Gwangjang Market Must-Eat: Glutinous Rice Twisted Doughnuts

Translated from the Korean original.

My curiosity has finally been satisfied!! Everyone!! Work takes me to Jongno pretty often.

Gwangjang Market in Seoul is one of the standard stops on a Seoul trip — have you been? I had only heard about it; my first actual visit was this past December, in winter. And what had I always been so curious about? Well, as you can see in the photo above…

Ta-daa!! What does this stall sell? Glutinous rice twisted doughnuts — kkwabaegi! Doesn’t the name alone sound delicious? Yes, yes — of course it’s a flavor we all know well. But as they say, no two red or pink lipsticks under the sun are ever the same. Plenty of places sell glutinous rice kkwabaegi, but I think every one of them tastes different.

Every time I drove past Gwangjang Market, I would see an enormous line stretching out from the market entrance. There was never anywhere to park, so I would pass by carrying that curiosity with me — and then today I suddenly had to be in Jongno in the evening. After work I finally got to walk over to Gwangjang Market on foot for a simple dinner.

Honestly, I came because I was curious about that long line the moment I stepped into the market entrance, but standing in it myself felt like too much. I didn’t used to be like this, but these days if a line is long I skip it and go to another stall unless it’s something I desperately want or would truly regret missing.

I guess I’m getting older^^:: However good it might be… it’s probably much the same as any other, I thought, and skipped it!

This time too I saw the long line and went to check the menu — and right in front of that stall, an elderly woman was selling the very same thing, glutinous rice kkwabaegi. With the sweetest smile and a tiny frame, she was selling the same glutin-

ous rice kkwabaegi at the same price. She said they had just come out and she was eating one herself because they were so good, and with that kind grandmotherly smile she asked how many I wanted — how could I not buy any…… haha. Up until then I still thought she was part of the same shop as the one with the long line right there. So I figured, ah, these days they sell this way to keep competitors out, and I bought four¹. They were quite big, too.

And they were genuinely delicious. A flavor you already know is the most dangerous kind, haha. Was the price cheaper than elsewhere? It felt cheap to me. Looking at the photo now makes me want another. Just the right chewiness, and the dough consistency was spot on. The shop name isn’t in the photo, but as I remember it was Yun Sisters mugwort? glutinous rice kkwabaegi
? I’m fairly sure about Yun Sisters… One small disappointment: there wasn’t a single one without sugar on it.

I shook off as much sugar as I possibly could while eating. Even so, they were so good. You can’t stop at just one with a snack like this, right? It’s not just me, is it? Haha. If I really gave in to instinct I could eat 5–7 in one sitting… Some of you reading this may be genuinely shocked, haha. They say even a fried shoe tastes good — and this is fried dough, so imagine how good it is… hehe.

I really don’t think fried dough is capable of tasting bad… Still, forget dieting — for the sake of my health I should hold back, right? Haha. The truth is, this wasn’t all I ate that day….

The kkwabaegi was just the appetizer — the thing that got my appetite going. And what came next was, once again, flour, fried in more flour^^::

Curious? Curious costs five hundred wo…… you probably don’t know that joke, it’s an old one, haha. Anyway, tomorrow I’ll introduce another Gwangjang Market specialty and the dinner that went with it.

Do you visit the traditional markets in your area often? Tell me the name of the market you go to — and the snack you always buy while you’re there. Who knows? Maybe I’ll show up!^^