I don't get Korean BBQ/Hotpot

What the **** is it with this make your own food bullshit?

Someone just took me to a Vietnamese 7 flavors of beef which was really fantastic, loved almost all of it except the 2nd course where you dip raw beef into cooking liquid. Wtf is the point of this? It makes you smell, it really isn't that good, and I don't pay to cook my own food. I also don't get Korean BBQ. I think the meat we got was ****, and it was charcoal, but still, what is the allure of this? Making messy lettuce wraps... also hot pot... why the **** would you go out, pay money, and then make your own food?

This is a cultural thing I don't get. It also might be because I don't think it tastes very good. I like it much better when people make my food for me.

ChicagoRon took me to Korean BBQ once. I loved it. In general, I agree about paying to cook your own food... but it was fun. Just a couple friends, some beers, a little grill and a ton of meat and condiments. I dunno. I enjoyed it, and everything we had tasted great.

Originally Posted by kwilkinson

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ChicagoRon took me to Korean BBQ once. I loved it. In general, I agree about paying to cook your own food... but it was fun. Just a couple friends, some beers, a little grill and a ton of meat and condiments. I dunno. I enjoyed it, and everything we had tasted great.

The one thing I liked was this marinated beef short rib. Sliced thinly it works quite well. The other stuff, to me, was horrendous. Also the grill isn't nearly hot enough to get any kind of color on the meat without turning it into rubber.

Liked the banchan a lot more than the meat, and gave up on the meat after the first round.

If you ever go back to Chi town, go to the Viet place across from the Patisserie (in Argyle), the fairly clean looking place and order 7 flavors/courses of beef. The platter with the 3 kinds of sausages and meatballs, and the soup at the end are really just awesome. Best find in Chicago for asian besides TAC.

Right next to Tank Noodle? Just east of it? I've always wondered about that place, but when I go up there it's a strict rotation of Tank/BaLe/Patisserie P. I'll check it out though.

Originally Posted by kwilkinson

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Right next to Tank Noodle? Just east of it? I've always wondered about that place, but when I go up there it's a strict rotation of Tank/BaLe/Patisserie P. I'll check it out though.

No it's not next to tank, it's across the street from the french bakery, I think beyond the El bridge. If you look inside it's fairly clean and has stairs to a second floor.

Ba Le and Patisserie are the only places I go. I think Tank is ******* disgusting. I had better pho in LA. Also a Vietnamese friend explained to me that the type of food I ate in that restaurant (7 flavors of beef) is much more vietnamese and typical. Have had vietnamese at other places too, and I don't mind it at all.

Korean BBQ is a primordial thing, it's about the equivalent to the everyman of the west breaking out a BBQ grill and cooking - except there's no room to do that in Asia so it's better done at a restaurant where they can give you side dishes and stuff too. It's no steak, but there are better ways than others - I'm actually kinda surprised that you liked the marinated stuff, because that is written off in Asia for being a way to hide low-quality meat usually. The marinated short rib sliced laterally that you're talking about is called 'L.A. galbi' - they attribute it to America.

An abridged hierarchy of K-BBQ meats would be something like:
beef sirloin, in heavily marbled Asian style - gets up to about $200/200g at some places here
Beef short rib, bone-in, heavily marbled, tenderized, - about $50/200g+
Beef short rib, boneless, unmarinated, about $50/200g or more
Beef short rib, either or, cheap version - about $15-30/200g
boar or kurobuta intestine, $50/200g+
Pork belly, kurobuta style or something else special, about $30 or more per 200g
Pork throat, never exceeds $10/200g, lol
Pork bulgogi, marinated heavily, probably loin cut - $10 or less/200g
Pork skin, cheap


Hot pot, totally different can of worms.

Umm, the meat at this place was what I'd consider to be one or two grades above dog meat. It was that and sliced brisket. Absolutely disgusting (the brisket). The meat you've posted pictures of is not available where I was.

It's not that I liked the marinated stuff (which the koreans told me is usually not what one would order,) it's that it was better by comparison. Really just not a fan of it to be honest. I get the logistical reason for it in Asia, but here it makes no sense to me.

For a college student, it's cheap as **** ($10-20), tastes decent and it's all you can eat.

Originally Posted by ConcernedParent

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For a college student, it's cheap as **** ($10-20), tastes decent and it's all you can eat.
Umm, Korean BBQ is expensive, and it isn't all you can eat. I'm told the best places in LA like Genwa and Chosun Galbi are like $30-50. This one in Chicago would be $20 at the absolute cheapest. Then if you consider the prices for decent meat that Impolyt is quoting, it certainly doesn't look like a cheap option, and I'd frankly spend my money on something better.

It's hard to find good Korean BBQ in America. I much prefer the ones in Korea.

