It’s honestly been a little while since I had Korean rice cakes, and even longer since I reviewed one, and so when I spotted Dongwon Spicy and Sweet Topokki at my local Wamart (of all places), I figured I’d give them a try. There’s also a Cheese version of this that I’ll be reviewing soon, if not in the next post. Sometimes written as tteokbokki, topokki are the tube-shaped rice cakes you’ll see in the images below, and they can be served in a variety of different sauces, although I think this “spicy and sweet” sauce is the most typical presentation. Why am I reviewing rice cakes on a noodle website? Because this is a very noodle-adjacent product, found right next to the instant noodles in any Asian grocery store (or in this case, the noodle aisle at Walmart).
Read more: Review: Dongwon Spicy and Sweet TopokkiThis type of sauce I’ve had at restaurants before, usually accompanied with fish cake, and it’s a combination of gochujang, gochugaru, soy sauce, dashi, and other seasonings that creates a thick, red, delicious sauce. The rice cakes themselves take on the texture of a super-thick, round, supple noodle when cooked properly. It’s a comfort meal like no other I’ve discovered since starting the YouTube channel and website. Now the challenge is, can I microwave this at work and get the same flavor and texture I’ve enjoyed in restaurants?
I paid $3.78 for this at Walmart, and you should be able to find this online and in Asian markets for roughly the same price per bowl. Tteokbokki tends to be a bit more expensive than an equivalent-sized bowl of noodles, so I don’t find the price to be unreasonable. These are made in Korea for export to the USA.
The sodium in here isn’t terrible: 1210mg. Kind of light on the protein (5g) if that’s something you look for in a product like this.
Inside, you can see a handy little fork, a pouch of rice cakes, and a powdered sauce packet. The rice cakes have a faint alcohol preservative aroma that you don’t need to worry about since it will cook right off. What you do have to worry about is the desiccant silica pack inside the rice cake packet – discard that and don’t accidentally cook or eat it. The sauce contains sugar, red pepper, salt, MSG, garlic powder, onion powder, and green onion flakes. Despite dashi or fish cake sometimes showing up in a sauce like this, this appears to be vegan to me. Check for yourself if that matters to you.
Rice Cakes:
This is a microwave-only bowl, and the topokki came out perfectly al dente after two and a half minutes in a 1000W microwave. Chewy without being too firm or too soft, which is exactly the way I wanted these to be. No complaints at all.
- 10/10
Spiciness:
It’s a solid burn, no doubt. Some noticeable lip tingle and a linger in the back of my throat. This is a bit hotter than I expected, certainly on par with some of the Shin Ramyun or milder Buldak family of products for spice level.
- 6/10
Overall:
I was relieved when I saw how low the fill line was in this bowl, because while the rice cakes need to be submerged in liquid to cook properly, you also don’t want the sauce to end up too watery. Thankfully, Dongwon has found a nice balance here, and the sauce thickened up very nicely after microwaving. I would’ve probably liked it a tiny less soupy, but it could have been much worse, and it did thicken even further as I was eating it. As far as flavor, this delivers on both the spicy and sweet, but I’m happy to report that the sweetness is not cloying nor is the spice overpowering to me. There’s a nice savory undertone to everything with the unmistakable flavor of gochujang paste and smoky gochugaru rounding it out. I was surprised that it did almost have a dashi-like sweetness to it despite not having any fish in the ingredients. All in all, excellent texture, heat, and flavor. My only complaint is I wish there was more of it.
- 9/10
