Korean Barbecue

Back in the States our "barbecue" is not a favorite of mine. The whole saucy mess is just not appetizing to me, and so I have never been one to jump on a barbecue restaurant or crave a barbecue sandwich. But in Korea barbecue is something very different....

It's almost an intriguing sight as you walk by the Korean restaurants and you see people gathered around a table with a grill in the center, flipping their meat with tongs, and cutting it with scissors. They are loading on their kimchi, beans, and other sides to the grill to make them nice and hot and then mixing it with the garlic that is simmering on there as well! As the hungry diners laugh and grill their food they are sipping on "So-make" which is a combination of Soju (a Korean rice liquor which tastes like a weaker version of vodka) and a Korean Beer. The word for beer in Korean is called make-ju, so you guessed it........put the two words together and you get SO-MAKE. YES! They mix a shot of their liquor with their Korean Beer in one glass and drink it together.  Usually they even mix it together with their chopsticks before drinking. So odd right? Then all the diners take their chopsticks and eat the pork or beef right off the grill, sometimes wrapping the food in lettuce to make wraps, but there are never plates. The grill is the master of this restaurant experience! And voila......we have Korean barbecue.

When I first arrived, I wasn't so fascinated with this new phenomenon. I was a little perplexed by the fact I had to cook my own food and was paying for it.....also, is was so simple! What was the big fuss about? But I was yet to discover the beauty of its simplicity and the community such a type of restaurant can bring! Now, I crave it all the time. Even though for the next 24 hours after I eat it I smell like garlic and pork, I cant help but love the stuff. And it helps that there is a great place about 2 minutes from my house where you can get a full meal for about $4 a person.

So, I'm off to have some delicious Korean Barbecue and So-make. After a long hard day at work, I'm going to relax and enjoy the easiness of this meal. :)