This weekend, Seong and I got together with his high school buddies for a night of fun!
We started with dessert, naturally. This is called 빙수 (bingsu), which is shaved ice (or milk). This one was covered in chocolate and accompanied by brownie bites. Yum!
Then, we discussed what to eat for dinner. As the only female in the group, and the wife of their friend, the guys agreed with my suggestion to go for 삼겹살 (samgyupsal = pork belly)! Here is the meat, with some tofu, which the server brought to the table for us to cook on the tabletop griller.
Maybe you have seen people eating pork belly in a drama. If so, you may have seen them wearing aprons like this. The copious oils that render from the meat (which is like thick-sliced, non-cured bacon) splash everywhere while grilling. We wore aprons to keep it off our clothes, especially since 삼겹살 is really smelly. In fact, many Koreans don't cook pork belly in their houses because of the smell!
The grill at this restaurant was tilted to let the oil drip into a paper cup for disposal. However, before it reached the cup, it has to pass through delicious kimchi! If you like fresh kimchi, you will adore grilled kimchi! Pork belly and kimchi are a match made in Korean food heaven!
After the meat is cooked, the best way to eat it is in a lettuce wrap with grilled (or raw) garlic, 쌈장 (samjang = wrapping sauce), and whatever banchan (side dishes) strike your fancy.
I can't overstate how delicious this meal was! It's simple, fresh, and totally satisfying. One of our friends acted as the "Grill Master", flipping the meat with tongs and then cutting with scissors.
These are Seong's friends. It's amazing to me that they stayed in contact all these years, still getting together just like old times. I'm also touched at how kind they are to me! I now consider them my friends too :).
It was a great night, which ending with a few hours in a 노래방 (Noraebang = karaoke room). On my playlist was "Part of Your World" (The Little Mermaid), "Rumor Has It" (Adele), "Goodbye Earl" (The Dixie Chicks), and "I Need a Hero" (Bonnie Tyler). I also sung along to the Korean songs that I knew! I'm really going to miss this city.
This morning I woke up at 4am and it actually wasn't an unpleasant experience. My mind was alert, I wasn't groggy, and I exercised before 7am! I can't take all the glory for this uncharacteristic happening. The truth is that I went to sleep last night at 7pm, drawn to the bed right after dinner by intense jetlag!
I travelled back to the USA for a dear friend's wedding, but only stayed one week, long enough to fully adjust to the time change. Maybe I'll keep this schedule going? I actually like being up so early, but I'm not sure I'm willing to sacrifice my night owl ways just yet.
Now on to the mukbang!! While I was in the states, I wanted to share some of my new food adventures with my family, and I obviously documented it.
These are my siblings trying my current snack addiction: 김 (gim) = seaweed! I don't think they like it as much as I do...
I was so happy to find Korean pears (which you can see in this mukbang monday) at the Asian market! I think my family enjoyed them too, although they couldn't believe that they were really pears and not giant apples.
For dinner one night, I cooked one of my favorite foods, Korean-style curry! I used a Japanese curry packet, adding it to chicken and veggies, for a super easy dinner served over rice with kimchi. I also bought a Korean savory pancake mix to make 파전 (pajeon = green onion pancake). At my mom's insistence, we added scallops to the second pancake! One thing that we didn't say in the original pancake mukbang was how to serve the pancakes. They are either served whole on the serving plate and cut up with chopsticks (not an easy endeavor, especially for foreigners, AKA me!), or they are cut up with kitchen scissors into wedges. I didn't even realize this was weird until my mom pointed it out! Koreans cut lots of things with kitchen scissors: meat for BBQ, pancakes, kimchi, noodles, etc.
I brought a ton of Korean masks so we could relax in style. Even my nephew James wanted to join in the fun!
P.S. On the long plane rides to and from the USA, I watch an entire Korean drama! Thinking about this has made me realize that I should post about k-dramas and k-pop! My drama list (with ratings and recommendations) is coming soon! ;)
