KoreaGwangjuSangchu Twigim: Not Fried Lettuce, but Gwangju's Fritters Wrapped in Lettuce
The name sounds like fried lettuce, but it is actually a Gwangju snack of fritters such as fried squid wrapped in lettuce with chilies in soy sauce. Here is the story of how it is said to have started on Chungjang-ro in the 1970s, how to eat it and where to try it.
A Name That Confuses Everyone
A traveler new to Gwangju who spots "sangchu twigim" (lettuce fritters) on a snack-shop menu may picture battered, deep-fried lettuce. What actually arrives is a plate of fritters, fresh lettuce leaves and a small dish of soy sauce with chopped chilies and onion. It is not fried lettuce but fritters wrapped in lettuce, hence the name. The most common fritter is squid cut into rings, and depending on the shop, other fritters such as vegetable fritters or gimmari (fried seaweed rolls) are mixed in. The idea of eating fritters as a wrap, the way Koreans wrap grilled meat in lettuce, is fun, and today you can find it on snack-shop menus across Jeolla, not just in Gwangju.
Said to Have Begun on 1970s Chungjang-ro
Chungjang-ro, the busy shopping street in Dong-gu, Gwangju, is considered the birthplace of sangchu twigim. Several sources say it started at fritter shops and street stalls in the alleys of Chungjang-ro in the 1970s. The most widely told story is that around 1975, at a fritter shop behind the old Gwangju Post Office, customers who ran short of rice wrapped fritters in lettuce instead, people liked it, and the shop started serving fritters and lettuce together. In another version, elderly women running stalls were eating together when the rice ran out, so they wrapped fritters in lettuce. Another theory says people short on money wrapped cheap fritters in lettuce instead of expensive meat. However, both the year and the anecdotes are hearsay, and no original record has been confirmed. In 2012 there was even a contest to collect stories about how sangchu twigim was born.
Why Eat It This Way?
The reason most often given for its lasting popularity is balance. Fried food gets greasy after just a few bites, but crisp, cool lettuce and spicy chilies pickled in soy sauce cut through the richness, so you can enjoy more fritters for longer. It is also interesting how Korea's ssam (wrap) culture, the habit of wrapping all sorts of things in lettuce, carried all the way into snack shops. A menu item that began in snack shops gradually rose to become one of Gwangju's signature foods, and it is among the "Seven Flavors of Gwangju" chosen by the city around 2019, alongside hanjeongsik, Mudeungsan barley rice, duck soup, Songjeong tteokgalbi, jumeokbap rice balls and yukjeon. It is a rare case of an everyday snack becoming a city's representative dish.
How to Eat It
Eating it is simple. Spread a lettuce leaf on your palm, put one or two fritters on it, fish out some chili and onion from the soy sauce, lay them on top, roll it up and eat it in one bite. Pour on too much soy sauce and it gets salty and wilts the lettuce, so it is better to add mostly the solids, a little at a time. The fritters should be eaten fresh and crisp so they contrast with the crunchy lettuce. At snack shops people often order it with other items such as tteokbokki or sundae to share, and some dab their fritters in tteokbokki sauce before wrapping. Shops that use cheongyang chilies can be quite spicy, so if you are sensitive to heat, go heavier on the onion.
Where to Try It
If you want to try sangchu twigim where it was born, head to the Chungjang-ro area in Gwangju's old downtown. Chungjang-ro is the city's long-established shopping street, and there are several snack shops serving sangchu twigim nearby, so it has even been called "Sangchu Twigim Street." It is a good light bite when you get hungry while sightseeing downtown. Even away from Chungjang-ro, you will often see sangchu twigim on neighborhood snack-shop menus across Gwangju. The fritters and the soy dipping sauce vary a little from shop to shop, so comparing a few is part of the fun. If you want to work through the Seven Flavors of Gwangju, it is convenient to have sangchu twigim on a downtown walk, Songjeong tteokgalbi near Gwangju Songjeong Station, and duck soup around Yu-dong in Buk-gu.