Haap

There’s an old saying, “What looks good, tastes good.” While that’s not always the case, the saying actually applies to the tteok at Haap. One of the best sellers, castella injeolmi (bean flour tteok), sustains its chewiness for two to three days, unlike those from other places that go stale after a day. The freshness is the result of layering air, water and tteok, a method the chef figured out after three years of experimenting. Jeungpyeon (steamed fermented rice cake) and juak (rice pancake) also went through crucial transformations. Jeungpyeon doesn’t usually have any fillings because it goes bad so quickly. However, by paying extra care to the temperature of the steam, Haap found a way to cook variations with fig and jujube.