I looooooooooove theme parks. Hopefully that was sufficient elongation of the word to express the giddy excitement which overcomes me when I walk through the barricades and I enter into a world of thrilling rides, sweets, and pure fun. The thing is, theme parks have churros.
Thanks to my olfactory bulb, amygdala, hippocampus, conditioned responses and the rest of it, the smell of churros in the air immediately transports me to a happy place of fun and unending laughter. The sad fact is, we don't really have a proper-scale theme park in Sydney. Nor have I been able to find a place that does churros the way they're supposed to be done (no offence to all the chocolate cafes that have it on the menu; blame it on my hippocampus). Moreover, where there are churros, they're expensive. So I decided to make some myself, and tweak the typified recipe, Korean style. Presenting, rice cake churros.
Not only are they easy to make, they're so delicious, you'll find yourself smacking your lips and licking the sugar coated cinnamon from your fingers. All you have to do is buy long, thick rice cakes called 'ga-rae-ddok' (ddok = rice cake), half them, twist them, fry them, roll in cinammon and sugar, then gobble to your heart's content. Easy. Keep in mind that they're rice cakes, so they'll fill you up faster than your average churros. Koreans often fry the ga-rae-ddok and dip it in honey (this too is amaaaazing). I left a few without cinnamon coating so I could eat them the traditional way too.
In this case, I'd recommend you wash it down with a cup of yul-moo-cha (Job's tears tea; cha = tea). With a nutty consistency, it perfectly complements the cinnamon crunch which encases the chewy interior of this korean churro. On a rainy Sydney afternoon heralding the beginning of the winter months, this has been a perfect treat.
