Skewers · Winter Warmer

Eomuk / Odeng (어묵)

📷 Closely related photo — Photo via Pexels/Unsplash — free for commercial use

Order it at a Korean street cart and you get more than the skewer — the hot fish broth it simmered in is ladled out free, in a paper cup, on the side.

Pureed white fish is pressed and steamed into sheets of fish cake, then threaded onto skewers and simmered in a savory radish-and-kelp broth at street carts, a favorite cold-weather snack often paired with tteokbokki.

Why it's made this way: Fish cake reached Korea through Japanese culinary influence during the colonial period, then became a homegrown cold-weather street staple, ladled straight from simmering broth pots at pojangmacha carts.