Ah, the smell of BBQ is in the air - luckily, I live in Los Angeles, the city with probably the largest Korean population out side of Korea, and with it comes the cuisine.  Koreatown has an abundance of food, and what better to showcase it than Korean BBQ.  Nothing beats grilling your own meat on a grill while eating kimchee and other side dishes (banchan).

The most recent trends in Korean bbq for the past few years has been the rise of the all-you-can-eat establishment.  Sure, you could order everything a la carte here, but why do that when you can pay under $20 per person and eat all you can.  There are even some locations that you can eat AND drink all you can (soju and beer).  While these started out around $15.99 per person at various places, they’ve slowly risen prices over the years to, a still reasonable, $17.99 or so due to market demand.  Go on any night and you’ll see tables full of families, and friends eating as much meat as they can, and enjoying the community aspect of cooking for yourself and your table.

The experience between various establishments is pretty much the same, albeit each has it’s own subtle differences.  The meats are all pretty standard and range from brisket, shortrib, and pork belly, to beef tongue, chicken, duck, and some seafood like squid.  The meat is brought out to tables, and after the grill are greased up with butter, the cooking begins! The meat is all raw and can be cooked to liking.  Generally you start off with the non-marinated stuff first to keep the grill fairly clean, and move on to the saucier meats later.  When the meat is done, you can dip it the accompanying sauces (generally sesame oil and salt/pepper, or a sweet soy based sauce) and eat it in conjunction with the never ending supply of salad tossed in a light vinnegrette. In Los Angeles, it has become quite common to see rice wrappers, or thin slices of pickled radish to wrap around the meat as well.

Besides the quality of the meats, the main differences that help places stand out are the banchan.  Banchan are the side dishes that accompany your meal.  They often depend on what the kitchen has and what they’re making and often consists of cold glass noodles, fried or dried fish, pickled radishes and kimchee, potato salad, cold spinach salad, and even clams and acorn jelly.  The quality of these side dishes depends on the night and the place you visit.

In addition to the banchan, some places will give additional things, like steamed eggs, or fermented soybean soup.  Note that a lot of the banchan and even soup may be spicy so if you can’t handle the heat, beware!

Korean food is much more than BBQ, but BBQ is definitely a large part of it.  If you have time, and have never had it, make sure to check it out.  You won’t be dissapointed.  In the future, we’ll cover some other foods, but for now, all I can think of is the flavor and smell of freshly grilled marinated shortribs!

In the future, we’ll outline a few places to go, but be adventurous!