Pizza seolgi피자설기

Pizza seolgi starts with baekseolgi, a fluffy white steamed rice cake, and uses it like a pizza base. Tomato sauce, cheese and pepperoni go on top, so it tastes sweet and salty at once.

Yeongdo Bridge Tteokbang (Yeongdodari Tteokbang) in Yeongdo, Busan is widely known as the original. ELLE Korea lists three kinds there: pepperoni (with bulgogi, corn and green pepper), potato with bacon, and bulgogi, its best seller.

Short videos made it famous. According to social-data service Sometrend, mentions went from under 100 in April to about 2,000 in August and over 10,000 in September. People queued before opening at rice-cake shops, and the Busan original limited buyers to 10 pieces each.

Rice-cake shops across Korea began making their own, and CU launched a pizza rice cake as a regular item on October 8. GS25 said it was discussing one too.

In Busan, Yeongdo Bridge Tteokbang is the place most articles name; ELLE Korea says it also takes online orders for delivery within Korea. Many neighborhood rice-cake shops now sell their own version. CU convenience stores sell Pizza Jeolpyeon, which uses a chewy pressed rice cake (jeolpyeon) instead of seolgi, topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella, pepperoni, corn and olives.

At home: spread tomato sauce on slices of plain steamed rice cake, add mozzarella and pepperoni, and bake or microwave until the cheese melts.