Halmoni's Gilgeori Toast
할머니 길거리 토스트·(hal-meo-ni gil-geo-ri to-seu-teu)
Bunsikjip After School: 3 PM Street Snacks
Three p.m. outside the subway stations, covered carts slinging the 1990s fuel of a rapidly modernizing Korea to feed exhausted students, the flat-top slick, shredded cabbage sizzling in a quick egg wash, salty butter frying in a pan, hitting a massive mound of cabbage and egg. Forget the artisanal brioche and sriracha, you need cheap white sandwich bread, a standard potato peeler to shave the cabbage paper-thin, and a heavy-handed dusting of white sugar directly onto the hot egg to achieve the danjjan. Fold it into a battered paper cup, bite through the butter-fried crunch into the steaming, sweet-salty core, wrap it tightly in foil, eat it standing up, and do not skip the sugar.
Before you start
Shave the cabbage paper-thin using a potato peeler.
Instead of using a knife, take a wedge of green cabbage and run a standard Y-shaped potato peeler back and forth along the flat edge. This grandmother's secret yields the hair-thin shreds needed for the patty to cook quickly and hold together.
Ingredients
- green cabbage1 1/2 cup
- matchstick carrots2 tbsp
- scallion1 med
- egg1 large
- kosher salt1 pinch
- black pepper1 pinch
- salted butter3 tbsp
- white sandwich bread2 slice
- American cheese1 slice
- deli ham1 slice
- granulated white sugar1 tbsp
- ketchup2 tbsp
Method
- 01
Mix the shaved cabbage, carrots, scallion, egg, salt, and pepper in a bowl until the vegetables are completely coated.
It will look like a bowl of wet coleslaw rather than a bowl of scrambled eggs, and that is exactly right.
- 02
Melt one tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over medium heat and toast both slices of bread until deeply golden brown.
Swirl the bread around in the pan to soak up the fat, then transfer the toasted slices to a plate.
- 03
Melt another tablespoon of butter in the hot pan, pour in the cabbage mixture, and push the edges inward to form a rough square.
Use two spatulas to shape the mound so it approximates the size of your sandwich bread.
- 04
Let the patty cook undisturbed for three minutes, carefully flip it, and cook for another two minutes.
Press down gently with your spatula so the egg binds the cabbage together. If you are using ham, throw it in the corner of the pan right now to warm it up in the residual butter.
- 05
Place the hot vegetable patty onto a slice of toasted bread and immediately top with the cheese and ham.
Getting these on while the egg is still steaming hot ensures the cheese begins to melt properly.
- 06
Sprinkle the granulated sugar evenly across the hot egg, follow with a heavy zig-zag of ketchup, and top with the second piece of toast.
Press down firmly to lock everything together, cut the sandwich in half, or fold it into a paper napkin to eat it while walking.
Notes
Do not skip the sugar.
It feels like an absurd amount of sugar for eggs, but as the sugar hits the hot, salty, buttery cabbage, it melts into a glaze that perfectly offsets the acidity of the ketchup.
From Cook Korean in America.