The Shop Downstairs

IF Australia has The Milk Bar – that one corner store to buy all scoffables after school – then this is Korea’s milk bar.
Only here’s it’s all about deep fried goodies and all things glutinous and sticky.

I don’t even know what it’s called – that’s how much I adore this little stall slash shop. It has simply sidled into my vocabulary as, “I’m going downstairs”. That’s right, it needs no further description. This is always where I head for a quick snack during work breaks.



During winter, the ladies at this tiny shop front - which is more like a permanent hawker stall - roll down plastic flaps to keep in the heat and to shield munchers from the icy winds. And at least a few times a week, during our 20 minute mid-morning kindy break, we would race downstairs to hover above the steam and above a stick or two of odeng, accompanied by a cup of broth.

Every day, from about 5pm onwards, it’s swarming with the eager faces of school children armed with their 500 won (AUD60c). In the foyer at our hagwan kids are always slurping down on tteok poki before class - the evidence of their snack attack a spicy ring of sauce left around their lips.

Wes and I have often mused about how fabulous it is that in Korea, you can still get decent snacks for less than 60 cents.
That hardly gets you a kick in the pants in Australia anymore. Just a few Red Skins, I bet. Or maybe some chewy Milk Bottles or some Teeth. Or some Warheads.

Snacks at The Shop Downstairs are just the right amount to keep you going between meals, without being full, and they won’t give you black teeth. So let’s dig in.
(I’ve done my best to sample everything at The Shop, but unfortunately I usually pass it going to lunch or coming back from lunch, so haven’t tried as much as I should have.)

First up are our dear friends odeng and tteok poki. They are regulars on this blog, so I’ll quickly move on. This is probably my best tteok poki I’ve eaten in Korea, with soft whole boiled eggs, a nice sweet but not too spicy sauce, and the teeny tiny cup portions are to die for.

Next up is deep fried quail eggs. Perfect bite-sized mouthfuls of soft firm egg encased in crispy batter and lacquered with spicy sweet paste. I like these, though I find they're never quite as tasty as I hope for.

Although it is perhaps even more bland, I prefer the tteok sticks (pictured below), which are simply fingers of rice soft, chewy rice cake deep-fried and painted with the same paste. I think beneath that they're actually rolled in sugar, so it's an incredible meeting of sweet and spicy, soft and crispy. So hot, in fact, that my tongue is left burning and I'm usually rooting around my bag for a tissue to blow my nose (a good indicator of spice if ever there was one).



Ooh, but I bet what has caught your eye is the glistening meat balls (either pork or chicken), all sticky and sugary, skewered on wooden sticks.
An odd combination, I once thought. And though it wouldn't be my choice, the chicken stick we tried was delicious. I really have no idea how they're made, but the end product is cold minced chicken balls in a sticky, crispy, sugary shell.
They're so sugary, the plastic tray they sit in holds a puddle of thick gooey syrup. It's almost like the meat version of a toffee apple - so strangely gooey and chewy, hiding a surprise underneath. In the case of toffee apples, usually a floury apple. In this case, a perfect savoury hit.

To finish it all off, we have another deep-fried king: almost like a dumpling mix of ground meat, herbs and glass noodles, wrapped in nori, battered and deep-fried.
Oily, crunchy, delish, and like everything at The Shop Downstairs, ideal for eating while walking, loitering in the school foyer or gossiping during kindy break.