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🇰🇷 South Korea /Culture & Society

Why is pizza seolgi suddenly everywhere? Seoul shoppers join the social media rice-cake craze

From Dong-A Ilbo · () Korean

Translated from Korean and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Context piece
  • Pizza seolgi, a Korean rice cake topped with pizza ingredients, has drawn long lines after spreading through social media.
  • A shop in Seoul’s Myeonmok Market attracted customers who had traveled from outside the capital, including one woman who had failed three times to buy it the previous week.
  • The trend began at Yeongdo Dari Tteokbang in Busan and has since spread to rice-cake shops across the country.

Before the rice-cake shop opened, a line had already formed. The customers were not waiting for injeolmi or songpyeon, but for pizza seolgi, the latest social media sensation in South Korea’s traditional rice-cake world.

At a shop in Myeonmok Market, Seoul, customers arrived early on the morning of the 8th. Some held up their phones while waiting for the rice cakes to appear. Others took photographs with the store as a backdrop.

Yoo Mi-yeon, 45, traveled from Namyangju in Gyeonggi Province after watching videos of the product on social media. “I came three times last week, but failed to buy it every time,” she said. “Today I came before opening because I really want to get one.”

Pizza seolgi uses baekseolgi rice cake topped with tomato sauce, cheese and ham. It began appearing at selected rice-cake shops, including Yeongdo Dari Tteokbang in Busan, before customer photographs and videos helped spread the trend to shops in Seoul and other parts of the country.

Yeongdo Dari Tteokbang, regarded as the product’s starting point, is a neighborhood rice-cake shop that opened in Busan’s Yeongdo district in 1999.

I came three times last week, but failed to buy it every time. Today I came before opening because I really want to get one.

· Yoo Mi-yeonA customer from Namyangju explained why she arrived early at the Seoul shop.
About this summary

Originally published by Dong-A Ilbo in Korean. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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