뻥튀기 이야기
작은 도시 근교에서 살았습니다. 아버지는 어린 나를 자전거에 태우고 오일장이 열리는 시골 장으로 데리고 가곤 하셨습니다. 장에 가면 볼 것들이 넘쳐났습니다.
우선 소를 팔고 사는 우시장이 눈길을 끌었지요. 붉은 눈을 하고 입에서 거품을 문 소들의 모습이 기억납니다. 사람들은 삼삼오오 모여 값을 흥정하고 있었지요. 약장수가 원숭이와 함께 쇼를 하면 동그랗게 원을 만들어 죽치고 앉아 한 시간이고 두 시간이고 약장수의 쇼를 구경했었습니다. 커다랗게 텐트를 국밥집에서 소머리 국밥 한 그릇을 탁자에 놓고 맛있게 먹던 기억도 새롭습니다.
또 하나 잊을 수 없는 게 있다면 뻥튀기 아저씨입니다. 쌀이나 옥수수를 기계에 열을 가하여 돌리다가 시간이 되면 일어서서 무엇인가를 하면 ‘뻥’하고 터지면서 쌀 튀밥이나 튀긴 옥수수가 만들어지곤 하였지요. 왠 대포소리 인가 하고 깜짝놀라 뒤돌아보면 하얀 김이 솟아 올랐습니다. 이렇게 만들어진 쌀 튀밥을 한 주먹 쥐고 입에 넣으면 팍팍하게 씹히는 맛이 그만이었습니다. 설날이면 쌀강정을 만들어 먹기도 했습니다.
뻥튀기 아저씨가 계신 곳은 언제나 사람들로 넘쳐났지요. 기다리는 시간이 길어 쌀이나 옥수수, 콩 등 튀길 것들을 순서대로 길게 늘여놓은 모습을 보곤 했었습니다. 먹을 것은 많지 않았지만 사람사는 정이 넘쳐나던 시절이 아니었나 싶습니다.
계량된 뻥튀기 기계가 나온 건 그 이후의 일이라 생각됩니다. 쌀을 튀겨 만든 호떡 모양의 과자를 입으로 깨물면 아삭아삭 바스러지며 씹히는 맛이 괜찮지요. 이 쌀과자가 나름 캐나다에서도 인기를 얻고 있습니다. 오늘 자(2월 22일) 토론토 스타 신문엔 쌀과자에 대한 이야기가 실렸습니다. 서양의 과자나 케이크에 비해 칼로리도 적고 맛도 괜찮으니 나름 인기가 좋아지나 봅니다.
붕어빵 역시 인기 있는 먹거리 중 하나입니다. 어느날 친하게 지내는 필리핀 아줌마 율란다(Yolanda)가 팟락(potluck, 각자 음식을 하나씩 준비하여 나누어 먹는 파티)을 한다고 했습니다. 붕어방을 사서 디저트로 먹으면 좋을 듯하다고 어떻게 살 수 있는지를 물어왔습니다. 욕밀과 던밀에 있는 겔러리아 슈퍼마켓에 가면 살 수 있을 거라고 말해주었습니다. 폿락을 끝낸 율란다는 붕어빵의 인기가 괜찮았다며 웃었습니다.
율란다가 가장 좋아하는 한국 음식으로는 단연 김치를 꼽습니다. 장성한 아들 제프리는 김치를 디저트로 먹기도 한다니 재미있습니다.
Korean poppers snacking craze takes Canadian supermarkets by storm
Video: Rice poppers a popular Toronto snack
A popper is a crunchy Korean snack food that is taking Canadian supermarkets by storm.
A loud and crispy Korean street food has become the newest form of Toronto supermarket theatre.
It’s called a popper, but sometimes goes by the names rice pop, rice cake, Korean-style wheat cake or even “popsta” rice crackers.
Poppers were first seen here in 2003 at Galleria, a Korean supermarket. They moved into the Asian chain T&T three years ago, and are now proliferating at Loblaws, Sobeys and Longo’s.
