How This Korean Dish Helped Me Connect With My Filipino Traditions

Tteokbokki is the perfect dish for entertaining, and for expressing love to my community

There’s really only one thing I want to happen at a party: that moment. The moment where everyone gathers around the food, admires it, and then digs in. There are plenty of dishes that have that show-stopping appeal that makes everyone in the room stop in their tracks, but one of my favorite party platters lately is a Korean dish called tteokbokki (떡볶이).

I had seen the word before, usually translated unceremoniously as “spicy rice cakes” in Korean restaurant menus. But, I had never actually ordered or even seen the dish until recently. “Spicy rice cakes” is an accurate description, but it doesn’t really do the depth of the dish any justice. Tteokbokki is a strikingly glossy, deep scarlet red. The sauce is thick, rich, and full of umami that coats your mouth in a satisfying flavor. Cooking rice cakes in the sauce results in a satisfactory and chewy bite that makes a glorious glompy sound..

I grew up in Daly City, a small place in the Bay Area just a BART ride from San Francisco proper. I was young at the time, but I vividly remember the clinging cold air and an opaque layer of clouds covering the sky nearly year-round. The heavy air and…