It’s been a very long time since I last had samgyeopsal. I think Koreans have to eat samgyeopsal on a regular basis – Otherwise people go crazy like me.

According to a recent Korean news paper, Koreans consumed about 17 kg of pork per person in 2005, compared to beef – 6.6 kg and chicken – 7.4 kg, and more than 50 % of the pork was the samgyeopsal. To meet this consumption, Korea has imported massive amounts of samgyeopsal from 14 countries, the amount was about 85,000t for the last 11 months. Why are Koreans so crazy for samgyeopsal?

Well, for me, it is delicious. That is all I can say. I especially like it when the meat is cooked in a golden crispy way.

The reason I haven’t had it for a long time was, simply, I didn’t have a grill plate for it. I wasn’t going to buy it until I moved out from this house, because I didn’t want to increase our load, but my tolerance had nearly reached the limit. I decided to buy a grill pan finally, whether it will be a burden or not. (I will tell you about the grill plate in the next post.)

This is the samgyeopsal we ate. (1.4 kg served 4 people – about US $22, I know it is a lot to eat, but we haven’t had this for nearly for 8 months, we were like some kind of hungry wolves. )

It was s~o good, the meat was melting in my mouth. I totally loved having baked Kimchi with the meat. It is another level of delight.

Enjoying Samgyeopsal dos and don’t

Do

• Have some fresh vegetables with the meat. You can wrap the meat with some lettuce and Perilla leaves (Korean style sesame leaves – Ggaennip in Korean). It is healthier and also helps digestion.
• Bake some garlic and spicy green chilies on the grill and add them when you wrap the meat. It really enhances the taste.
• You can also bake some fermented Kimchi on the grill. Some restaurants serve you 1 year old fermented Kimchi. It is not as horrible as you may think, it totally rocks. Some experts say that it is the best part of having samgyeopsal.
• Cook the meat on the strong heat for a short time. That way you don’t loose the meat juice (you don’t want it to go dry).

Don’t

• While the meat is cooking on the grill, don’t turn it over every so often. Apparently the more you do, the more it looses its flavour. Some experts say that only turning the meat once is best.
• Don’t stretch out your hands to pick the meat from the opposite side. People get angry at you. (Every wolf is hungry here)
• Don’t keep eating. You need to learn the beauty of cooperation by joining in turning the meat when it is cooked. You are a mean spirited person if you keep eating while the others work together to turn the meat.
• Don’t eat the meat when it is burnt. It is bad for your health (The burnt part can cause cancer).

I couldn’t keeping taking pictures after smelling it (and who would?), so I can’t give you a visual image of “dos and don’t”, yet I am going to hold another party soon, then I can show you more of the side dishes I made.

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