Pojang Macha

As in other Asian countries, one of the great things about Korea is that city streets are bustling at night. In America, residential neighborhoods and business districts alike are essentially deserted after 7 pm on weeknights; most people are home watching TV. But in Seoul in the evenings people are out walking the streets. Not only restaurants but also retail establishments are open until 9, 10, or even later every evening.

In many neighborhoods pojang macha (포장마차 布帳馬車) are a fixture on busy sidewalks. Pojang macha literally means "canopied horse cart", and refers to mobile food stalls. Nowadays, of course, there are no more horses, but most of the carts are on wheels and some are motorized. The pojang macha serve a wide variety of snack foods, some traditional and some new. They are good for a quick, cheap meal or for an after-dinner snack. In the cold winter weather, stopping at one for a hot bite after a long walk outside is especially appealing.

Here's what a pojang macha looks like.


A disadvantage is that they narrow the crowded sidewalks and add to congestion, especially when customers are huddled in front eating.

Here's a front view of one that sells traditional fare, including a lot of dried fish and squid, as well as grilled meat:

These big hunks of squid looked pretty interesting to me:


Perhaps the most prototypical pojang macha food is tteokbokkgi 떡볶기, chunks of chewy glutinous-rice dumplings served hot in a spicy red sauce.

A newer snack that is quite popular these days is dak kkochi 닭꽃이, grilled chicken kebabs.


They come in anglicized shyoteu 쇼트 and rong 롱 sizes. The scissors visible at the bottom of the frame are for cutting off the ends of the wooden skewers as you eat your way down, so that you don't have to maneuver your mouth around a dangerously pointy length of bare wood.

At this particular stand, we had a choice of four kinds of spicy sauce. In increasing degree of spiciness, they were called: maekom 매콤 "spicy-ish", nunmul 눈물 "eye-watering", konmul 콧물 "nose-running", and poktan 폭탄 "explosive". We got konmul, which turned out to be pretty darn spicy, as Erma is about to discover:


Sweet snacks are also available. One of my favorites is hotteok 호떡, a hotcake flavored with honey and cinnamon cooked on an oiled griddle. Usually they are thick and flat, but there is one seller outside the front gate of Yonsei that makes a puffed version that is grilled dry. They cost 600 won each, about 70 cents.


Both tteokbokkgi and hotteok belong to the broader food class of tteok 떡: glutinous rice cake. There is a nearly infinite variety of tteok, some of which are similar to Japanese mochi もち.

One day in Insadong, we saw a tteok-maker preparing the sticky snacks in the traditional manner, which involves repeatedly pulverizing the rice-dough with a wooden mallet.


We also saw another traditional type of candy, gangjeong 강정, being made there. At the left edge of the picture below, you see a mixture of puffed rice, sesame, peanuts and sugar being deep-fried in oil.


The cooked, sticky mixture is then spread out in a shallow rectangular frame and rolled smooth with a rolling pin.


Then it is removed from the frame and sliced into bite-size pieces.


Speaking of Insadong, here's a picture taken there a few days ago, of me with a robot. The robot is a promotional gimmick for a brand of water heater.


Although not sold at pojang macha, a few other items are worth mentioning in a blog entry on Korean street food. Automatic coffee-vending machines are very popular in Seoul. They can be found in subway stations, on sidewalks, and in a lot of buildings (including the Yonsei Korean Language Institute). On many days during class breaks, Erma and I bought, for 150 won (about 16 cents!), a 4-oz cup of milk coffee dispensed hot into a paper cup. (These machines also sell coffee mixed with the popular local brand of non-dairy creamer, Frima 프리마. The origin of the Romanized spelling--the Korean is pronounced peurima--is a mystery.)

Nowadays, in the global Starbucks era, espresso drinks are also commonly available. This vending machine was photographed in the subway:


This is a close-up of the button at the upper left:


It says kapuchino 카푸치노, and promises a "large cup" of "whole-bean coffee" for 600 won, about 70 cents.

Lastly, you can see a lot of interesting live seafood on the sidewalk in front of some restaurants. These bivalves in Shinchon (are they mussels?) are mind-bogglingly huge.


I don't think I sampled enough street food during my time here. Something to look forward to on my next trip.