There is a charcoal grill that is built into the table where you are sitting! There is also an exhaust pipe hanging above the grill for all the smoke to flow into as the pork is cooking.
The chef comes to your table and puts the samgyeopsal on your grill. Next, they cut the pork belly up with scissors, instead of using a knife! After the pork is cooked, everyone digs in and picks up a piece of samgyeopsal with their chopsticks to eat. If you want to, you can wrap the pork with lettuce or perilla leaves and other toppings (called a ssam). It is traditional in Korea to eat an entire saam in one bite. It can be challenging if you add too many toppings, but do you think you could eat your ssam in one bite?
Gyeranjjim is prepared by steaming eggs in a hot stone bowl. When the dish is ready, the stone bowl is hot enough to keep the eggs sizzling for a while. This helps the food stay hot during the whole meal.
When it is time to cook the bokkeumbap (fried rice), the chef switches the grill for a flat iron pan. The rice is cooked with egg and shredded cheese, and the egg scrambles with the rice while the cheese melts into the whole dish. As the rice continues to cook, the bottom of the rice will get crispy and become nurunji (crispy rice). Koreans love nurunji so much that you can buy it as a snack, too!
Korean barbecue is a tradition that started from the Goguryeo Dynasty in Korea. It was known as maekjeok, from the nomadic Maek tribe, who roasted meat skewers over a fire.
In the 1980s, beef became more expensive because cows were used for farming.
