I traveled to a village near the demilitarized zone separating the North and South Korea. Part of the tour package was the rice cake making. They called this cake, ' Tteok'. You can pronounce it as just TOK in English but in a softer way. It is made with steamed flour from glutinous rice. It is a famous traditional Korean food that has been enjoyed in various Korean style recipes (more on these rice cake foodies later on a separate page) not only as a dessert but also as a meal.
So in my picture below, you can see me pounding a gigantic lump of rice dough together with my friend. The hammer was made of a heavy wood. Pounding it revealed to me, why they exactly called this, Tteok. It is maybe because of the sound of the pounding wood on the rice dough. It sounded, TUK! Eureka! Isn't it?hahaha
We really had a good time listening to the TUK-sound. After the pounding, it was cut into smaller pieces and was rolled on a peanut powder, as in the picture below. The finished product was so delicious. It tasted so fresh and the stickiness of the cake was just right. I enjoyed it very much.
