Tteokbokki at Home: Korea's Most Addictive Comfort Food, Now in Your Kitchen

Tteokbokki at Home?

If you've spent any time on Korean food content online, you've seen it — the glossy red sauce, the chewy cylindrical rice cakes, the kind of dish that makes people genuinely emotional. Tteokbokki (떡볶이) is Korea's most beloved street food, and it's easier to make at home than you might think. Oishii Asian Mart's Rice Cake & Tteokbokki collection has everything you need to get started.

What is tteokbokki?

At its core, tteokbokki is chewy Korean rice cakes — called tteok — cooked in a spicy, slightly sweet sauce made from gochujang (red chilli paste). It's a dish that's been eaten on Korean street corners for decades, and in recent years it's gone global thanks to K-drama and K-pop culture bringing Korean food into the spotlight.

Make Tteokbokki at Home. The magic is in the texture. Unlike anything in Western cooking, Korean rice cakes have a uniquely satisfying chew — soft but springy, dense but not heavy. Once you've tried them, you'll understand why Koreans are so devoted to them.

How to cook it

The basic method is simple. Simmer your rice cakes in a broth, add gochujang and gochugaru (chilli flakes) for heat, a touch of sugar to balance, and a splash of soy sauce for depth. Fish cakes, boiled eggs, and spring onions are traditional additions. The sauce thickens as it cooks, coating every rice cake in that iconic deep-red glaze.

You can find the gochujang and soy sauce you need in Oishii's Sauces and Seasonings & Spices collections — making it easy to put the whole dish together from one shop.

Beyond tteokbokki

Make Tteokbokki at Home. Rice cakes are more versatile than the famous dish suggests. Tteok can be pan-fried until crispy on the outside and soft inside, added to soups like tteokguk (traditional New Year's rice cake soup), or eaten simply with a dipping sauce. If you're new to Korean cooking, rice cakes are one of the most rewarding ingredients to experiment with.

Why try it now?

Korean food is having a genuine moment across the Baltics. More people are cooking it at home, and the ingredients that used to require a trip to a specialist city shop are now available online. Oishii delivers across Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia — so there's no reason not to give it a go.

Browse the full Rice Cake & Tteokbokki collection at Oishii Asian Mart and bring a piece of Korean street food culture into your kitchen.

What do others say about it? 

• Tteokbokki is a beloved Korean street food made with chewy rice cakes in a spicy gochujang sauce.

• Making tteokbokki at home is simple when you use Korean rice cakes, Korean fish cake, and a flavorful stock.

• A tteokbokki recipe usually begins with tteokbokki sauce made from gochujang, gochugaru, soy sauce, garlic, and sugar.

• Korean rice cake gives the dish its chewy texture and helps the sauce cling to every bite.

• Korean rice cakes can be fresh or frozen, and both work well after soaking or simmering.

• Korean fish cake adds a savoury taste that balances the heat of the spicy rice cakes.

• Rice cakes are the heart of tteokbokki and make the dish soft, chewy, and satisfying.

• Rice cake dishes like tteokbokki are easy to customise with green onion, sesame seeds, or eggs.

• Korean recipes like tteokbokki show how simple Korean ingredients can create bold flavour.