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Introduction

Associated with Korea’s street food is the trademark red dish tteokbokki. It is prepared with bite-sized pieces of rice cakes which are boiled in a sweet and spicy sauce. Tteokbokki recipe is also a nostalgic dish in Korea. Since the Korean Wave, or Hallyu, there has been an increase in interest around Korean food and cultures, leading to tteokbokki being featured in numerous cookbooks, food blogs, and recipes on YouTube. However, this brings up the crucial question of whether the borders of culture should determine the boundaries of culinary creativity. Is the recipe honored or is it cooked down and westernized beyond understanding?

Understanding the Origins of Tteokbokki

According to some theories, tteokbokki first appeared during the Joseon Dynasty and was presented with the aristocrats under the shape of soy sauce. Its current iteration, made with spicy gochujang sauce, appeared in the 1950s as an inexpensive snack for people in post-war Korea. Eventually, it became a favorite among students and was served from street food carts (pojangmacha).

Today, it is often enjoyed with additions like ramen (rabokki), cheese, eomuk (fish cakes), and even seafood. This beloved street food is deliciously versatile, yet too much alteration may risk losing its essence.

The Globalization of a Comfort Dish

1.Western Adaptations and Recipe Simplifications

Tteokbokki, notably during its international travels, seems to have been dumbed down for easy preparation and taste. It is now simplified to require only a microwave, instead of doing painstaking steps like simmering, fermenting sauces, or crafting an anchovy broth. The instant versions compete by swapping the gochujang for ketchup, soy sauce and chili flakes for the Korean ingredients, and the so-called fermented sauce is soy sauce.

This is concerning because the essence of the dish is lost and authenticity is focused on what is accessible. If a dish no longer resembles its original form, does it still retain its name? For example, is tteokbokki still without the tteok and the bokki?

2.Recipe Preservation or Recipe Distortion?

It can repeatedly be observed on TikTok or Youtube that the tteokbokki recipe is at times depicted as a ‘spicy instant noodle challenge’ or an elegant mukbang style meal. Such clips attract millions of views, but scant attention is paid to culinary precision. People all around the globe attempt making tteokbokki and they do not know that there are parts of the Korean culinary heritage that they won’t include because the videos omit so much.

Cultural Respect vs Culinary Innovation

1.Fusion vs Appropriation

Creative fusion and cultural appropriation coexist on a fine line. While culinary evolution is expected to happen, changing fundamental elements without proper attribution of the origin or the cultural context is exaggerated. For instance, calling a simplified version of tteokbokki “Korean-inspired spicy pasta” is an example of a name that perpetuates cultural erasure, and thus loses its identity.

2.The Commercialization of Korean Cuisine

With the increased global commercialization of Korean cuisine, companies are now selling prepackaged kits such as the ‘tteokbokki kit’. This has led to overly sweetened sauces with dubious ingredient lists. These kits are shallow and do not offer the sweetness of traditional recipes and instead risk turning the dish into a fast food monstrosity.

Sustaining Culinary Via Modish Kitchens

In sharing a tteokbokki recipe, it is crucial to find the golden mean in adaptation to preservation. The responsibility lies also in the home cooks and influencers who should:

Offer recognition to the source of the dish.

State the ingredients used in the dish or substitutions made openly.

Fans of Korean food and culture should not reproduce culinary trends blindly, but rather embrace the culture in its depth.

International cuisine should promote understanding between cultures.

Conclusion: Tteokbokki Deserves Better

The worldwide popularity of the tteokbokki recipe perfectly demonstrates the good and bad of the internet age when it comes to food trends. With the spread of Korean cuisine receiving international acknowledgment, one can only hope that the integrity of such dishes is maintained. Tteokbokki embodies much more than just a spicy snack. It serves as a landmark of culture, a comforting dish, and a flavored narrative.

As part of the global community, it is our responsibility to show respect, curiosity, and a readiness to learn when Tsukimi and other Japanese dishes are brought up—not simply to eat.

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