Sleeping with the fan on

It dawned on me the other day when I was eating that some people might not be familar with eating Korean food in a Korean way.  Usually, everyone gets the same thing.  If you're eating "Sam gyap sal" and there are 3 of you, you get 2-4 orders (depending on how hungry everyone is).  The waitress brings out the "panjan" (side dishes of all kinds) and sometimes the main dish at the same time.  Then you light the grill (there is a grill in the middle of almost every table in every restaurant in Korea ... some are gas, some are woodburning, and some use charcoal), and put the meat on the grill.  You can also put on some peppers, garlic, and onions as you see fit.  You turn the meat (here in Korea, sometimes you cut it up with scissors yourself, sometimes they do it for you) and eat it when you're ready.

With most "sal" dishes, you dip the meat in a slightly salty, yet VERY tasty sauce.  Then you put the meat in lettuce, add some of these leafy things that are covered with another tasty sauce, add some rice and maybe a hot pepper, and then top it off with a bit of red pepper paste.  Then you wrap it all up in the lettuce into a little "treat" and pop the whole thing into your mouth.  You can add things from the panjan, too, if you want.  And sometimes the lettuce is tiny, so you eat the rice and panjan while the food is in your mouth.

Kalbi is kind of the same, but without the sauce.  In that case, the meat is marinated in a "yang-nyeom" sauce, which is AWESOME. 

With "chigae" (stew), you just alternate between shovelling stew and rice into your mouth. 

Eating in Korea is, by far, my favorite part.  The culture is interesting, the people are friendly, the sights are interesting ... but it all comes down to the food for me.  Even if I hated everything about Korea, I would still love the food.