[Food] Jeyuk-bokkeum, Best Secret Korean Dish (제육볶음, Stir Fried Spicy Pork)

[Food]

[Food]  Jeyuk-bokkeum, Best Secret Korean Dish (제육볶음, Stir Fried Spicy Pork)

When people think of Korean foods, non-Koreans usually think of typical ones such as Bulgogi, Bibimbab, Galbi or Kimchi. However, when Koreans eat lunch or supper, the food that I will introduce you to today is a very typical dish called Jeyuk-bokkeum.

No one knows the Korean origins of Jeyuk-Bokkeum but it's mentioned in the Korean novel 'Lucky Day (운수 좋은날)' written during the Japanese Colonial Era. However, we don't know if Jeyuk-Bokkeum of the Japanese Colonial Era is the same as today's. In the middle of the 1980's, a small restaurant in Seoul started cooking and selling Jeyuk-Bokkeum again. Since then its recipe has started to spread throughout Korea while people also ate it a lot at many restaurants throughout Korea.

Jeyuk-Bokkeum was usually sold in casual, cheap Korean restaurants rarely frequented by non-Koreans, so it is not as well-known to non-Koreans as other typical foods. No wonder most non-Koreans neither know it nor its recipe.

Jeyuk-Bokkeum is made of pork, Korean chili paste, minced garlic, chili powder, onion and more. Its recipe is not hard. Cut pork to size and make a spicy marinade for it. Chili paste, soy sauce, minced garlic, chopped spring onion, chili powder, salt, sugar and pepper are all needed for marinating pork. Then marinate the pork in spicy marinade for more than an hour. Lastly, stir-fry the marinated pork on any pan or wok with some oil.

If you succeed in cooking Jeyuk-Bokkeum, it will taste sweet, salty and spicy. Depending on the cook, it can be salty and spicy or sweet and spicy. Personally, I like Jeyuk-Bokkeum more than Bulgogi because it's spicy and can be cooked with cheap ingredients (pork is much cheaper than beef in South Korea).

Jeyuk-Bokkeum is a typical Korean dish for Koreans. 'Je' means 'pork' and 'yuk' means 'meat'.

Moreover, Jeyuk-Bokkeum can be cooked quickly if it has been marinated before. So it's a very popular dish in Korea. Its spicy and salty/sweet sauce also goes very well with rice when mixed.

If you want to taste a real Korean gourmet that has not been known to non-Koreans, how about tasting Jeyuk-Bokkeum? You may like this friendly and spicy Korean dish :)

Bon Appétit!