🎨 This image is an AI-generated illustration, not a photograph of a specific stall or dish.
Twigim (튀김) is Korea’s pick-and-mix of crispy deep-fried fritters — and the perfect partner to tteokbokki. First the facts, then the story.
🍢 The basics
- What it is: assorted battered, deep-fried items — squid, shrimp, vegetables, boiled egg and seaweed glass-noodle rolls.
- Main ingredients: a flour batter around seafood, vegetables or glass-noodle rolls (gimmari).
- Taste: hot and crunchy — even better dunked in tteokbokki sauce or soy.
- Where & when: at the same carts as tteokbokki, picked by the piece; cheap and shareable.
- ⚠️ Allergens: wheat, seafood and egg.
The story: the perfect sidekick
Twigim is rarely eaten alone — the move is to grab a few pieces and dunk them into the red tteokbokki sauce until the crunch goes gloriously soft. Carts lay out a tray and you point at what you want.
The cult favourite is gimmari: glass noodles rolled in seaweed, battered and fried — chewy, crunchy and made for that sauce.
Where it ranks: No. 7 in our 10 Best Korean Street Foods guide. Hungry for more? Try Tteokbokki and Eomuk too.
Frequently Asked Questions
Commonly squid, shrimp, sweet potato, vegetables, boiled egg and gimmari (seaweed glass-noodle rolls).
Pick a few pieces and dip them in the spicy tteokbokki sauce or soy — the classic street-food combo.
Glass noodles rolled in seaweed, then battered and deep-fried — a chewy-crunchy twigim favourite.
Wheat, seafood and egg, and it is deep-fried, so not gluten-free.
