Bulgogi House Birthday

For my friend Whitney's birthday a group of us all went out to eat at a Korean Bulgogi House. I am ashamed to admit that I've lived in Korea for a year now and have not done this. It was a very unique experience and I'm very glad to say that I've done it!

When you arrive at the restaurant you take off your shoes and then sit on floor pillows at a low table. You chose your order off the menu and then they bring hot coals to a little sunken dish in the table and cook your dinner on it! For Whitney's birthday we all decided to order Bulgogi so instead of using the coals they cooked the large order on a burner in the middle of the table. Still, a cool experience. We also ordered an appetizer of Yakki Mandu (I have no idea how to spell this one, so it's my best guess).

While the bulgogi meat cooks they bring you pickled stuff galore to munch on while you eat. I have no idea what most of it is called. It's all cold and in my opinion would have been better had it been warm. My friends said that some places serve these side dishes warm, others cold... it just varies. The Leek Pancakes were quite tasty, but the rest of it I could live without eating again.

Once the meat is cooked, you place it on a leaf of lettuce with some rice, roll it up and eat it! Bulgogi is so yummy! It's very thinly sliced meat marinated in a sweet sauce that reminds me of terriyaki and it's cooked with onions, these weird 'see through' noodles, and other vegetables.

Here is a picture of our aftermath... you can see the tables with the silver bucket for the hot coals a little better in this picture. This restaurant also has western style tables and chairs for those who don't want to eat on the floor, but in my opinion if you're going to eat Korean fare, eat it like a Korean!!

It was such a fun night and I'm glad I got to share this experience with some of my friends here in Korea!

Happy Birthday Whitney!