If there is one thing Sam and I like to do, it’s eat! Most of our weekend outings revolve around restaurant hopping; an appetizer here, a main course over there… For this week’s video, however, we managed to adhere to one sole restaurant to bring you the full Samgyeopsal dining experience!
Samgyeopsal (삼겹살) is a traditional Korean meal which consists of thick slices of pork belly that you barbecue at your table. After partially grilling the meat, you cut the strips of pork into smaller pieces using a pair of scissors, and you then allow the meat to continue cooking until golden. The way you eat samgyeopsal is by placing a piece of meat in a lettuce leaf with a bit of the red bean paste and a few bean sprouts. You then wrap it all up into a little wad and pop it in your mouth!
Though the meat is the star of the meal, you also get an assortment of side dishes including rice, egg souffle soup, bean sprouts, green salad with hot chillies, soybean and tofu soup, red bean paste sauce, onions and garlic for grilling, as well as lettuce and sesame leaves to wrap the meat in. Most of these side dishes come free with your meal so you can continue asking for refills until your stomach is content.
This traditional Korean meal is fun, delectable, and certainly filling! And the best part is getting to play chef at your own table!
Although I can’t actually watch the video because I’m in Nepal on a 3-month visa, which is two months shy of the video loading time, it’s probably for the best. I can guess what it’s about and know it would only send me off on a fruitless search for a Korean barbeque place around here.
But yeah, barbeque was far and away my favorite thing about Korea. The only complaint I ever had was the size of the tables. They are NEVER big enough to hold all the meat, side dishes and beer bottles. I suppose that’s why the Koreans prefer Soju to beer–the bottles are smaller, leaving more room on the table for food.
That’s a great point Daniel! The table is always crowded and soju is certainly smaller in size.