"Visited a Shop Run by Older Women and Paid With 'This' Instead of Money" Korean Travel Story Goes Viral

A Foreigner Pays for Tteokbokki with Cigarettes Instead of a Card
Story of Unusual Barter in Korea Gains Attention Online

A story about a foreign visitor to Korea paying for tteokbokki with cigarettes is spreading across online communities.

On May 1, Dylan Patel, founder of the US semiconductor analysis firm SemiAnalysis, posted about the incident on X (formerly Twitter).

Having visited Seoul and Paju in Gyeonggi Province, he wrote, "I found a tteokbokki shop run by two older women in Korea. I asked if they accepted cards, but she shook her head, spoke briefly in Korean, then stepped outside and gestured for me to follow."

Dylan Patel X Galmuri

Patel continued, "We went to a convenience store together, and she pointed to cigarettes." He stated that the price of the cigarettes he bought instead of paying for the food was 3,500 won, or $2.46. He added that after returning to the shop, he received his tteokbokki. The accompanying photo showed him eating tteokbokki at a well-known shop in Seoul.

Dylan Patel also posted photos of the inside of the snack shop and the tteokbokki. The menu attached to the refrigerator in the photo listed tteokbokki, sundae, and gimbap at 3,500 won each.

This story attracted significant attention from netizens. As of May 2, the post had received over 20,000 'likes' and 410,000 views on X. Netizens commented, "It's fascinating to see a barter between carbohydrates and cigarettes?what an interesting world," "I love this kind of barter when traveling," and "This is the real art of trading."

One netizen asked, "How did it taste?" and Patel replied, "It was very spicy." Some netizens also expressed curiosity about what he saw during his trip to Korea.

However, considering that the price of domestic cigarettes in Korea is typically between 4,000 and 5,000 won per pack as of this year, there is speculation that this story may be based on a past experience or that the writer may have been mistaken about the price. The writer did not disclose the exact date of the tteokbokki shop visit.