Sindang-dong Tteokbokki StreetClaimed by the owner

Sindang-dong Tteokbokki Street (신당동 떡볶이타운) is an alley in Jung District, Seoul, lined on both sides with restaurants specializing in tteokbokki, a Korean rice cake dish. It is located near Sindang Station, about two blocks from Exit 8. The street is officially recognized as one of Seoul's Future Heritage sites.

Gochujang, DJ Boxes, and Baseball Crowds

The alley took shape in the late 1970s and reached its peak in the 1980s. According to the owner of Mabok-rim Grandmother's House (마복림할머니집), one of the restaurants on the street, tteokbokki has been sold there since 1953, originally made simply with gochujang (red chili paste). In the 1980s, each restaurant kept a DJ box that played music along with listener requests, and the DJs became a symbol of the street. The same decade was the peak of high school baseball, and when Deoksu Commercial High School played Sunlin Commercial High School at the nearby Dongdaemun Baseball Stadium, students would fill the alley after the games. Many of those former students still return as regulars decades later.

The Food

Over the following decades, tteokbokki here grew from a snack into a full meal. Today it is commonly served with additions such as egg, glass noodles, fish cakes, jjolmyeon noodles, instant ramyeon noodles, squid, shrimp, and cheese.