Topokki festival to fuel consumption of spicy rice snack

By Lee Joon-seung
SEOUL, March 26 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's first topokki festival will be held
over the weekend to fuel public interest in the spicy, rice-based snack that
could help boost rice consumption, the government said Thursday.
The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said the festival will
be held for two days at the Korea Agro-Fisheries Trade Corp. headquarters in
southern Seoul.
It said local consumer groups and food processing companies that make the snack
will take part in the two-day-long event that kicks off Saturday, with various
cooking and other promotional events planned for visitors.
"The festival's program is designed to allow visitors to look over the various
types of topokki made in the country and check ingredients and sauces that are
made," a government official said.
The spicy snack is made with boiled tube-shaped rice cakes cooked in chili sauce.
Because rice cakes require large quantities of the staple grain, the government
has been encouraging consumption to deal with the steady drop in domestic demand
for rice.
The ministry started encouraging people to "rediscover" topokki late last year
and pledged to spend 14 billion won (US$10.25 million) over the next five years
to improve production processes and ingredient quality. Such changes, it said,
could help the snack find acceptance in overseas markets, helping exports.
Related to overall plans to enhance the competitiveness of the snack, the Korea
Rice Foodstuff Association opened a Topokki Food Research Institute in Yongin,
located south of Seoul, to develop new recipes and production processes.
Emphasis on development will be placed on the rice powder used to make the basic
cake and the spicy chili paste sauce.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
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