A dessert born from Dubai inspiration, made in Korea, taught back to Abu Dhabi residents, and now selling in Dubai for $7.90 a piece. This is Dujjonku — and its story says more about Korea than any cookie has a right to.
If you are planning a trip to Korea, put this at the top of your food list. Seriously. But here is the thing: Dujjonku is not actually from Dubai. And that is exactly what makes it interesting.
What Is Dujjonku? (And No, It’s Not Actually from Dubai)
Dujjonku was born in Korea, inspired by the Dubai chocolate craze that swept the country in 2024. A Korean baker took the iconic pistachio-kataifi filling from Dubai chocolate and wrapped it in something very Korean: a soft, stretchy marshmallow shell dusted with cocoa powder.
The result? Something that looks like a cookie, feels like a rice cake, and tastes like nothing else you have ever had. As BBC News described it, it is made by “stuffing pistachio cream and knafeh shreds into a chocolate marshmallow” — which sounds simple until you actually bite into one.
What’s Inside
- Kataifi (kadaif): Shredded Middle Eastern pastry, toasted in butter until golden and crispy
- Pistachio cream: Sweet, nutty, bright green — the heart of the whole thing
- Marshmallow shell: Soft, chewy, cocoa-dusted on the outside
- Cocoa powder: That chocolatey dust all over the exterior
The texture is the whole point. Crispy inside, chewy outside, sticky pull when you break it open. It photographs beautifully, which is not a coincidence.
How One K-Pop Instagram Post Changed Everything
In September 2025, Jang Won-young of K-pop group IVE posted a photo on Instagram — lips dusted with cocoa powder, holding a Dujjonku. That was it. That was all it took. What followed was, by any measure, a food frenzy. BBC News reported queues forming before sunrise, bakeries halting in-store sales to control crowds, and a live online map tracking which cafes still had stock in real time. A citywide treasure hunt, essentially, for a cookie.
By January 2026, #Dujjonku had over 350,000 posts on Instagram. Naver, Korea’s largest search engine, recorded a twentyfold surge in searches. Food delivery app Baedal Minjok saw pickup orders jump 300 percent in a single week. Convenience store chains jumped in fast. CU sold over 1.8 million units of its Kataifi Chocolate Chewy Rice Cake in three months. Even Lotte Hotel Seoul added Dujjonku-inspired petit four to its fine dining menu. When a hotel restaurant moves that fast, you know the trend is real. The pistachio shortage that followed was also real — prices tripled, from 20,000 won to 80,000 won per kilogram, in just weeks.
This Is What Korea Does with Food Trends
Korea has a gift for taking something from somewhere else and making it undeniably, completely Korean. BBC News called Dujjonku a standout example of Korean dessert innovation — the ability to absorb a global trend and transform it into something new. Food scholars call this culinary hybridity: when two food cultures meet with genuine curiosity and produce something neither could have made alone. That is Dujjonku. The pistachio and kataifi are Middle Eastern. The chewy marshmallow texture is deeply Korean — a country that has always loved the soft, elastic bite of tteok (rice cake). Put them together, dust with cocoa, and you have a dessert that belongs to both cultures and neither at the same time.
Korea and the Middle East: More Connected Than You Think
Here is the part that surprised even me.
According to the recent 2025 National Image Survey, the UAE recorded a 94.8% favorability rating toward Korea — the highest of any country in the world. K-dramas, K-pop, Korean food, Korean beauty: all of it has found an enormous audience across the Gulf.
And the UAE is doing something about it. Following a state visit by Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung, both governments announced a K-City — a dedicated space for Korean culture, food, and business in the Emirates. Time Out Dubai covered the announcement, and Khaleej Times called it a move to make the UAE “the main Middle Eastern centre for cultural engagement with South Korea.” The Ajjonku workshop was one small, delicious example of exactly that exchange in action.
Ajjonku: When the Cookie Completes the Circle
Here is the detail no other outlet has reported in English.
The Korean Cultural Center in Abu Dhabi hosted a workshop teaching UAE locals how to make Dujjonku from scratch — and gave it a new local name: Ajjonku (아쫀쿠). Short for Abu Dhabi Chewy Cookie. A Dujjonku, remade for its new home.
Think about what that means. Ajjonku is not a copy. It is an acknowledgment — Abu Dhabi saying “we want this to be ours too.” The same creative instinct that turned Dubai chocolate into Dujjonku in Korea is now turning Dujjonku into Ajjonku in Abu Dhabi. Korea exported not just a dessert but a way of thinking about food. Details of the Ajjonku workshop are documented on the KCC UAE official website.
And the full circle is now complete: Time Out Dubai listed Dujjonku among the top nine food trends to watch in 2026. A Dubai cafe is already selling it for 29 dirhams ($7.90) a piece. The dessert that borrowed Dubai’s name has arrived in Dubai — under its Korean name.
Where to Find Dujjonku When You Visit Korea
Small or Independent Bakeries — The Real Deal
Small independent bakeries make the best Dujjonku. Denser, more generous with the filling, and yes, there might still be a queue. Search “두쫀쿠 맛집” on Naver Maps. Prices run 4,000–10,000 won per piece.
Convenience Stores — Easiest Option
GS25, CU, 7-Eleven, Emart24 all carry Dujjonku-inspired products. Not the same as a fresh bakery version, but genuinely good and always available. A great option if you want to try it without the hunt.
Luxury Hotels — Most Surprising
Yes, really. Hotel restaurants in Seoul have added Dujjonku to their menus. Lotte Hotel Seoul’s French restaurant Pierre Gagnaire à Séoul offered a Dujjonku-inspired course dessert through February. The trend has traveled far from its street food roots.
Timing Note
According to a February 2026 report from Seoul Economic Daily, the early-morning queue frenzy has calmed down as more versions hit the market. Good news for visitors — you can now find it without a 5am alarm.
Editor’s Comment
A friend of mine spent 45 minutes refreshing a map to track down a Dujjonku. She found one, took a photo before eating it, and posted it. The photo got more engagement than anything else from the entire trip.
I think about that a lot. A cookie that turns strangers into collaborators in a shared city-wide hunt, that carries the name of one city while being made in another, that traveled from a Gulf inspiration to a Seoul bakery to an Abu Dhabi workshop and back to Dubai again. Some foods are just food. This one has a story. And in Korea, that is exactly how the best trends work.