Korean street doughnut turns wickedly sweet

Riding on Korea-mania, Hong Kong celebrity chef and MasterChef Canada presenter Alvin Leung opened Bib n Hops in Wan Chai late last year, and a second outlet, more recently, in Quarry Bay. It’s a casual eatery featuring Korean street food. Along with head chef Yong Soo-do, Bib n Hops has created a delicious rice doughnut sundae based on a popular street snack in Korea.

“Glutinous rice doughnut is quite popular in Korea, but it’s usually served by itself. The donut sundae is one of my favourite desserts on the menu,” says Canadian-born Yong.

To make the popular street doughnut more like a dessert, it added house-made vanilla ice-cream and jujube chutney. Its Korean-fusion recipe at Bib n Hops includes a glutinous rice doughnut, vanilla ice cream, raspberries, blueberries, sweet jujube chutney, toasted almonds and Campari chocolate sauce.

“It is our signature dessert on the menu, and it is people’s favourite,” Yong says: adding, “I’m a big dessert guy. I always have room for sweets even after a big meal. I like sundaes. I do like tiramisu and green tea cheese cake.”

Jinjuu head chef Sang Hyun-ko offers his own version of the street doughnut. The Lan Kwai Fong restaurant is by American-Korean television chef Judy Joo, who is known for her Korean-fusion fare. This rice doughnut is the Snickers hotteok.

“We eat hotteok on a cold day, as it’s hot,” says Sang, who worked in Jinjuu London before he came to Hong Kong. “In Korea, we usually eat hotteok in paper by itself. At Jinjuu though, we add chocolate ganache, with salted caramel and roasted peanuts, peanut parfait, praline and Nutella powder to the flat rice pancake, so it’s like a chocolate bar.

“I have a sweet tooth, I like desserts, especially chocolate truffles.” Tracey Furniss