I don't get Korean BBQ/Hotpot

It's more about the company and camaraderie/drinking/etc. than "cooking your own food".

Anyone that resides in Chicago needs to try out Cho Sun Ok, located on Lincoln and Bertreau. Been there for years and always packed at nights.

definitely about company

though, i did feel like i paid some people to cook my own food

i agree with SField. I hate any 'cook at the table' cuisines. i dont get it, i always get a sore back leaning forward to the grill or steam boat plus theres a huge chance of someone cross contaminating your cooked beef with their raw pork.

plus youre too busy cooking to sit back, relax and enjoy your company.

we used to go to these all you can eat steamboat places when we were at university because it was all you could eat and all you could drink mid strength beer i always left unsatisfied with the experience.

You guys know you can ask the waiter/tress to cook the meat for you right?

I rarely ever get BBQ these days though - actual korean dishes are growing on me. Jam Pong is my bread and butter in the winter - massive amounts of seafood and burning hot, and like 10 bucks.

Originally Posted by GreenFrog

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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!

There's some great ones in LA

Originally Posted by ConcernedParent

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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.

Yea it's $10, or you can go to a better place and pay more. I love korean BBQ, and in ktown LA, you are bound to drive by a korean BBQ at every street crossing and find one that fits you.

Originally Posted by SField

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They do this at Genwa.





That said I'm no food elitist, I love korean BBQ. It's a terrific meal to eat with friends along with soju and hite. Really can't miss.

Had K-BBQ for dinner, I sat and thought about this thread while eating it and had some thoughts on it I guess; more after I finish some work...

How to you wrap the food in those rice sheets or radish slices? I'm very good with chopsticks, but I cant put everything together neatly, especially if I use that oil and salt condiment.

Originally Posted by Reggs

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How to you wrap the food in those rice sheets or radish slices? I'm very good with chopsticks, but I cant put everything together neatly, especially if I use that oil and salt condiment.

You just... do it... LOL. Not much to say about it.

if it's "about the company" then why am I paying to cook my own food?

might as well have a real bbq at your own house, eat legit good food, and charge a $30 cover!

you can get the waitress to cook your food for you. most koreans just prefer to cook it themselves

Originally Posted by Mr. Moo

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It's more about the company and camaraderie/drinking/etc. than "cooking your own food".

Originally Posted by scientific

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if it's "about the company" then why am I paying to cook my own food?

might as well have a real bbq at your own house, eat legit good food, and charge a $30 cover!

because sometimes you're with some boring ass company or you're with people that you aren't comfortable with but want to get to know better. then you have something to do while you ask questions about the other dude while acting like you're paying attention.

also there's something about serving someone food that build camaraderie (idk)

Originally Posted by Reggs

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How to you wrap the food in those rice sheets or radish slices? I'm very good with chopsticks, but I cant put everything together neatly, especially if I use that oil and salt condiment.

don't overstuff

14,000krw gets me all I can eat at about half a dozen places near my home. Advantages of being in Korea I suppose.

I agree on the cooking it though. It's a major turn-off for me. I just want to eat.

Regarding getting it on the leaf? Do be so dainty about it. Just grab a slab of meat, a little rice and some ssamjang, toss it on the leaf and shove 'er down the hatch.

K-BBQ's roots, at least the basics and the dining culture are just a farmer's (very special occasion) dinner table. The basic elements are a protein, maybe some fresh greens, some pickled kimchis and a side or two, and some fermented soy-based sauces like dwenjang (the grainy Korean cousin to miso) and ssamjang (gochujang mixed with doenjang - ssamjang is what you get on a K-BBQ table everywhere but is mistakenly called gochujang by many)... obviously if an animal was slaughtered, the amount of fresh whole meat you could throw on a grill would be a luxury. Koreans in the days of yore would hang up a pig by the legs and stab the belly, collect all the blood, clean out the insides, which all get eaten, and then the meat would be probably sold to the highest bidder, so the idea of sitting around eating nice thick slabs of belly like we do nowadays is luxuriant, by old Korean standards, and for very few. The very high class back a hundred years ago or more would've been old dudes in screened-in rooms sitting around with young naked chicks grilling the best meat for them on tiny little charcoal grills. The low class, which was and is still about 99%, would be eating the snout.

There are times when you don't want to cook your own food, that is true even for Korean people. Much of their food is communal and cooked at the table, but not all. The cooking at the table thing, that's just one facet I guess.

Why is K-BBQ so popular and mediocre everywhere? You can put together a K-BBQ restaurant anywhere, the food is made up with about 20%-30% special Korean stuff you need to buy at a special grocer, and the rest you can buy at any supermarket in America - onions, green onions, potatoes, carrots, etc. The meat you can order frozen, you can butcher your own if you're a motivated K-BBQ restaurateur; it's not exactly like sushi where everything in the fly-over states is thawed out blocks of fish from Sysco or you pay thousands of dollars for it. K-BBQ is just mediocre stuff sold for mediocre prices at mediocre expectations.

Anyway, the real thing is that basically anything like K-BBQ, hotpot - it's not about the food as much as the drink. It's supposed to be a piss up. The food is not expensive because you aren't there for the food, you're supposed to drink about 2 liters of soju per person or 3-4 liters of beer and the places will make their easy margin on that. That'd be like $100 in America, so I guess they don't go as hard normally, but I'm sure many do. Eat a piece of pork belly dipped in salt and gomashio, drop a shot of soju to wipe you down, repeat.

Originally Posted by scientific

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if it's "about the company" then why am I paying to cook my own food?

might as well have a real bbq at your own house, eat legit good food, and charge a $30 cover!

Sure, go ahead