Assorted rice cakes were on display at the “2008 Tteok Exhibition and Beautiful Tteok Contest” held last week in Jongno, downtown Seoul. A total of 120 participants took part in the contest. / Korea Times Photos by Shim Hyun-chul



By Shim Hyun-chul
Staff Reporter

As the steamer heats up, all the ingredients show off their beautiful colors as they get mixed with the rice flour. An hour passes as taste and beauty blend together, and the small lump of rice becomes ``tteok (rice cake),'' Korea's traditional food, delighting the taste buds and eyes of the viewer.

In Korea, tteok is a dish that frequents events like weddings, funerals and ancestor worship ceremonies, on a baby's one hundredth day, and also on birthdays. It is known that people have enjoyed tteok since the primitive ages when farming started. The names of the tteok usually depend on the ingredients that are put in when they are made. There are tteok made by steaming rice, or glutinous rice; by pounding steamed rice with a tteok mallet; sauteing the rice dough in oil; or boiling the glutinous rice.



Recently there has been an effort to preserve and further develop Korea's tteok culture, with exhibitions and contests. On May 9, the Institute of Korean Traditional Food held the ``2008 Tteok Exhibition and Beautiful Tteok Contest,'' the sixth of its kind. 120 qualifiers, including businessmen and women and students eager to learn traditional culture, participated in the contest. Traditional tteok dishes from all over the nation and also ``fusion'' tteok with chocolate, strawberry syrup and even fresh cream were offered at the event.

The institute is located at Jongno and even has a tteok museum that displays traditional kitchen utensils. You can try making tteok yourself at the institute. At the tteok cafe located on the first floor also enjoy traditional tea and pretty, delicious tteok. For more information, visit ::: ¶±¡¤ºÎ¾ý »ì¸² ¹Ú¹°°ü ::: or call (02) 741-5447.

shim@koreatimes.co.kr