Damn, I kinda miss Korea a lot. Haven't been there in 3 years!

Originally Posted by SField

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Umm, Korean BBQ is expensive, and it isn't all you can eat. I'm told the best places in LA like Genwa and Chosun Galbi are like $30-50. This one in Chicago would be $20 at the absolute cheapest. Then if you consider the prices for decent meat that Impolyt is quoting, it certainly doesn't look like a cheap option, and I'd frankly spend my money on something better.
Pick a place, literally any place in Koreatown, they will have a $10 or $12 all you can eat. The meat is low grade as ****, but for $10 AYCE, how gourmet are you expecting it to be? You get some basic sides (kimchi, rice paper, rice, salad, the fluffy egg thing) to go with and it beats the **** out of any other $10 meal. I know nothing about "higher end" K-bbq places, but the appeal for the cheapest places are definitely there.

Hot Pot is really good. Had it a bunch of time in Chengdu and Chongqing.I like goose tongue, eels, that coagulated pork blood stuff, and beef fat.

My parents home make it in New York but honestly, it tastes best with the exotic ingredients.

Abalone hot pot is the best thing I've ever had.

Originally Posted by SField

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What the **** is it with this make your own food bullshit?

Someone just took me to a Vietnamese 7 flavors of beef which was really fantastic, loved almost all of it except the 2nd course where you dip raw beef into cooking liquid. Wtf is the point of this? It makes you smell, it really isn't that good, and I don't pay to cook my own food. I also don't get Korean BBQ. I think the meat we got was ****, and it was charcoal, but still, what is the allure of this? Making messy lettuce wraps... also hot pot... why the **** would you go out, pay money, and then make your own food?

This is a cultural thing I don't get. It also might be because I don't think it tastes very good. I like it much better when people make my food for me.

Cooking at the table in the form of bbq, hotpot, shabushabu etc. is common practice in Asia. If you don't like it, don't eat it. It's extremely rude to call it bullshit just because you are unfamiliar with the concept.

Hotpot allows for better control of how well done you want the food to be. Thinly sliced beef used in hot pot will cook in 5-10 seconds. If you precook the meat in the kitchen, they will be dry and flaky. Similarly, why eat fondue? Why not just melt cheese over bread?

Like Drew said, BBQ in Korea is a lot better. Just because your friend took you to a **** restaurant doesn't mean it's the same everywhere. Would you eat at Olive Garden and assume that's representative of Italian cuisine?

Originally Posted by SField

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Umm, the meat at this place was what I'd consider to be one or two grades above dog meat. It was that and sliced brisket. Absolutely disgusting (the brisket). The meat you've posted pictures of is not available where I was. It's not that I liked the marinated stuff (which the koreans told me is usually not what one would order,) it's that it was better by comparison. Really just not a fan of it to be honest. I get the logistical reason for it in Asia, but here it makes no sense to me.
(was it Woo Lae Oak?) I think that maybe it's restarauteur'ing, K-BBQ restaurants in America may all be locked into their genre and price range and don't have the incentive to give you anything better, nor do people expect it. In the Korean-American community there are special Korean-style butchers who cut down the meat in Korean cuts, freeze it, ship it across the country - in America the three or four central hubs for Korean food wholesale are LA- Chicago - New York - NoVa, or Atlanta (?), so all processed fresh food, the kimchi, the wholesale meat and seafood, they get made and picked up there. Dry goods come from LA, NYC, NoVa. There's not a lot of choice, it's just standardized stuff, not always the best quality. There's basically only one store to choose from, really, when it comes to a lot of that stuff. Mainly though, they're just selling a) a foreign experience to non-Korean people (and Asian people in America generally eat tons of Asian food, not only from their own culture, but anything to have noodle soup or white rice) b) sustenance to Koreans, c) some sort of non-food related social thing to Koreans by having a store space, d) just food as they know it. And how few of the people who came to America and started restaurants for a living actually had sizable talent or skill in the food industry? That is not a huge factor when opening a Korean restaurant. ****, I can't really cook Korean food, but I could sure as hell open a K-BBQ restaurant that would please many. It's just a very different form of restaurant and food culture from the west. I can't even count it among my favorite foods, nor would I miss it a lot if I couldn't have it, but I understand what it's supposed to be.

The restaurant still does pretty much all the work, they clean, marinate and slice the meat, cook the rice and side dishes, prepare the grill (which is at least charcoal if the place doesn't suck), and clean up everything afterwards. I'd hardly refer to one intermediate step before putting the food in your mouth as "cooking".

Anyway, the thing that's really great about it is that every bite is completely fresh and sizzling as it's literally right off the grill. I really have no desire to go to western style steakhouses any more as the meat is cold and tasteless before you even get 1/3 of the way done with it.