Barbecue - Korean style

While the traditional Korean barbecue takes place outdoors, the version we've come to know in the west is one that sets a hot grill in the middle of the table so that you can cook portions beef and pork which are presented raw for you to barbecue to your taste. This indoor barbecuing of meat, seafood, vegetables and noodles now an integral part of Japanese cuisine, is believed to have been adopted by the Japanese form the Koreans. Eating food from the same dish, as it is cooked, ranks a communal and ceremonial experience and is held in high esteem across Asia.

Korean origins - Yakiniku

The Japanese style of cooking bite-sized meat and vegetables over a charcoal or gas grill is believed have originated from Korean style barbecued meats and is in Tokyo, this style of eating is called Korean Barbecue, while in the west we call it Yakiniku - confusing, isn't it?

The method is simple though. Diners choose from prepared raw ingredients and cook several pieces at a time. The chosen cooked ingredients are dipped in a sauce known as tare before being eaten. Tare dips tend to be soy-based and flavoured with garlic and sesame, but also may contain garlic, shallots or miso or ginger.

The dishes

Bulgogi translates as fiery meat. It is a popular beef dish across Korea. It is made from thinly sliced sirloin or another prime cut of beef. The meat is marinated with a mixture of soy sauce, pear purée, (apple will do!) sesame oil, black pepper, garlic, onions, ginger, wine and sugar for several hours to tenderise the meat and give it flavour. Whole cloves of garlic, sliced onions, and chopped green peppers are often grilled or cooked at the same time as the meat. This dish is usually served with lettuce, large leaf spinach, pak choi or any other leafy vegetable which can be eaten raw, in which the diner wraps a slice of cooked meat before eating.

Kalbi means rib, so unsurprisingly this dish is usually made from beef ribs, though it possible to cook it from pork ribs. Once again, the ribs are marinated in a sauce made from fruit juice, rice wine, soy sauce, garlic, sesame seed oil and sugar. Most recipes contain these basic ingredients, although many variations exist, including clear marinades made from miso and spicier marinades with chili. When cooked on a grill, the meat is usually scored in thin slices across the bones to allow the marinade to penetrate the meat faster. This also allows the meat to cook more quickly. Typically this dish is served with lettuce, spinach or other leafy vegetables which are used to wrap the meat, which is then dipped in a spicy dipping sauce.

Barbecue Korean beef photograph by Scott Feldstein, used under a creative commons attribution licence.

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