Everybody, it seems, is sampling the bowl-shaped treat that’s the size of a dessert plate.
Poppers are a modest 19 calories on their own, but people rarely eat them that way. Instead they slather them with jam, jelly, salsa, chocolate hazelnut spread, hummus, fruit, chocolate, whipped cream, yogurt, berries and more. Some people use them instead of bread to make sandwiches. Others put a fried egg in the concave disc and call it breakfast.
But the real appeal of poppers is probably the machines that turn out fresh ones every eight seconds with a thunderous sound.
“It’s a great conversation piece and an attention grabber,” says Joey Bernaudo, Longo’s director of bakery and deli. “It creates theatre in the store.”
Won Ha, Galleria’s mainstream marketing manager, says poppers date back to the early 1900s in South Korea and a time of economic trouble and widespread hunger. Mobile vendors cruised the streets with portable machines to pop rice and other grains using a combination of heat and pressure.
“When I was a little kid in Seoul, the rice pop man came around our neighbourhood,” recalls Jessica Kim, Galleria’s senior designer and assistant marketing manager. “He would yell, and even if he didn’t yell, I would hear this huge sound. We would take down plain rice or anything — dry corn, barley — and he would pop it and put it in a big plastic bag for us.”
Since the 1980s, says Ha, Koreans have re-embraced “rice pops” as a traditional food and trendy snack.
When Galleria launched in Thornhill in 2003, it imported a Korean popper machine. Its second branch on York Mills Rd. has two machines tucked into a snack corner in the prepared-food area.
Kyeong Sook Tack, production manager for Galleria’s street food department, runs the machines five hours a day, making more than 4,000 rice pops each day. She packs them into clear plastic bags and sells 20 for $2.99. Turnover is brisk.
“It’s good entertainment on the floor,” says Ha. “And people perceive it as a healthy snack because you don’t deep-fry it.”
Galleria uses the name rice pops but concedes the snacks are made from 98 per cent wheat flour and 2 per cent rice powder with a hint of sugar, salt and soybean oil. The dry mix, which is imported, resembles small grains of rice. It’s fed into the popper machine where it quickly blasts out in a 15-centimetre disc.
It’s a similar story at Loblaws, Sobeys and Longo’s, chains that have all bought popper machines from Ken Tracey and Terry Brush of Garavogue company. They all sell bags of poppers for $2.99.
Longo’s started testing the concept in Richmond Hill in April 2010 and now has Garavogue machines in 12 branches. Each machine goes in the bakery department with a kiosk and lots of signage. The chain runs them on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays when it can capture crowds with demos and samples.
Loblaws first introduced a popper machine to its Burnhamthorpe store in August 2010 after spotting the concept at a trade show in San Francisco. It now has 20 in Loblaws and Real Canadian Superstores, including 16 in Greater Toronto.
At the newest Lobaws at Maple Leaf Gardens, popping, demos and sampling is usually done Thursdays to Saturdays. Bakery manager Nick Michetti loves the versatile snack, especially slathered with PC black label Quebec Wild Blueberry Fruit Spread.
Sobeys started experimenting with popper machines last spring and now has them in 27 stores, including one Sobeys Urban Fresh. It plans 89 by spring.
“The theatre draws people to it, but it’s the taste and the nutrition that keeps them going back,” says Brush. “There’s no sodium, no frying and way less calories” than other crunchy snacks like potato chips. Garavogue’s popper mixture is mostly wheat with tapioca starch and soybean flakes.
Garavogue’s supplier in Korea reports that popper machines are modeled on “bbun tui gi” machines that date back to the 1960s. Poppers literally “explode” out of the machine, creating the loud, signature pop.
T&T Supermarket started selling poppers about three years ago at its Cherry St. location and now has machines in seven ontario stores. Like Galleria, its ingredient list includes sugar and salt.
“The trend has reached the mature stage,” reports Paul Ho, marketing manager for T&T’s eastern region.
The chain has moved on to a new snack trend — taiyaki (stuffed, fish-shaped waffles).
By Jennifer Bain Food Editor