Sokcho bakery with snow crab jjondeugi and potato bread: Bultan Gamja

While traveling around Sokcho, I picked up all sorts of snacks — not just for meals, but for eating on the go between stops. This time I packed something a little special that you can really only find in Sokcho: Sokcho Bultan Gamja Bread (불탄감자빵, "scorched potato bread").

Where is Sokcho Bultan Gamja Bread Main Store, and is there parking?

This time I visited the Sokcho Bultan Gamja Bread Main Store (속초불탄감자빵 본점). It sits in a quiet spot with a view of Mount Seorak, so it was an easy stop along the trip, and the wide parking lot right in front made it convenient to drive over.

Potato bread baked every morning and sold the same day

If you go looking for Sokcho bakery must-visits, you'll come across plenty of potato-based breads, but Sokcho Bultan Gamja Bread stood out visually right away.

As the name suggests, the outside looks charred black — not actually burnt, though. The idea apparently comes from the look of blackened potatoes roasted over an old-fashioned wood-fired stove.

What impressed me most was that the main store makes the potato bread by hand every single morning. They wash and roast Gangwon-do potatoes daily, and instead of boiling or steaming them, they roast the potatoes to bring out their natural sweetness.

Apparently they peel the roasted potatoes before they cool and use them right away to make the bread — a process clearly different from products that simply mimic the shape of a potato.

What's in the 4-piece box of Sokcho Bultan Gamja Bread

This time I got a box of 4 Sokcho Bultan Gamja Bread pieces to go. The outside is coated with a powder ground from domestic grains — black sesame, black beans, and black rice — which apparently adds a nutty flavor.

The black color actually comes from squid ink, a nod to Sokcho's local character. At first glance it really does look like a charred potato, which is fun, but inside it's cleanly made potato bread that's easy to eat without any hesitation.

One reason this was worth seeking out among Sokcho bakery must-visits was the distinct flavor direction. Rather than piling on artificial sweetness, they let the natural taste of the potato come through, adding cream cheese and butter for a nutty, soft finish.

Sokcho Jjondeugi: a 12-piece set in three flavors

It felt like a waste to just take home potato bread, so I also grabbed a 12-piece set of Sokcho Jjondeugi (속초쫀드기, a chewy Korean taffy-like snack).

Sokcho Jjondeugi takes the jjondeugi snack most Koreans already know and adds a Sokcho twist, coming in three flavors: snow crab, squid, and dakgangjeong (sweet fried chicken).

It was fun that they packed some of Sokcho's most iconic foods into a jjondeugi format, and it seemed like it would make a decent souvenir snack from the trip too.

Since the set has multiple pieces, it was easy to pull one out at a time back at the hotel, and just as convenient to snack on while moving around by car.

Easy snacks for the car and the hotel room

What I realized on this trip is how useful it is to have at least one good takeout snack for getting around. Sokcho Bultan Gamja Bread comes in a box, so it was easy to keep in the car, and perfect for grabbing a piece whenever I got hungry between sightseeing stops.

After arriving at the hotel, I finished off the leftover potato bread and jjondeugi as a snack — and there was something nice about relaxing with local food I'd picked up along the trip once I got to the room.

If you're looking among Sokcho bakery must-visits for something with local character rather than an ordinary bread, this place is worth a stop. I especially liked that the main store bakes fresh every morning and follows a same-day sale policy.

If you're a traveler hunting for Sokcho bakery must-visits, whether you want a post-meal dessert snack or a travel souvenir to bring home, packing Sokcho Bultan Gamja Bread together with Sokcho Jjondeugi seems like a solid choice.

The main store is located near Sokcho IC, so I'd recommend it either as a start-of-trip pick-up or as a farewell gift at the end of your trip haha^^