Hoddeok.
Kodok??? (meaning ‘toad’ in the Malay language)
Hoddeok.
Kotok.
Hoddeok.
Ah forget it. I’ll watch their drama, you do their food.

As you can very well figure out, Korean delicacies have never made their way to the dining table at my house much. Korean dramas, on the other hand, became an almost permanent television fixture for the past two years or so, all thanks to the mother who discovered that they were more than typifications of Greek tragedies and Murphy’s law.

I have to confess that I have yet to complete a whole series of any one Korean television drama nor its movies, but have watched enough bits and pieces to recognise the theme song of Winter Sonata in all the different language remakes (there’s even one in Malay), know that ’sassy’ became possibly the most over-used adjective on local media ever since My Sassy Girl rocked the cinema, and that the androgynous look was in, thanks to The Coffee Prince.

As for their cuisine, the closest I can ever proclaim to be to Korean food would probably be loving their kimchi, and the I-don’t-even-know-if-it’s-authentic barbecue sesame chicken dish from a stall at the nearby mall. Suffice to say, cooking Korean was the furthest on my mind.

But when I saw these cinnamon sugar pancakes, it definitely piqued my curiosity, and the recipe for this popular Korean street snack was duly bookmarked.

I love that the recipe makes six pieces of hoddeok, since there are only five of us now.

I hate that the recipe makes six pieces of hoddeok, since there are only five of us now, and we fight over who gets the last piece.

A fried yeast dough, flattened to a round pancake disc, hiding a sticky, sweet cinnamon sugar filling that sinfully oozes out with each bite;– how can one possibly resist that?

Tell me if you can, because I would gladly take your share.

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