The Origin of Bulgogi

The ancestors of the Korean people appear to have been nomads from Central Asia who gradually migrated eastwards to settle in Northeast Asia and the Korean peninsula. In China they became known as the Eastern Barbarians of Maek. It is probably because they were nomads that they enjoyed a diet centering on the meat of their livestock.

The favorite dish of the Maek people was maekjeok, a kind of kebab made by skewering beef or other meat and roasting it over a fire. This is thought to have been the predecessor of Korea's popular dish, bulgogi. Though there is some regional variation, the Han people who make up the majority of the Chinese population generally add spices to their meat only after roasting or boiling it, while jeok is made by seasoning the meat before cooking, as is bulgogi, and this is why the two are thought to be related.

However, the Silla and Baekje Kingdoms that flourished on the Korean peninsula over 1,000 years ago embraced Buddhism as their national religion, and over the centuries while they held sway, meat-eating was banned and the tradition of maekjeok was lost. The ensuing Goryeo Dynasty was also Buddhist, but with the invasion of the nomadic Mongols, the custom of eating meat was revived, and with it perhaps the food of the ancient Koreans, maekjeok. Once the bond had been forged with the Mongols, maekjeok reappeared in the capital, Gaeseong, under the name seolhamyeok, and this developed into today's neobiani.

Neobiani is a style of cooking in which the meat is cut into steaks and marinated in a sauce, then roasted on a hot iron plate. It has the disadvantage that the cooked meat must be carved again before serving, and that while being transferred to the table, the meat is liable to cool down and lose some of its flavor. Later on, it became possible to cook and eat the meat on the spot by using special utensils in which the flame was applied to the meat through the holes in a grill, and this became the standard way of cooking what is now bulgogi.

Side Dishes

We often find that a particular food tends to be served together with certain other dishes that complement it well. The reason is undoubtedly that in the course of long experience, people came to realize that the two different foods went well together and that the contrast between them made both dishes all the more delicious. In Korea, bulgogi is usually served with kimchi and with ssam.

Ssam refers to various green leaf vegetables which are used for wrapping pieces of meat into bite-size bundles, adding a little fermented soybean paste and perhaps some rice. The vegetables used for this are primarily lettuce, sesame leaves, sukgat (crown daisy) or dandelion leaves, chwinamul leaves (aster), or even parboiled young pumpkin leaves. Outside of Korea, this way of using leaf vegetables is found in some parts of Mongolia but appears to be unknown elsewhere.

In modern times, a new ingredient has been developed to add the perfect touch to these leafy bundles: ssamjang. When soybeans are cooked, fermented, and salted, the result is soybean paste. When these fermented beans are mixed with larger quantities of grains and chili powder and fermented again, they produce chili paste. When used with leafy bundles, the soybean paste can be a bit too salty, and the chili paste too spicy, overpowering the taste of the meat. So ssamjang is made by mixing the two pastes together in just the right proportions to make an ideal flavoring for leafy bundles. With its combination of rice, meat, vegetables, and soybean paste (or ssamjang), bulgogi offers a balanced intake of necessary nutrients without the greasy aftertaste that is left by many forms of meat. According to recent research, it not only provides a variety of vitamins, but helps to prevent high blood pressure and even cancer. The various pastes, especially soybean paste, can cover unpleasant kitchen smells, and are used whenever cooking ingredients that give off an unappetizing odor. Another kind of foodstuff that is becoming more widely known today is the edible flower. When used with the attractive, colorful vegetables of ssam, edible flowers add beauty as well as fragrance to a meal. But if eaten with ssam alone, bulgogi is incomplete. Almost without excep-tion, bulgogi is accompanied by Korea's traditional dish of fermented vegetables, kimchi. In most countries of the world, a rich meal of meat is usually followed by a beverage such as soda, coffee, black tea, or in China and Japan, green tea; but when Koreans eat bulgogi, they often require no such beverage. Its purpose has been served by the traditional accompaniment to bulgogi: kimchi.

Cooking Varieties of Bulgogi

Since bulgogi is usually made with beef, when the word bulgogi is used by itself it refers to beef bulgogi. When pork is cooked by the same method, it is known as pork bulgogi to distinguish it from the original beef dish.

Selection and Preparation of Meat

For beef bulgogi, the tender cuts are used, such as sirloin or tenderloin. For 4 servings, you will need 500g of beef sliced 0.5cm thick or less, then seasoned with spices before cooking. Adding some grated pear will make the meat even more tender.

Ingredients

4 tablespoons soy sauce, 4 tablespoons grated Asian pear, or gravy, 2 tablespoons sugar, 3 tablespoons minced green onion, 1.5 tablespoons minced garlic, 1.5 tablespoons sesame seeds, 1.5 tablespoons sesame oil, a little black pepper

1. Make the marinade by combining the minced green onions and garlic, grated pear, soy sauce, sugar, sesame seeds, and sesame oil. If Asian pear is not available, use gravy instead.

2. About 30 minutes before cooking, pour the marinade over the meat and rub it in with your hands until it is well absorbed.

3. Heat the grill over the flame and cook the meat until evenly done on both sides. It is best eaten as soon as it is cooked. The meat can be cooked on an iron plate, but it is much more tasty when barbecued directly over a hot flame.

Note: Since the protein solidifies on the surface of the meat during cooking, no tasty juices or valuable nutrients are lost, and the meat can be enjoyed for its flavor as well as its nutritional content. Moreover, the mouthwatering smell of meat cooking at the table stimulates the appetite.

Cooking tips

To get the maximum flavor from beef, the cooking time and temperature must be just right. If cooked for too long over a low flame, the flavor and goodness can drain away before the surface protein solidifies. On the other hand, if the flame is so high as to burn the meat, it will become hard and not give off the unique aroma of bulgogi.