I was watching several episodes of Korean food reality show “4 Wheeled Restaurant” and I couldn’t take it anymore! I must have some Jjajang Tteokbokki, aka Korean Rice Cakes in Black Bean Sauce. And the quickest way is to head to the nearest K-mart and pick up ingredients to DIY at home.

Referencing what I saw on tv (more on that later) and looking up some recipes online, I couldn’t find the exact Korean-style black bean sauce that forms the sauce base of this dish in paste form. So I improvised and picked up the next best thing on the shelf = a pack of Seafood Jjajang Sauce (in powder form).

Jjajang Tteokbokki Sauce

I kept the ingredients basic, namely cabbage, peas, onion, scallion, pork, and fish cake. The ubiquitous dish that made this black bean sauce a household name in Korea is Jjajang Myon aka Noodles in Black Bean Sauce. However, since I’m not a big fan of noodles and the inspiration that struck me from the food show was this sauce coating chewy sticks of rice cake, that’s what I set out to make. Read on for my recipe below.

Jjajang Tteokbokki

Korean Rice Cakes with Black Bean Sauce

1 pack rice cakes
1 pack jjajang sauce (powder form)
1/2 cup peas
1 onion
1 bunch scallion
4 cups cabbage
4 sheets Korean fish cake
500 grams pork
1/2 Tbs minced garlic
1 Tbs soy sauce
2 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs oyster sauce
2 Tbs olive oil
2 cups water
1 cup cornstarch slurry
salt to taste

Rinse and soak rice cakes in water for a few minutes, then drain and set aside. Cut pork and fish cake into small pieces. Chop onion, scallion, cabbage into chunky pieces. Heat up olive oil in a frying pan and fry up garlic and scallion until fragrant. Add soy sauce and pork, stir-fry for a couple minutes. Add onion and cabbage, fry until soft. Add water and jjajang sauce, mix well. Add fish cake and let everything come to a simmer. Season with oyster sauce and sugar, taste before adding salt if needed. Lastly, sprinkle peas before serving.

If I’m to describe the flavour of this dish, it’s savory sweet with juuuuust a tiny bit of peppery kick. It’s not spicy like traditional tteokbokki that’s flaming red in color; I’ve made that many times too and will try to post a recipe next time. I have quite a bit of leftover from this batch and the rice cakes don’t taste as good after this dish is refrigerated, so plan to slap just the sauce over some white rice. When I make this again next time, I’ll be adding more cabbage and maybe other vegetables too.

The show that inspired me to make this dish is 4 Wheeled Restaurant. The first season began with three Korean celebrities driving a food truck in Thailand, and the show’s concept is serving Thai food made by Koreans to locals to see if the flavor passes the authenticity test. When I was watching the first season, I ended up ordering Pad Thai multiple times from a nearby restaurant… thanks to the sexy slow-motion camera work on the cooking segments (lots of these in every episode!).

Season 2 features a different batch of celebrities, including a chef famous for Korean-style Chinese food, and the food truck roams around China. I enjoyed this season because there’s a mini history lesson on the origins of certain dishes and how they went through a cultural makeover upon travelling across the ocean to Korean shores. This is also the season that spurred on my sudden desire to make Jjajang Tteokbokki.

Season 3, which just ended, features the same chef with different celebrities driving the food truck across California. This season is pretty cool too and there’s one item that made me salivate big time: Korean hot dog. I’m not likely to DIY it though, so I gotta remember to have this when I visit Seoul next time.

https://www.facebook.com/4WHEELEDRESTAURANT/videos/2319980258216489/

THIS!!! is what I’m talking about. *heart eyes*

Each season averages about 10 episodes and this show has been one of the very few Korean food shows that I truly enjoy watching. Are you familiar with any Korean food show and do you have a favourite to recommend?