Hard-To-Find Korean Rice Cakes Are the Specialty at Bok Rice Bakery

In Korea, tteok (rice cakes) are woven into everyday life, with countless varieties serving different traditional social roles. When moving house, it’s customary to greet new neighbours with siru-tteok, a flat rice cake layered with red beans. Fluffy snow-white baekseolgi-tteok (aka white sulgi), adorned with edible designs, are eaten to celebrate a baby’s 100th day of life. And recently, bite-sized honey kkul-tteok (often referred to as rice-cake cereal) has taken off online.

At Bok Rice Bakery, a tiny grab-and-go spot in Springvale, all of these tteok and more are available for pre-order. Bok, short for Bakery of Korea, has been quietly selling steamed rice cakes since 2017. It was previously run by an elderly couple, who officially handed over the key to family friend and current owner Hana Yoo in 2023, after spending a year teaching her their recipes and techniques.

Today, Yoo sells more than 10 types of sweet rice cakes. Each one is prepared differently, but the dough always starts with white or glutinous rice grains. Easiest to make are plain white sulgi and the pat siru-tteok – three sheets of dough, cooked in an earthenware steamer, are layered with a pumpkin and brown sugar paste before being rolled in red beans.

Others are more involved. For instance, to make nutty injeolmi, glutinous rice flour is steamed and pounded until it’s chewy, shaped into squares, and coated with a mix of roasted soybean powder and earthy mugwort powder. The yeongyang rice cakes are studded with chestnuts, jujubes, seeds, and a mix of kidney, red and green beans. You’ll also find savoury garae-tteok, long rice cakes typically used in dishes such as budae-jjigae (army base stew) and tteokbokki.

While tteok is Bok Rice’s specialty, Yoo says Japanese mochi make up 90 percent of sales. All the fillings and powders that go into the mochi are house-made. This helps achieve a not-too-sweet taste that Yoo believes keeps people coming back.

Find classic red bean and black sesame mochi and the bestselling strawberry daifuku, alongside jazzed-up takes such as castella butter mochi – inspired by the Japanese sponge cake and filled with a thick slab of butter.

The bakery also sells multigrain powders, which are often whisked into beverages at Korean cafes. Flavours include misugaru and black bean. Yoo grinds and roasts the powders herself and plans to start pouring hot drinks in-store.

All of Yoo’s rice cakes can be pre-ordered via the Bok Rice Bakery website, or you can stop by and browse in-store. Can’t make it to Springvale? The bakery arranges occasional pick-up points around Melbourne, announced via its Instagram.

Bok Rice Bakery
10 Parsons Ave, Springvale
0493 707 616

Hours:
Tue to Sun 10am–2pm

bokricebakery.com
@bokricebakery