2.188

12 (Tue) July 2011

O-Sam Bulgogi with Mixed Green Wraps

2.5

by me

at home

-Oksu, Seongdong, Seoul, Republic of Korea-

with W and DJ

This comes precariously close to repeating a meal that I had a couple weeks ago (see 2.171 O-Jjuk-Sam-Ddeok), both involving squid and pork bellies stir-fried in gochujang.  The key difference between the two, aside from the prior dish having octopus and rice cakes, is that tonight’s was wrapped in various greens to give it a significantly distinct texture and flavor profile.  Also, the marinade tonight was intentionally lighter on the chili paste and heavier on the soy sauce to reduce the heat for my kid, though this was more of a difference in degree than kind.

As for the name, the basic dish is referred to both as a “bokkeum” (볶음) and a “bulgogi” (불고기).  The first is a generic term that translates to “stir-fry” and applies to any dish made by stir-frying a mix of ingredients and seasonings in a pan or wok.  The second is a culinary term of art that translates loosely to “fire meat” and is most commonly associated with the sweet soy-sesame-marinated beef of Korean BBQ fame, though it’s inexplicably applied to entirely dissimilar dishes, such as this one.

In any event, just past the halfway point of this cycle, I’m getting really tired of maintaining the self-imposed no-repeat-dishes theme.  On a practical level, I get confused sometimes as to whether I’ve already had a particular dish this cycle or if it was something from last cycle, which requires me to open my phone and check.  Secondly, though the primary motive for this exercise was to encourage diversification, which it has accomplished to a certain extent, it’s also resulted in foregoing a perfectly good if redundant option at the expense of something arbitrarily different.  I’m beginning to wonder if I should continue.

(See also FOODS.)

(See also PLACES.)