It’s coming, it’s coming!!!! Tomorrow…okay, in two days.

I thought I wanted one with a steam function so i could make some crispy baguettes, but paying an extra 200,000won  for a function that I wasn’t going to use that often wasn’t worth it. I had a feeling that I wasn’t really paying for the the steam function anyway. All the more expensive ovens with the steam function had floral designs. Correction: LG or Samsung models this is true, but I just saw an off brand with NO flowers! and I didn’t want or need flowers on my oven.  A nice black or white or any solid color was all I wanted. So here it is.

The christening shall take place this weekend with the one kind of food worthy of a first baking.

I scared the young Korean on the other line. He wasn’t getting my order.  I reminded him that I’m just an American that wants a pizza. It almost worked.  He gained enough confidence to mock me, but not enough confidence to take my order. He quickly handed the phone over to a female employee. She got my order on one shot. I was so happy.  Well, almost happy. I was a little doubtful that I would actually receive the pizza at my door.  But, it came 20 minutes later. A success! My favorite food, ordered in Korean, and delivered to my door.  Now I feel like, singing in Korean!

It’s almost pronounced like hotdog, except the first syllable sounds like “ho”. -As in, “you ain’t nothin’ butta __.”  This is my favorite Korean snack. I suspect its because its made from the worlds best ingredients: flour (wheat) and yeast. It beats out all the other Korean sweet snacks. Rice cakes are good but this is excellent.

I was first introduced to the hotteok by Korean friends Sook-young and Yeo-yeon on the cold November day strolling through Insadong market in Seoul. Behind a long line of eager faces were these  morsels of doughy sweetness. -hot bread coated in a thin layer of pan grease, and inside…molten cinnamon and sugar. Ahhh…

I forgot about the hotteok for a couple months until a few weeks ago, when I saw a woman selling them at the bus station in Gochang. Then the other day I was at my Home-Mart grocery store and saw a hotteok premix. I thought to myself this can’t be hard to make. It turns out, the hardest part is waiting for the dough to rise. Below is the procedure (in Korean).