Gungjung tteokbokki, or royal-style tteokbokki, is made with garaetteok, or long white rice cake bars. Locals usually make garaetteok to cook dishes such as tteokguk, which is enjoyed on Lunar New Year’s Day. Tteokbokki was developed as a way to cook and consume the hardened garaetteok. Rice cakes made with high-quality rice prepared as gungjung tteokbokki to serve the king. Unlike spicy tteokbokki simmered in red pepper paste, gungjung tteokbokki is a nutritious and premium soy-sauce-flavored dish mixed with various ingredients including chestnut, jujube, and pine nuts. The spicy tteokbokki flavored with red pepper paste is enjoyed by regular people. It was developed in Sindang-dong, Seoul, in the 1950s.

Main Ingredients :
(Serves 2)
300 g garaetteok or long white rice cake, 50 g carrot, 50 g summer squash, 50 g onion, 2 brown oak mushrooms, 3 small green onions, 3 chestnuts, 4 jujubes, 2 eggs, 1 tsp pine nuts, 1 tsp sesame seeds
-Garaetteok-seasoning spices: 1 tsp soy sauce and 1 tsp sesame oil
-Beef-seasoning spices: 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp sesame oil, 1 tsp sugar, 1/4 tsp ground pepper.

Spices :
Gungjung tteokbokki-seasoning sauce: 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tbsp sesame oil, 1 tbsp cooking oil, 1/2 cup water, 1/2 tsp minced garlic, 1/8 tsp ground pepper



☑ Other ingredients should be cut and prepared in a similar shape and size of the quartered 5 cm-long garaetteok pieces.
☑ It’s easier to cut slightly hardened rice cakes.
☑ Blanch the sliced rice cake pieces in boiling water; flavor them with soy sauce and sesame oil to keep them from sticking.
☑ Other ingredients should to blanched prior to cooking to shorten cooking time and to retain the shape and taste of the vegetables with different cooking times.
☑ Pan-fried eggs called egg jidan should be slightly thicker.
☑ Boil the seasoning sauce and add rice cake pieces while on high heat. Add other ingredients later.
☑ Small green onions and egg strips are added in the last step; mix gently.


Kim Su-jin: Hansik Researcher

- Director of Association for Research on Taste of Korea
- Head Director of Food & Culture Korea Academy
- Nation’s First Film Food Director
(Major works: “Ssanghwajeom”, “The Painter of Wind”, “King and the Clown”, “Best Chef”)