It’s been a long time.

I like food. Not particularly fine dining kind of thing. I just like general affordable common people food. I also like restaurants. Visiting a restaurant itself is such a pleasure. Seeing what the owner wants to sell and how the owner presents his/her product is interesting. Looking through menu and display provokes many thoughts on the owner’s philasophy.

While there are many good restaurants I found over the time in Philadelphia area, as I said before there is almost none that I can recommend for a Korean restaurants.

Today, I like to recommend Jopok Topokki

It is located inside H-Mart on Front street of Philadelphia. You can find Topokki in many places in Philadelphia but they are less than what I can make at home. Topokki is a quite simple dish. Main ingredient is cylinder shaped Korean rice cake of finger size. Then you add Gochujang, some broth typically from anchovi and then add sugar, garlic etc.

When I was growing up in South Korea, the country was poor and Topokki is quite popular street food and very cheap. Merchants prepare the base broth and then add the rice cake constantly, mixing up constantly. It does not taste great but the texture and that unique MSG based flavor is something of learned taste and I like it.

Jopok Topokki reminds me of those old days of Topokki. It is different from old street food style but close and also the flavor is better. The price here is quite affordable. Look around the food court in that area, I couldn’t believe the price they are asking for. But Jopok Toppoki price .. compared to other stands , is very good.

One thing to add is the owner. She works hard and she constantly tries to make things better. I don’t frequent H-Mart any more and when I stop by I always see changes on the menu. You can see her effort. Not only the main dish is good but their offering of fried items are excellent. These are not normal fried items, the Kimbob and dumpings and the blood sausages. They are specifically tailored to be paired with Topokki. If you are an old timer like me, you would appreciate it. These Kimbob, dumplings and blood sausage is made of Glass noodle. In old days, they used Glass noodle to save the cost but it works quite well with Toppoki.

This place is a franchise one .. but I can recommend because it has its own unique recipe and the owner.