Jay Park has lived between two food cultures.
When he’s in Korea, there are American and Mexican-style foods he misses.
But what about when he’s in the United States?
One Korean food comes to mind:
Tteokbokki (떡볶이).
During an interview with Soompi, Jay Park was asked which Korean foods he misses while in America.
His answer was straightforward: tteokbokki.
He even added that he loves it.
So what makes this simple Korean street food so hard to forget?
What Is Tteokbokki?
Tteokbokki is one of Korea’s most famous street foods.
The classic version combines chewy rice cakes with vegetables and a red, spicy-sweet sauce usually based on gochujang.
Fish cake is another common addition.
It doesn’t sound particularly complicated.
But that’s part of its appeal.
The rice cakes absorb the thick sauce while retaining their distinctive chewy texture.
The result is spicy, sweet, savory and chewy at the same time.
Tteokbokki Is More Than Just Street Food in Korea
For many Koreans, tteokbokki is connected to childhood.
The Korea Tourism Organization describes memories of students stopping at small snack shops after school to eat tteokbokki with friends, which helped make it a kind of Korean nostalgia food.
That’s an important part of understanding the dish.
Tteokbokki isn’t supposed to be fancy.
It’s affordable comfort food—the kind of thing you can share with friends without planning a special dinner.
That makes Jay Park’s answer particularly relatable.
Of all the elaborate Korean dishes he could miss while overseas, he picked one of Korea’s simplest everyday foods.
How Spicy Is Tteokbokki?
That depends.
The bright-red sauce can look intimidating, but different restaurants make it at very different heat levels.
Traditional modern-style tteokbokki is generally both sweet and spicy, rather than simply hot.
And today there are countless variations.
You can find cheese tteokbokki, jjajang tteokbokki, rosé tteokbokki and even versions with ramen noodles. The classic gochujang version, however, remains at the center of Korean bunsik culture.
What Should You Eat With Tteokbokki?
Here’s where things get even better.
A Korean bunsik shop usually doesn’t sell only tteokbokki.
You might order:
Tteokbokki + fried food + sundae + gimbap.
The Korea Tourism Organization notes that tteokbokki, fried foods and Korean sundae are such a popular combination that Koreans even shorten the three names into “tteoktwisun.”
And don’t waste the sauce.
Dip a fried dumpling or another piece of fried food into the leftover tteokbokki sauce and you’ll understand why the combination works.
Why Does Jay Park Miss It?
Jay Park didn’t give a complicated explanation.
He simply said that when he’s in the States, tteokbokki is one of the Korean foods he misses and that he loves it.
Maybe that’s exactly the point.
The foods people miss aren’t always expensive restaurant dishes.
Sometimes they’re the cheap, familiar foods attached to everyday life.
For Jay Park, one of those foods is a bowl of chewy rice cakes covered in spicy red sauce.
And if you’re discovering Korean food through K-pop, tteokbokki might be one of the easiest places to start.
Just have something cold to drink nearby.