Chicken Feet
After a long week at work Jenna and I met with Caroline another Hokwon victim from New Zealand for dinner. We headed out for Galbi which I have been told is a popular Korean dish.
Galbi or kalbi is a Korean dish made from beef short ribs, though it can also be made with pork ribs. Galbi is generally served in restaurants known as "galbi houses", and the meat is cooked right at customers' tables on grills set in the tables. It is typically served with lettuce, spinach, perilla, or other leafy vegetables used to wrap the meat, which is then dipped in ssamjang, a sauce made of fermented bean curd and red pepper paste.
So we ordered Sam-gyup-sal becuase despite our efforts she couldn't understand us when we said Galbi. Sam-gyup-sal is served very similar to Galbi but is pork and marinated slightly different, it is served with side dishes and a salty oil sauce. The waitress then came over and put hot coals into a pit in the middle of our table with a grill on the top. Then the meat and side dishes were brought to us, the side dishes consisted of various types of vegtables like Kimchi and some sort of spiced bean sprouts. The meat cooked quickly and soon enought the woman came over and cut it up into sizes perect to pick up with your chop sticks. However since I had very little practice in that department the woman obviously took pity on me and brought me a fork, although I was determind to use them soon my hunger took over and I surrenderd.
After tackling the meat, lettuce leaf sandwich and making it look very unlady like we moved onto a dish Caroline and I had spotted on another table. It looked lovely, like some sort of crispy beef you would get at Millenium Chicken (my local chinese take away) how wrong we were. It arrived on our newly cleaned grill looking rather orange and after a few minutes of silent studying we realised it was chicken feet. Now as they were cooking they did look better and the bones had been removed but they were stil scaly looking chicken feet. I came to the decision that how often do you have an oppotunity to try something new and when will I ever order chicken feet again, so decided to brave one.
The tasty looking chicken feet
'It's all in the tasting' I've heard many a t.v. chef say and ill have to admit once they were lathered in the red pepper paste and followed by a swig of beer they weren't quite as bad as I had imagined. For anyone that wants to know they were like chewing on a large peice of chewy fat that you couldn't quite break down. Ovrerall it was ok, I wouldn't choose it again but at least Ive got a story to tell.
Jenna looking very unimpressed with mine and Carolines choice
Proof! For all of you who doubted me
After the waitress had taken the chicken feet away laughing at our mistake we tucked into some beef Galbi seeing as we were still so hungry. It was delicios and I am sure we will be going out to eat it again soon.
- Posted by k_millington on 17/12/2006.
- k_millington's site
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