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찹쌀 꿀호떡
Brown Sugar Hotteok
Our original hotteok filled with a thick brown sugar syrup and assorted nuts for a warm, nutty crunch.
● Contains nuts
Our Story
A dream, passed down.
Three generations, one unforgettable taste—and a family recipe that traveled from the streets of Busan to Southern California.
01 · A taste of home
It began with my grandfather’s craving.
My parents were high school sweethearts who fell in love, married, and built our family together. When my dad was 18, he immigrated to the United States. Starting over was not easy, and during those early years my grandfather became homesick. One day, he told my dad how much he missed hotteok, the warm Korean street snack he loved back home.
My dad searched Koreatown in Los Angeles, but he could not find it. That search sparked a question that would change our family: “What if I bring the hotteok that almost every Korean loves to America?”
02 · Busan, 1999
A recipe worth waiting for.
In February 1999, at just 19 years old, my dad flew to his hometown of Busan. He tasted hotteok in markets, department stores, theaters, and neighborhood streets until he found the one he believed was best.
The woman who made it had sold hotteok for nearly 40 years and had refused every offer for her recipe—even from people who traveled from Japan and the United States. She refused my dad, too. But he stood beside her cart all day in the freezing February cold, asking again and again. Moved by his sincerity, she finally invited him to her home the next morning and taught him the secret of her dough.
03 · Los Angeles, 1999
Six months, countless batches.
Back in America, the same ingredients were not available and the dough never felt quite right. For six months, my dad kept practicing. Our home filled with flour and the smell of oil as he adjusted the recipe again and again. Eventually, he created a hotteok that was truly his own.
That fall, he served it for the first time at the Los Angeles Korean Festival—and it was a huge success. Korean markets soon invited him to sell from catering trailers and trucks across Los Angeles and Orange County. For nearly ten years, he shared his hotteok with the community before health issues led him to close the business.
04 · A new generation
Now, the dream is mine.
Even after the business closed, my dad still made hotteok for our family and church. As a child, I watched him shape every piece of dough, place it on the griddle, and cook it until golden. With every bite—the crisp outside, chewy center, and warm brown sugar syrup—I imagined bringing the business back one day.
Now I am 19, the same age my dad was when he stood in the cold streets of Busan. I want to carry his dream further: across America and, one day, around the world.