First Look: Get Crispy, Chewy Korean Potato Pancakes at Gamja Hotteok

In Korea, hotteok is a ubiquitous street snack. Despite the growth of the Korean diaspora in Australia and the mainstreaming of Korean culture in the Western world, in Melbourne, the chewy fried pancakes are virtually non-existent. That’s probably why, since opening a little over a week ago, Gamja Hotteok has been selling out daily.

“I was so scared the first day because no one knows about [the shop],” owner Sangsoo Kim says. But a few social media posts was all it took for the crowds to show up.

The shop is predominantly takeaway-focused, with just a handful of seats and a pared-back feel akin to a neighbourhood fish’n’chip shop. Kim says it reflects the laid-back energy of Queen Victoria Market across the street. But he comes from a fine-dining background. He previously ran the kitchen at James (now Kirbie) in South Melbourne, where he filtered his South Korean heritage through dishes like sugarloaf cabbage with kimchi powder and koji crumb, and potato cakes with vinegar salt and black garlic. 

Fermentation, a cornerstone of Korean cuisine, played a central role in his work there, and it stayed with him after he left. For the past few years, Kim has been developing a vinegar drink called Favi Ade, inspired by cheong (a traditional Korean preparation of fruit preserved with sugar).

That drink was the original foundation for the shop. Kim was initially planning to sublease from the previous owner to produce it out the back, until the entire space became available and he decided to make full use of the space, adding hotteok to the offering.

“I was thinking about what would be really good with this drink,” Kim says. “And I realised hotteok. This is sharp. The hotteok is oily.”

The drink starts with naturally fermented vinegar made from apple and pear juice. It’s then blended with fresh cold-pressed apple juice, pear juice and plum cheong to soften the acidity and round out the flavour. “If something’s good for your health, your mouth has to be happy too.”

For the hotteok, the dough is made with potato starch and fresh potato, rather than the traditional fermented wheat flour. Kim chose potato for its stability and resistance to over-proofing in Melbourne’s variable temperatures.

“It’s a winter snack in South Korea because the dough can be affected by the weather. But you can have this hotteok year-round in Melbourne.”

After resting, the dough is filled with either Gamja’s original or bulgogi filling, then pressed onto a hotplate and deep-fried to order. The bulgogi version is stuffed with soy-marinated beef and an optional addition of cheese before it’s finished with mayo and chives. Hotteok is typically a sweet snack and, here, the original is made with brown sugar and a pinch of pepitas and sunflower seeds – a nod to Busan-style hotteok. 

“Every Korean has different memories of hotteok.” In Seoul, where Kim was raised, hotteok typically skips the seeds in favour of plain brown sugar. “Some are very oily, some are not. Some have seeds, some don’t. Some have nuts, some don’t. Everyone asks me, ‘I want this hotteok, I want that hotteok.’ No, you’re going to have my hotteok.”

Gamja Hotteok
87 Peel Street, West Melbourne
No phone

Hours:
Thu to Sun 10am–2pm (or until sold out)

@gamjahotteok