Tteok & Traditional Sweets

Tteok covers dozens of preparations built from glutinous rice or rice flour: steamed, pounded with a mallet, or pan-fried. Texture is what defines them — dense, chewy, slightly sticky, a long way from anything raised with yeast. Sweetness is kept low, and the interest comes from red bean, sesame, mugwort or jujube worked through them.

They are eaten in small pieces with the fingers, often at the end of a meal or with a tea that offsets how heavy they are. Tteok firms up quickly, so it is meant to be eaten the day it is made, which is why many places produce it in small batches. Some kinds, fried or glazed with honey, are best slightly warm.