Tteokbokki doesn’t translate easily. It’s chewy where Pakistani snacks are crispy. It’s sweet-spicy where we expect spicy-spicy. It’s a rice cake — a thing most Karachiites have never put in their mouth.

So we didn’t try to explain it. We cooked it.

We set up in Karachi malls and put our brand ambassadors behind the pan. Real heat. Real gochujang. Real rice cakes coming off the stove and into shoppers’ hands. Smell first, taste second, decision third.

Most people had never tried tteokbokki. By the end of the day, a lot of them had bought it.