Korean “Corn Dogs”

Most people know what corn dogs are. In the US they are hot dogs wrapped in hushpuppy batter and deep fried on a stick. It is typical carnival food and you can even find it in the frozen food aisle of most American grocery stores.

When I was a school kid in Korea in the early 1970s, we had a different kind of “corn dog”. There was always this super nice lady on the side of the street making “hot dogs” It was pronounced Hot-Doggu and there was no hotdog or bun involved. We had what could be loosely translated as fish wieners – now I feel weird even typing that. It was fish paste shaped like a hot dog. Yeah, that’s not much better is it?

ANYWAY, this was used as the base and instead of corn meal, they used this DELICIOUS flour concoction that was like a sweet/savory yeast roll kind of medley of goodness. I promise you that none of us ate it for the tiny bit of protein hidden under this fluffy amazingness. We were all after the fried dough, I promise you. For pennies, you would get an amazing, hot out of the grease treat to munch on as you walked sometimes 3 miles from school to home. No ketchup, no cheese, no mustard just a simple protein tube wrapped with amazing dough fried to a slightly crispy chewy texture. Mmmmmmm.

The Korean “corn dog” has hit a new craze and now you can get them all sorts of ways:

but I could not find any like from my childhood. I tried them at restaurants in the US (they all use sausage or meat franks because people would FREAK out if they used fish dogs LOL). I tried some frozen ones from Hmart (I DID find some with fish dogs). They were all okay but the ones in my memory seems long gone.

When I finally take my family to South Korea in April 2023 one of my goals is to find that very “hot dog” I crave and miss.