REVIEW:
WHAT do you get when you cross a Scottish takeaway tradition with a Korean street food sensation?
Seoul Nibbles is giving Edinburgh locals the answer with the introduction of Korean-style deep-fried Mars bars from their Grassmarket pop-up.
Different from the usual battered and fried Mars bar found in takeaways across the country, here the bar is turned into a corndog, a treat that originated in the USA but has since gained popularity in South Korea.
Seoul Nibbles coins their invention as a “Real Scot x Korean Collaboration” and has made the gooey delight a permanent staple alongside their regular menu.
Corn dogs, which are usually filled with sausage, cheese or both, are battered with cornmeal (or polenta) as opposed to just flour, which is where they get their signature spongey outer layer.
Seoul Nibbles adds cornflakes to the outside of their dogs, providing a crunchy element to the soft and melted Mars bar inside.
The stick is then topped with chocolate sauce, sprinkles, and a dusting of icing sugar before being handed to customers as they wait eagerly in the cold at the foot of Victoria Street.
The glowing police box, normally home to ice-cream vendor Over Langshaw Farmhouse, stands before a constant line of tourists and locals who are attracted by the aromatic smells of its traditional Korean dishes, despite the brisk Edinburgh cold.
As well as the ‘Mars bar dog’, the stall offers tteokbokki, a traditional Korean dish of rice cakes and fish cakes cooked with spicy gochujang sauce and broth, served fresh from a steaming pot.
The owner of the stall, a former Japanese and Korean professor at The University of Edinburgh, uses chilli powder harvested by her gran in South Korea to make this dish.
She says that the Mars bar dog began as a joke, as regulars were “looking for something different” over Halloween.
After many tourists stopped by the police box asking for deep fried Mars bars, the owner stopped turning them away and realised she could use the batter for corn dogs in her own take on the classic.
Luckily, the result is “like a hot doughnut”, with the light outer shell almost acting as a cake that holds oozy hot chocolate and caramel inside.
Less greasy than a traditionally battered Mars bar, the Mars dog on a stick offers an unlikely fusion, but certainly satisfies a sweet tooth away from the hustle and bustle of the Christmas markets.
Seoul Nibbles will be at the Police Box in Grassmarket until the end of March 2025.
