Bar-B-Que Korean style

Bul-Gal-Bi (Korean BBQ Beef ribs)

Everytime I visit Seoul, I must make my 'pilgrimage' to a Korean BBQ restaurant. This is one of my favourite dishes when I am in Seoul. I have discovered that I cannot find a similiar Korean type Bul-Gal-bi in Singapore or around Asia. On this trip, I had twice Korean BBQ for dinner.


Galbi literally means "rib" in Korean. Prepared typically from beef short ribs these succulent ribs are cut to cook fast without the toughness you'd get otherwise. It can be seasoned or unseasoned, and in the seasoned variety, the ribs are marinated in a sauce made from fruit juice (generally Asian pear juice), rice wine, soy sauce, garlic, sesame seed oil and sugar.


When cooked on a grill, the meat is usually cut in thin slices across the bones. This permits the marinade to penetrate the meat faster, allows the meat to cook more quickly, and makes it easier to eat the finished dish with chopsticks.

Galbi is generally served in restaurants known as "galbi houses", and the meat is cooked right at customers' tables on grills set in the tables. Generally I have noticed for Galbi because of the ribs, the waitress will cook the meat and then cut it up into small pieces to be easily picked up by the chopsticks. It is typically served with generous servings of lettuce, perilla, or other leafy vegetables used to wrap the meat, which is then dipped in ssamjang, a sauce made of fermented bean curd and red pepper paste. It is often accompanied by many side dishes called Banchan and the most popular is Kimchi. In Korea, galbi is also a popular picnic food, and many people have portable gas or charcoal stoves for cooking it outside.

Recommended restaurants:

• There is a very good Korea BBQ restaurant about 10 minutes walking distance from Renaissance Seoul Hotel. The beef is very fresh and noticeably not frozen like many cheaper Korean BBQ restaurant. Dinner for 3 persons cost about Won188,000 (about US$202) and it is expensive. $$$$
• Gecko Terrace (www.geckoterrace.com) - $$ - @ 128-5 Itaewon-dong - a nice pub cum restaurant - crowded mostly with non-Koreans