Yugwa

Deep-fried glutinous rice puffs coated with malt syrup and rolled in puffed rice or sesame.

Yugwa is one of the oldest and most technically demanding of all Korean traditional confections, classified as a type of hangwa (Korean sweets) and recorded in court cuisine documents dating to the Goryeo dynasty over a thousand years ago. The production process is famously laborious: glutinous rice is soaked, steamed, dried, and then deep-fried in stages to achieve the characteristic hollow, ultra-light puff, which is then coated with malt syrup and rolled in crispy puffed rice grains or sesame seeds. Yugwa's airy crunch and subtle sweetness make it almost addictive in small pieces, and its painstaking craft means it commands premium prices at specialty shops. The city of Gangjin in South Jeolla Province is nationally recognised for producing the finest yugwa, and the local artisans' techniques are considered intangible cultural heritage by some regional governments. During Seollal and Chuseok, yugwa appears in beautifully packaged gift sets alongside dasik, yakgwa, and other hangwa, making it as much a token of respect and care as a food.