Pizza Seolgi: Korea's Viral Rice-Cake-Meets-Pizza Trend, Explained (and Tasted)

I'm not really a tteok person. Seolgi is the one exception. Yesterday I finally tried the rice cake everyone's been talking about — pizza seolgi. Bottom line up front: even someone who doesn't like tteok got completely won over.

Pizza Seolgi

Quick Answer

• Pizza seolgi is Korea's current viral dessert — a steamed rice cake (seolgi/baekseolgi) topped with pizza toppings like tomato sauce, cheese, and pepperoni. It's also called "pizza siru," but the accurate name is pizza seolgi.
• It tastes unmistakably like pizza, but the texture keeps seolgi's signature chewy-yet-fluffy softness. On top of that, there's a faint sweetness from the rice cake itself — familiar and strange at the same time.
• Seolgi is made completely differently from tteokbokki-tteok or garaetteok — the latter two are kneaded into a dough, while seolgi is steamed directly without kneading. That's why it has a softer, slightly crumbly texture instead of tteokbokki-tteok's chewiness.
• The one I tried was built from two layers, each about half the thickness of a regular seolgi.

1. What Pizza Seolgi Is — and Why It's Everywhere Right Now

Pizza seolgi is a fusion rice cake — baekseolgi (steamed white rice cake) topped with tomato sauce, cheese, and pepperoni-style pizza toppings. It's also called "pizza siru," but that's technically off — "siru" refers to the steamer used to cook the rice cake, not the rice cake itself. Since the base here is seolgi (baekseolgi), the accurate name is pizza seolgi.

It's believed to have started at a tteok shop in Namhang Market, Busan, and over the past few weeks it's spread fast to Incheon, Gwangmyeong, Gwangju, Daejeon, and Jinju. Some shops have seen daily sales jump into the thousands; others have stopped taking reservations entirely. It's also starting to show up in convenience store chains, so it's about to get a lot easier to find.

2. Tteok 101: Seolgi vs. Tteokbokki-Tteok vs. Garaetteok

If you're new to tteok, seolgi, tteokbokki-tteok, and garaetteok can all look pretty similar. But they're made completely differently.

	How it's made	Texture
Tteokbokki-tteok	Rice flour is steamed, then kneaded into a dough and shaped into cylinders	Chewy, springy
Garaetteok	Same process as tteokbokki-tteok, just rolled thicker and longer	Basically the same as tteokbokki-tteok
Seolgi (baekseolgi)	Rice flour is steamed directly, without being kneaded into a dough	Soft, fluffy, slightly crumbly

In other words, tteokbokki-tteok and garaetteok are essentially siblings from the same dough — just different thicknesses. Seolgi uses a fundamentally different method altogether. That's exactly why pizza seolgi has a completely different texture from anything made with tteokbokki-tteok.

Worth noting: seolgi typically includes sugar. It would be inaccurate to say the sweetness comes purely from the rice itself — sugar is a standard ingredient in most recipes. That said, the rice does contribute its own subtle sweetness alongside it.

3. My First Bite of Pizza Seolgi

The one I had was built from two layers, each roughly half the thickness of a normal seolgi. Each layer carries its own pizza toppings, so when you cut into it, you can see the layers clearly in cross-section.

Unwrapped Pizza Seolgi

The flavor is unmistakably pizza — the salty, savory combination of tomato sauce, cheese, and pepperoni comes through clearly. But the moment you bite in, seolgi's signature chewy-yet-fluffy texture takes over. Add the rice cake's subtle sweetness on top of that, and you get something that's clearly a familiar flavor (pizza) wrapped in an unfamiliar combination.

4. Why This Won Over a Tteok Skeptic

I'm generally not a fan of tteok — most of it feels either too chewy or too bland for my taste. Seolgi was always the exception, since its soft, fluffy texture works for me. So it kind of makes sense that this pizza-topped version landed so well — it's the one tteok texture I already like, paired with a flavor I already know.

Cross-section of Pizza Seolgi

FAQ

Are pizza seolgi and pizza siru the same thing? They refer to the same food, but the accurate name is pizza seolgi. "Siru" is the steamer used to make the rice cake, not the rice cake itself — since the base is seolgi, that's the more accurate name to use.

Why does seolgi feel so different from tteokbokki-tteok? It comes down to the process. Tteokbokki-tteok and garaetteok are steamed, then kneaded into a dough for that chewy texture. Seolgi is steamed directly without kneading, which gives it a softer, fluffier texture instead.

Is seolgi naturally sweet? Standard recipes typically include sugar. There's also a subtle sweetness from the rice itself, but it's not accurate to call it completely unsweetened.

Conclusion: Why You Should Try It Now

Pizza seolgi is spreading in real time across Korea right now. With convenience stores starting to carry it, it's likely to get a lot more accessible soon. Whether or not you're normally a tteok person, the combination of seolgi's fluffy texture and pizza flavor is worth experiencing at least once.

3 Things to Try Today

1. Check whether a nearby tteok shop or convenience store carries pizza seolgi (or "pizza siru").
2. If tteok is new to you, try a plain baekseolgi first, then compare the texture to pizza seolgi — it's a fun contrast.
3. Bite into tteokbokki-tteok or garaetteok right after seolgi to feel the texture difference firsthand — it makes the trend click that much more.

3-Line Summary

1. Pizza seolgi is Korea's current trending dessert — baekseolgi topped with pizza toppings, sometimes called "pizza siru" but more accurately named pizza seolgi.
2. Unlike tteokbokki-tteok and garaetteok, seolgi is steamed without kneading, giving it a soft, fluffy texture instead of chewiness.
3. The combination of pizza flavor, seolgi's fluffy texture, and a subtle rice sweetness makes for something familiar yet genuinely new.

Related post: Bringing the Magic of Netflix's 'A Nation of Tteok' to Life! A Foreigner's Guide to Seoul's Best Tteok Shops (Jongno & Gangnam)

Sources: Namuwiki's pizza-seolgi entry; Seoul Economic Daily (English) and SBS English coverage; Wikipedia's entries on Tteok, Garae-tteok, and Baekseolgi.