Pea cream cheese walnut pastries by Bomun Lake, Gyeongju: Buja Hodu

A Gyeongju souvenir gift set Buja Hodu

Address: 38 Poseok-ro1095beon-gil, Building B, Unit 105, Gyeongju-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea Hours: 9:30 AM – 8:00 PM

What makes Buja Hodu walnut pastries different: whole walnuts and 100% rice dough

Hi, this is Hansik, and lately I only crave food that makes me gain weight, haha. I'm working hard on my bulk, ha.

One of the snacks I've been wanting lately is hodu-gwaja (walnut pastry). I've bought the Costco version, the one from Bucheon Confectionery in Shinsegae department store, and now I've come to buy Gyeongju's version too, haha. Am I really that serious about walnut pastries? Ha.

You might think all walnut pastries are the same, but absolutely not, haha. Some are packed with red bean and barely have any walnut, but the Buja Hodu I ate today in Gyeongju actually has whole walnuts inside. And it's 100% rice dough. Doesn't that already sound healthy? Ha.

Are Buja Hodu walnut pastries a good Gyeongju souvenir or Chuseok gift?

After trying it, I thought it would make a great Gyeongju souvenir gift set, but Chuseok is coming up soon too, right? It seemed like it'd work well as a holiday gift too. Korean beef gift sets are nice, sure, but you can't ignore the price range, haha.

If you're thinking of a light gift, this seems like a good option. And it'd be even better for a household with kids. They said holiday bojagi (wrapping cloth) packaging is available too. Wrapped in bojagi it looks so much more upscale, haha. Even I, who loves walnut pastries, would want to receive this, ha.

At the Buja Hodu I visited, they also had a walnut ice cream affogato. Ice cream, walnut pastry, and coffee together... apparently it's fine without the coffee too, but personally I think ice cream with walnut pastry, minus the coffee, sounds pretty good, haha. I feel like coffee tastes better on its own. Just personal preference, though.

Looking at the walnut pastry box wrapped in bojagi below, it really looked upscale. The bojagi wrap probably costs extra, right? I only bought the pastries to eat right away, so I didn't ask about the bojagi price.

Buja Hodu flavors and instant-pack prices: 9,500 to 11,000 won

Buja Hodu's walnut pastries come in four kinds.

• 1. Traditional red bean
• 2. Sweet pea cream cheese
• 3. Matcha
• 4. Almond praline (limited to 50 per day) *choosing/changing to almond praline adds ₩3,000

Walnut pastries come in an instant pack you can eat right away, or a box pack. There's a price difference between the two, so keep that in mind.

• Instant pack, 10-piece original (10 red bean pieces): ₩9,500
• 10-piece mix (5 red bean + 5 of another flavor of your choice): ₩11,000

I bought two of the 10-piece mixes, and it turned out I could actually choose the flavor? They packed 5 red bean and 5 sweet pea cream cheese, so I thought I had no say in it... I love matcha, how could you do this to me... My own fault for not reading carefully enough, haha.

Taking a 10-piece pack along on a Bomun Lake walk

I bought Buja Hodu and headed to Bomun Lake for a bit of a walk. Strolling gently along, there was a kitty playing around, haha. So chubby and cute, meow meow.

After walking a while, I got hungry pretty quickly, haha. Started thinking about the walnut pastries. Remember I said I bought two 10-piece packs? One was for me and my husband to eat, and the other was to bring to my parents, haha. I should be buying them something nicer, but here I am with this instead.

The wrapper colors are too similar to tell the flavors apart

Alright, now let's actually try the Gyeongju Buja Hodu. At first I thought, wait, if the wrapping papers all look the same, how am I supposed to know which flavor is which? But looking closely, there was white paper and a very faint orange paper.

I'm glad there was some distinction, but it'd be better if the difference were clearer, haha. It's so faint that people with poor eyesight or color blindness probably wouldn't even be able to see it. Take a look at the color-coded red bean and sweet pea cream cheese pieces below.

How the sweet pea cream cheese and red bean actually taste

The shape and size of the walnut pastries pass the test. Just the right bite size. They're individually wrapped, so they're convenient to carry around one at a time, haha.

I could pop the whole thing in my mouth in one bite, but since there's a whole walnut inside, I broke it in half out of respect for the walnut. Nutty and delicious. This was my first time trying sweet pea cream cheese, and wow, it's really good? All the sorrow of not getting matcha just vanished, haha. What a lucky walnut pastry, ha. Packed full of walnut, it has a nice bite to it too, and it seems like a great gift option.

And the basic red bean flavor of the walnut pastry — no need to even say it. Of course it's delicious, good good. If I'd known it was this good I would've bought more. I'll definitely buy it again next time.