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| School Food's dish, spicy carbonara pasta tteokbokki, made with rose sauce / Courtesy of School Food |
By Park Han-sol
Rose sauce has emerged as one of Koreans' new favorite sauces.
According to Woowa Brothers, the operator of the country's largest food delivery service, Baedal Minjok (Baemin), the rate of orders made for dishes served with rose sauce on its app throughout 2021 increased sevenfold compared to the previous year.
While the original rose sauce is typically made for pasta by blending marinara sauce with cream and milk, "gochujang" (hot pepper paste) is an extra ingredient added in Korea to give the dish a spicy kick. It has also begun to accompany a wide range of recipes besides pasta, such as "tteokbokki" (spicy stir-fried rice cakes) and "jjimdak" (braised chicken and vegetables).
One food franchise, School Food, stated that it has sold more than 6.15 million dishes of its menu item named "spicy carbonara pasta tteokbokki" as of last February. The dish was first developed in 2008 with spicy rose sauce before the term was even popularized in the country.
The popularity of the sauce will likely continue throughout this year, evidenced by a string of new products ready to fill restaurant menus and grocery store aisles.
Genesis BBQ has released three new products of fried chicken in time for spring. One of them is rose chicken. Customers can dip or pour the sauce onto the fried boneless chicken tenders, which are served alongside cheese-filled or spicy rice cakes.
Snack maker Haitai Confectionary & Foods has rolled out a new version of its iconic "Shindangdong Tteokbokki" to give it a rose sauce flavor by adding cheddar and cream cheeses to the mix.
The sauce has even been added to children's meal products, notably Ivenet's rose chicken stew with an assortment of vegetables.
"It is highly possible that the rose sauce flavor, which gained a remarkably strong following among consumers last year, will become a steady seller, as it continues to be used in a variety of types of cuisine," a food service industry official said. "One can also expect the launches of new distinctive products in the future that can use the condiment in other unique ways."
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