What are the most interesting Korean sweet snacks and desserts to try in South Korea?
Eating dessert in South Korea is a little different than what I’m used to in my country. Where I live, dessert is the last course of the meal and you usually eat it at the restaurant that you’re having dinner at. In South Korea, you have to go to a restaurant or cafe that specializes in desserts or to a street food stall. In a way, this is very good for your health: moving around promotes digestion and you get a chance to reconsider your intention to eat dessert. After all, you have already eaten a delicious main course with many side dishes.
Read on for the sweets and desserts to try during your trip to South Korea.
1) Shaved Ice Dessert (팥빙수)
Shaved ice is the dessert that most comes to mind when you think of Korean desserts. There are many places that specialize in serving shaved ice with all kinds of toppings. The most common toppings are fruit and red bean paste.
The portions are very large, so people usually share one dessert. Except for first-time visitors to South Korea, who start by ordering one per person. I’ve been there…
You can find this dessert all over the country, for example at Suncheon Wetland Reserve (the one on the picture) or Jaman Mural Village in Jeonju.
2) Honey Bread (허니브레드)
This sweet snack will tempt you every time you have a drink at a café and feel slightly hungry. When you order Honey Bread, you basically get a brick of pre-cut toasted white bread, with honey, whipped cream and maybe some chocolate sauce, fruit and seeds on top. If the cafe attendant is adept at toasting bread, the result is delicious.
3) Honey Glazed Walnuts & Walnut Cookies
When I went to eat Buddhist temple-style food at Bukchon Hanok Village in Seoul, I was very surprised when they served two honey-glazed walnuts with some tea as the last course of the meal. This turned out to be both a brilliant memory and a savory experience. I have never been so happy with a dessert; it was the perfect way to end a well-balanced meal.
Another sweet snack with walnuts is Walnut Cookies/Cakes (호두과자). These round mini pancakes are filled with red bean paste and walnut pieces. You won’t find these in a traditional Korean restaurant, but you will at street food stalls.
4) Rice Cake
When you visit a traditional Korean tea house, you can order rice cakes as a snack. This rice cake comes in many varieties. After first trying the steamed rice cake that many teahouses serve, I soon discovered that there are also very tasty other kinds.
My favorite was the grilled rice cake at Seochon Hanok Village in Seoul. The most daring by far was the mugwort rice cake at Ganghwa‘s Jeondeungsa Temple. Made with locally grown mugwort! If you’re looking for something completely different – although it doesn’t go so well with pu-erh tea – you can look for rice cake with cheese and honey sauce in Eungpyeong Hanok Village.
5) Dried Jujube Chips (대추)
Dried Jujube is used as an ingredient in traditional Korean tea, but can also be served as a snack in cafes and tea houses. This sweet, crunchy snack goes very well with many drinks.
The picture above is from a tea house at Bomunsa Temple on Seokmodo.
6) Hotteok (호떡)
Hotteok is one of the must-try tourist snacks in South Korea. This Korean pancake filled with sweet rice and sugar is what you might be craving after eating spicy rice cakes. The hotteok on Myeongdong Street is a bit bland, but you can find pancakes with more delicious fillings elsewhere.
In the city of Busan, you can eat a special Busan-style hotteok: one filled with a mixture of nuts and seeds. If you are heading to the Gogunsan Islands (I know, small chance), you can visit 호떡당커피 to try their hotteok filled with nuts, cheese or vegetables.
7) Strawberry Rice Cake (딸기 모찌/찹쌀떡)
Strawberry Rice Cake is a Korean Glutinous Rice snack stuffed with red bean paste and a strawberry. This street food is perfect if you want to pretend you are eating a healthy dessert. It is fresh and sweet. Treat yourself to this strawberry mochi at the end of your meal.
Myeongdong Street is a great place to look for this snack. It is also gaining ground in Jeonju’s Hanok Village.
8) Red Bean Paste Bread
A visit to Gyeongju, South Korea’s “museum without walls,” is not complete without having tasted its Red Bean Bread. Is it tasty? Anything with a filling of red bean paste is an acquired taste. I’m not a big fan of the sweetness, but if everyone else buys one so do I.
Like Gyeongju, many other cities sell a local delicacy that domestic and foreign visitors like to take home as souvenirs. One example is Tongyeong‘s Honey Baked Bread.
9) Rainbow Cake
This colorful cake will look familiar to fans of Korean TV shows. Not all cafes sell rainbow cakes – in fact, most don’t – but somewhere along your journey you will stumble upon a piece and be tempted to eat it. It tastes like regular cake, so nothing special, but it is beautiful to look at.
10) Traditional homemade confectionery
If you are staying in traditional Korean homes (for example, in Andong), the lady of the house may pleasantly surprise you with a plate of homemade sweets. On your plate, you are likely to find sugared dried fruit, nuts with honey, and steamed rice cake.
Also read: 11x Delicious Lesser-known Korean Food
