In Chinese this is Gu Lao Rou (Ancient-style meat, in this case normally pork), the sauce is “tangsu” or “sweet vinegar” — so “Sweet vinegar [sauce] chicken” would be Tang Su Ji… which is probably where the Korean comes from.

Japanese call this Su buta — “vinegar-pork”, which is short for “tou su buta niku” tang su pork.

I have gone through a lot of recipes trying to get this right because it is hands down my husband’s favorite Asian dish. In China he ate this as much as he could (about every day if he could talk me into it). So (as we’re in Japan now) I buy kits to cheat my way along. I just can’t get the sauce right without some help.

His favorite Korean food is bulgogi… we miss this friend we had in China, a Korean teacher, who made the best we’d ever tasted. She was a phenomenal cook. Threw terrific parties.

Really miss that stuff. Oh, and thanks for the Hoddeok recipe, too, we love that stuff.