Hotteok

Hotteok is the filled pancake of Korean winter street markets: a ball of yeasted wheat dough, sometimes cut with glutinous rice flour, closed over brown sugar, cinnamon and chopped nuts or seeds, then pressed flat on an oiled griddle. The sugar melts into syrup inside while the surface browns. In Paris it appears as dessert in fried-chicken restaurants and Korean cafés, sometimes with a scoop of ice cream.

Eat it hot, held in a square of paper, biting from the edge — the centre is scalding and the syrup runs. It is a one-person snack, but restaurants cut it into quarters for the table. Unsweetened tea or coffee goes well with it.