Jeonbyeong

Thin rice flour crêpe rolled around sweet fillings such as red bean paste or mung bean.

Jeonbyeong is a delicate, crêpe-like Korean sweet made by pouring a thin batter of rice flour and water onto a hot griddle, cooking it briefly until just set, then rolling it around a sweet filling — most commonly smooth red bean paste, but also mung bean, sesame, or jujube paste depending on the region and season. Unlike the savoury jeon pancakes that dominate Korean snack culture, jeonbyeong belongs firmly to the world of hangwa (traditional Korean sweets) and was historically prepared for royal court banquets and upper-class celebrations. The wrapper is intentionally paper-thin, almost translucent, so that the filling's colour shows through and the bite-through requires minimal force, making jeonbyeong particularly refined and suitable for serving to elders. Regional variations are notable: Gaeseong (the ancient Goryeo capital, now in North Korea) is particularly renowned for its elaborately stuffed jeonbyeong, a tradition maintained by North Korean diaspora communities in the South. Today, traditional tteok shops sell jeonbyeong alongside their rice cakes, and they remain a popular inclusion in formal gift boxes of hangwa for holidays.