find out more about Ttangcho Hot Food here!