Eomuk is fish paste mixed with wheat starch and a little sugar, then fried in a sheet. A 45g skewer is about 90 calories with 6g of protein, which makes it the best deal on the cart next to a 335 calorie cup of tteokbokki. The broth is anchovy, kelp and radish, close to zero calories unless the vendor has been topping it up with the tteokbokki sauce.
Where it goes wrong is quantity and dipping. The skewers are small and people eat 4 or 5 while waiting for the tteokbokki, which is 400 to 500 calories that nobody counts. A squeeze of the sweet soy or mustard sauce adds 15 to 20 calories per stick. And the eomuk in the tray has been sitting in salty broth, so 3 skewers with a cup of broth is roughly 1,200mg of sodium.
The bunsik shop version, eomuk-tang served in a bowl with 5 or 6 pieces and radish for 4,000 to 6,000 won, is about 300 to 350 calories. It is a fair meal for the price and one of the few street foods with a decent protein-to-calorie ratio.