Carbonara Topokki Instant Bowl: Korean Rice Cakes in a Mildly Spicy Sauce

Buldak literally means "fire chicken" and in Korea it stands for a heat that does not want to be subtle. That is what this instant bowl lives on: creamy carbonara flavor meets the fiery heat of Korean buldak sauce, with soft rice cakes in between that take up both. Anyone who knows Tteokbokki only in the classic red version gets a different direction here.

Tteokbokki, rice cakes in a spicy sauce, is normally eaten standing at a street stall in Korea. The Hot Chicken Carbonara Topokki by Wang Korea bring the busy streets of Seoul into your kitchen in cup form: rice cakes, spicy chicken sauce and carbonara powder come ready-packed, you cook in the microwave, and after three minutes you can eat. The cup has a lid and doubles as the cooking vessel, so no pot is involved.

Rice cakes behave differently from noodles. They are dense and slightly chewy, the sauce lays itself around them instead of soaking in, and they keep their bite. At 169 g the instant meal is a quick thing for in between or a side to a bigger meal: at the office, in a student kitchen, or in the evening when nobody wants to cook. One spoon is cutlery enough, and you eat straight from the cup.

If you like, make more of it and stir in your favorite ingredients, for example cheese, a boiled egg or seafood. The dish is decidedly spicy, so work your way in slowly if you are not used to that.

Cooking instructions:
1. Put the rice cakes and the spicy chicken sauce into the bowl.
2. Pour in 1/2 cup (80 ml) of hot water and stir well.
3. Open the lid and heat it in the microwave for 3 minutes at 1000 W.
4. Finally add the carbonara powder and stir well.