← All places

Dish guide · Sweets and tea

🥮

Hwangnam-ppang

황남빵

Gyeongju red bean pastry

🌡️ Room temperature🙂 Not spicy🥬 Usually vegetarian

Gyeongju's signature sweet: a small round pastry with a thin crust around a thick filling of red bean paste. It's named after Hwangnam-dong, the neighborhood where it was first made in 1939.

What it is

  • A batter of eggs and wheat flour wraps a filling that makes up about 70% of the pastry, so it tastes mostly of sweet red bean.
  • The top carries a stamped pattern, described as a chrysanthemum in some accounts and a comb design in others.
  • It's also called Gyeongju-ppang (Gyeongju bread), and several bakeries in the city make it. Hwangnam Ppang and Choi Young-hwa Bbang both trace theirs to the same 1939 origin.

How to eat it

  1. 1Try one fresh at the shop, then consider a box to take home. Koreans often carry it back as a souvenir.
  2. 2Check the date on the box before you pack it for a long trip.

History

  • Choi Yeong-hwa created it in Hwangnam-dong in 1939, and his family still makes it.
  • Its roots are told in different ways. Some accounts point to a family tradition of red bean rice cakes and breads, while others trace it to Japanese wagashi sweets of the colonial period.

Allergies and diet

Usually contains

wheategg
  • The crust is made with wheat flour and egg.
  • Other Gyeongju sweets, such as chalbori-ppang (barley pancakes), look similar but are different products. Check each one.

Recipes differ between restaurants. If you have an allergy, always ask the staff before you order.

🗣️ Allergy card for the staff

Pick your allergy to see the sentence in Korean.

📍 Where to try it

Sources

We check every fact against at least two sources and write it in our own words. Last checked: 2026-11-03.