Deodorizing

I have three favorite foods that I always try to eat when in Korea: Kal bi, Bulgogi and Sam gyop sal. In other words, Beef, beef and pork. Delicious.

Sam gyop sal, the topic of interest tonight, begins as a pig that turns into flesh that would turn into bacon if it didn't turn into sam gyop sal first. The meat is thick and whole, but we remedy that with kawi, or scissors, to break it down to bite size. When fully cooked, the sam gyop sal can be dipped in a salt/oil mixture and wrapped in a lettuce leaf along with rice, garlic, vegetables, kim chee and gochujang sauce. It is then stuffed into your mouth the way you'd shove that last sock into a drawer: Forcefully. Desperately. Barely. Much like getting in and out of a vehicle, there is no elegant way to do this. Just stuff it, shut your lips and chew.

In Korea, we cook sam gyop sal indoors on an urbanized grill with a fan that funnels down and around in whichever angle you desire to best suck up your smoke. Despite the utter efficiency of this invention, the smoke will always snake its way out and hunt down your clothes, your hair and your eyes. Koreans have yet to create something that immunized your pupils to smoke, but what they have accomplished is a way to effectively deodorize your body. Oh yes, no injections, no fee, no "big favors;" just smoke.

"You can't fight fire with fire!" you say, indeed. So how is a battle of smoke-like proportions won with smoke? Well, those crazy Koreans, they invented cinnamon smog!



I left the restaurant smelling so utterly neutral I could have cried.