Fill a large skillet with water and bring it to a boil.

As soon as the water boils, drop in all the rice cakes. Cook until soft. Be sure to stir occasionally to avoid sticking.

Once the rice cake is soft, remove them from the heat and drain the water. Set it aside until the later steps.

Heat a clean medium saucepan up until High heat.

When the saucepan becomes very hot, add 3 tbsp of vegetable oil.

Fried the onions with a pinch of salt. Cook until the onion is soft and aromatic.

Add in the mushrooms and pepper. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook until all the moisture in the pan is cooked out. At that point, the pepper should be soft and the mushroom should be fully browned.

You should expect to see brown bits sticking to the bottom of the pan. Still under High heat, add the cooking wine to deglaze the pan. (Don't be alert by the reaction. It's deliciousness screaming at you.) Stir the goods around quickly to add the bits stick to the veggies.

When the alcohol has been cooked out, add the water, fish stock, and hot pepper paste. Stir to dissolve all the seasoning.

Bring the stew to a simmer and let it simmer for about 10 minutes.

The stew should be very flavorful at this point. Add in the rice cake and bring it back to a boil.

As soon as the stew boils, lower the heat to medium. Let it simmer without the lid on to reduce the liquid down for 15 minutes.

Check the consistency of the stew and taste the rice cake. If it is still too watery for you, continue to reduce the liquid to your liking. (Tip: You want the stew to be somewhat thick because you want more of the sauce to stick to the rice cake. The rice by itself is rather plain. The thicker the sauce, the more a piece will hold, which makes it more flavorful.) You may adjust the flavor with salt and pepper.

Let it cool down for about 10 minutes before serving. This allows the starch from the rice cake to set and thicken the sauce even more, in addition to letting the flavor homogenize.