Taste and Memories of School Days... Mapo's 40-Year-Old Instant Tteokbokki Shop 'Darak' [Jeon Jin-young's Nopo Exploration]

Instant Tteokbokki Shop Operating Since 1981
Walls Covered with Graffiti... Evoking Memories of School Days

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jinyoung] When your mind still lingers on the weekend early in the week, nothing works better than Tteokbokki. Sweating over the spicy and savory Tteokbokki makes you slowly feel your mind coming back. Although we live in an era with various types of Tteokbokki like Rose Tteokbokki and Cream Tteokbokki, the taste and memories of Tteokbokki from a snack bar seem unmatched. There is a place I always go to on such days. It is “Darag,” a 40-year-old instant Tteokbokki restaurant located in Mapo-gu, Seoul.

Darag, which has been in business since 1981, is located in the Tteokbokki alley behind the Mapo Garden Hotel. This alley, where the three major Tteokbokki shops of Mapo gather, welcomes customers with “Kokkiri Bunsik,” “Mapo Wonjo Tteokbokki,” and Darag. The second-generation owner continues the tradition at Darag, which has also received the “Oraegage” title awarded to long-standing businesses in Mapo.

The place is small, with just about five tables. The walls are densely covered with graffiti written by visitors. The moment you sit down, you are drawn back to your school days. After exams, you would always order Tteokbokki with friends at a snack bar and take out a computer sign pen to write something. You wrote wishes for good results on the remaining exams, success in the college entrance exam, and hopes that immature love would last a lifetime.

The Tteokbokki from those days boils again. The signature menu, two servings of instant Tteokbokki, comes with ramen noodles, three pieces of fried food, two eggs, and chewy noodles, making it hearty. The taste is rich in gochujang (red chili paste) flavor with a sweet aftertaste, the authentic flavor of a traditional snack bar. There are also crispy fried dumplings and seaweed rolls stuffed with glass noodles, which had lost their place to flashy recent fried items like whole squid tempura. The owner uses shiitake mushroom broth as the stock to add umami flavor.

Memories naturally call people. Moreover, this place sells soju and beer, making it famous as a “paradise for heavy drinkers.” Thus, a unique scene unfolds inside the shop where students and office workers mingle. Ladies who have eaten Tteokbokki here since childhood in the neighborhood also gather for neighborhood meetings. Rapper Simon Dominic and YUMDDA have visited and left graffiti pledging their friendship. We also ordered bottled beer and shared it. Drinking alcohol, not soda, with instant Tteokbokki made me feel somewhat proud, as if I had become an adult who has tasted the bitterness of the world.

I carefully read the graffiti. “Jjun” and “Yeon” promised unchanging love, and Minji, Eunseo, and Yoonkyung stopped by here to relieve exam stress. My own graffiti from when I was eighteen at that snack bar is probably still guarding a spot on the wall. The hard times that have passed are sharp, but when you chew over them again, the aftertaste is sweet. That is what memories are like.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.