Son of a Chef

“감자탕 먹을 수 있어요? 안 매워요?” You can eat gamjatang? It’s not spicy?

This gets said a lot. Yes, I can. Yes, I love it. In fact, I dream of gamjatang. It’s one of my favorite foods. It has a good kick, it’s not deadly spicy.

Gamjatang is a type of Korean bone stew. Plenty of westerners are turned off by the presentation. Meat on the spine, with the bones, prepared in a red spicy broth. Typically, there are a few vegetables and it’s served with rice. Of course, there’s kimchi, too.

One has to pull the meat while the dish cooks. There are various strategies for this but perhaps most common is each person scoops a piece of spine into their bowl and starts ripping the meat off the spine. Don’t forget to add some broth.

This is where the dish shines. The meat is delectably tender and the broth spice pairs well. Let the rice drown in a bit of broth and you might find a perfect bite.

Family style eating is something I really enjoy. For the solo diner, 뼈해장국 (ppyeohaejangkuk) is quite similar. The experience of eating together and having fried rice afterwards, may be missing, though.

Well, that’s it for now. I’m too hungry to continue.