No, this isn’t a cast iron thing. Using stainless pans, you can get nonstick effects that, in my experience, far outperform Teflon anyway. The process is called “spot seasoning.” I have cooked crispy, cheesy rice noodles with eggs with zero sticking.
I love my cast iron pans, but stainless is my daily go-to. Added bonus: use 100% copper wool to clean your stainless pan. The copper-coated wool at most grocery stores is problematic; you might get a few uses out of the coated garbage and then it starts shedding metal bits.
Controversial:
Im okay occasionally scrubbing the pans a bit harder. Sometimes it sticks - sonetimes it doesnt 🤷♂️
Right there with ya; sometimes elbow grease is required. But for things like crispy, cheesy tteok, I want the crispy parts to stay on the food. Once the crust forms in the pan, no other food is going to crisp up.
Mmmmmm… topokki
The benefit of stainless is that you can scrape it with a metal utensil.