Musings

Mmmm: soju and…

Korean BBQ beginning cooking

In honor of President’s Day (not really), we embarked on a multi-cultural experience (or merely a not-Western adventure). We met friends at a Korean BBQ, and learned how to order and enjoy tasty food cooked on an upside-down wok-like cooker in the middle of the table. That’s some kimchi on the left, a pancake, and some marinated soy sprouts on the cooker, and three condiments in the tray for our side of the table to share. This was the first food on the cooker.

For protein, we got pork and pork, beef, shrimp, and octopus, cooked in sequence. And got stuffed.

At the end of the meal, the server scraped the well-cooked bits left on the cooking surface into some white rice and chopped seaweed and lettuce, then tossed and shuffled them together until homogenous. Oh yum. Yes, we kept eating when we were already full. I especially enjoyed the thin slices of radish (I think—the white in the bowl left of the cooker), lightly pickled, and used to wrap bean paste (left, in trio-tray) and veg and protein, eaten like a taquito.

Soju is a clear Korean liquor, just the thing to make you poorly productive in the afternoon if you have it for a late lunch. As I can testify! Oh yum (I repeat myself).