You might be surprised to hear that ddeokbokki originated from the royal palace in the Chosun dynasty. At that time they used soy sauce instead of gochujang paste, and the King had this Gungjung Ddeokbokki on New Years day. Gungjung means “palace” in English.
This meal is supposed to include some kind of meat, mostly beef (or pork), but as you know the price of beef in Korea is ridiculously expensive. (About 3000 won per 100g for Korean beef which is about US $3.20) So I didn’t use any meat, but if you can afford it, you are welcome to add it. Without the meat, this meal was still filling enough for 2 people.
However, I will cook this meal with some meat some other time, so do check the update in the future.
Ingredients for 2 people are
(Expected preparation time :5 minutes, Cooking time : 7 minutes)

- Rice cake (About 20 pieces, 300g)
- 1/2 a carrot
- 1/2 an onion
- 4 button mushrooms
- 5 shiitake mushrooms (Pyogo beosot in Korean)
- 1/4 red and 1/4 yellow capsicums (I forgot to take a picture of them, sorry.)
- 1 stalk of big spring onion

-Seasoning Sauce (Mix these well in a bowl.)
- Sugar - 1tsp
- Soy sauce - 4 tsp
- 1 minced garlic
- 1 dash of sesame oil
-Preparation
- Wash all the vegetables, and thin slice them.
- If the rice cake is hard, parboil the rice cake. Or just run them under hot tap water for one minute.

-Cooking
1. Pre heat the wok for about 20 seconds.
2. Pour some olive oil into the wok.
3. Put the onion into the wok. Stir it.
4. Add the carrot and stir it until 80 % of the carrot cooks.
5. Add all the other ingredients. Stir it until it cooks.
6. Serve it on the plate.

By the way, I add one green chili for extra taste as you can see on the very first picture, but it was quite spicy. It stung my lips for a while. I liked it though, I don’t think you should add any chili in this meal, for your benefit. (Without a chili, it still tastes good. It is not spicy at all.) That is why it is not listed in the ingredients section.
Related Post
Sugar High, Stir Fried Rice Cake and Noodles (Rabokki in Korean)
Stir Fried Rice cake with Gochujang Sauce (Ddeokbokki in Korean)
What Rice Cake, for Cooking, Looks Like
ddeok, ddeokbokki, dukboki, Korean Food, Rice cake meals, rice cake