This was the first time I tried samgyeopsal. The texture of the pork was chewy, crunchy and soft from all three layers. We heated a small side of sauce on the charcoal grill and dipped the pork into the sauce, which was very tasty!
The steamed egg gyeran-jjim was fluffy and delicious, with a salty and slightly sweet taste. Koreans love sweet-salty flavor combinations, which they call dan-jjan-dan-jjan, which translates to “sweet-salty-sweet-salty.” What is your favorite flavor combination?
It was fun to try all the different sauces with the pork. Have you tried wasabi before? Usually, we think of wasabi in foods like sushi. But in Korea, you can eat wasabi with other things, such as pork and beef! It was interesting to try wasabi with pork. I ate too much of the spicy wasabi, and I could feel the wasabi go up my nose!
I also tried eating raw chili pepper, which is what most Koreans do at barbecue restaurants. I dipped it in the ssamjang sauce and it was spicy, but I love spicy food!
The fried rice at the end of the meal was delicious! The cheese and the egg are added so they get mixed into the dish, too. As the fried rice cooks on a flat-top pan, the bottom of the rice gets crispy, and Koreans call this crispy rice nurunji.
The samgyeopsal (pork belly) was cooked over a charcoal grill. In America, we have separate barbecue grills on which we cook our food, and then we eat the food somewhere else. We usually also grill our food outside in the U.S.
However, for Korean B.B.Q., the barbecue is cooked inside the restaurant.
