I was lucky enough to be able to try a lot of different traditional dishes, while I was in South Korea, but there is no doubt which one I liked the most- Korean Barbeque. From the way the food was served, through the diversity of flavours, which it offered, to the manner, in which it was consumed, it was truly an experience I'd never get tired of. It is the type of food that's easy to share with friends and it creates a rather intimate friendly atmosphere. With the disclaimer that I am in no way an expert on Korean dining, I learned a lot of the dos and don'ts when it comes to KBBQ etiquette from the friendly locals and I'd like to talk about my experience.
What is included?
When you go out for Korean BBQ, you don't just get grilled meat on a plate. It's not that soulless and boring. In fact it is a set meal with many components.
The centre of the attention naturally is the meat. It can be beef, pork or even chicken, but the most popular one is beef. You're actually spoiled for choice, because you can choose not only the type of meat, but also which part of the animal you want cooked. I went to both touristy, flashy restaurants and to local places, where the tables are basically on the streets and the people from the neighborhood gather together for a drink, a round of satisfying hearty food and close, direct, loud conversations. The first type of locations usually offer a big menu with pictures, which makes it easier for tourists to find their way around and simply point to what they want to order. At the second ones, since the auditorium consists mostly of locals, the menus are usually clear, so there is no need for extensive lists and pictures. However, if you don't know what you want, you can always ask the staff or let them recommend something. Usually there is a minimum amount of meat that you have to order and in certain places you are supposed to choose at least one item from a list with more premium meats.
So you order your meat of choice, but that's not all you'll get. Before you know it, the table in front of you would be covered with small plates and bowls full of various appetizers, sauces and side dishes, which you haven't ordered. These are called "banchan" or "bansang" and are a selection of delicious, usually spicy dishes, which combine well with your grilled meat. No worries, these are not to be paid extra, banchan is a part of the Korean BBQ experience and thus included in the price. So you can expect to get plain steamed rice, lettuce, soup, kimchi, gochujang, which is a type of red chili paste, and sometimes some other things as well.
The set-up
Everyone at the table gets an individual bowl of rice and another one with soup. Banchan is put in the middle for sharing. The meat comes raw. And that's actually the best part- you're supposed to cook it yourself...well, except for some premium meats on the menu, which you're supposed to eat raw, but we'll come to this soon.
In the very centre of the table either an electric or a charcoal grill is set up and the meat is brought to the table on piles in big plates. Then you are given scissors, with which you cut the meat in small bite-sized strips. That's all you'll get- a pair of chopsticks for everyone and scissors. You're supposed to drink the soup and eat the big chunks with the chopsticks. So don't look around for any cutlery.
And then the grilling starts- you have the freedom of making it as crispy or as rare as you like. Plus, you actively participate in the preparation of the food, which, trust me, is a lot of fun. And if you're thinking what could be so fun about going to a restaurant, only to cook the food yourself, the answer is quite clear. Not only is the atmosphere rather homely and chill, so you can enjoy the conversation with your friends, but you'd save yourself the hustle of buying a long list of ingredients, preparing the dozens of side dishes and all the cleaning up that comes after. And the quality of the food… I can't praise that enough.
How to eat it
Now, although Korean barbecue is quite an informal way to share a meal with friends, there are some rules as to the proper way of enjoying it.
My first night out in Seoul, I was eager to try the world famous dish. After the friendly owner of the small local restaurant set up everything at the table and cut the meat for us, I started sampling everything with my chopsticks with curiosity and caution. See- I wasn't that used to eating spicy food back then and I wasn't sure if I could handle a big bite. What I was doing wrong, however, was getting a pinch of this and that with my chopsticks and eating things one after the other.
The kind lady, who was managing the place, looked at us for a while and rather amused came to show us how it's done correctly. Korean BBQ is always served with some lettuce or perilla leaves at the table. You take a piece of these, put it in your palm, then put some grilled meat and anything else of your liking from the big variety in front of you, then you wrap it all with the leaf and eat it in one bite. And this goes on and on again- pick, season, wrap, eat, repeat.
Another thing you should be careful with is ordering yukhoe. One of the restaurants I visited for KBBQ required us to order yukhoe along with the barbecue meat. You should keep in mind that yukhoe is a raw meat dish, a little bit like tartar. You're supposed to eat it raw. So even if you feel tempted to put it on the grill, like we did, don't do that if you want to avoid the surprised and even a bit angry looks of those around you.To be honest, when taking our order, the waitress told us "This is raw", but we didn't make much of it, because all the meat for the Korean BBQ comes raw. We didn't, however, know at the time that what she meant was "This is to be eaten raw", until she came later on to tell us, rather stunned by the fact that we were cooking the meat. This major fail aside, it was really delicious.
Why you'd love it
Not only is the Korean barbecue better shared with friends, but it gets you involved in the cooking process, so it's more than just food and something of a fun activity on its own. It is healthy, delicious and provides everything you might look for in a meal in terms of nutritious value: protein, carbs, greens. Plus, you can have diversity with every bite by adjusting the ingredients you put in your mouth, so you're guaranteed not to get tired of it!
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