The jeollibtugol, endlessly reinterpreted
The nanrohoe's signature — the jeollibtugol — has quietly become a stage on which chefs push each other's creativity. In the process of exploring just how many ways it can be used, everyone's grasp of Hansik itself grows a little deeper. It doesn't stop at grilling meat and simmering broth: the vessel becomes a steamer, and even a griddle for jeon. Song Ki-seop, CEO of Seoul Ansim Chuksan and Soul Hanwoo, joined and brought along a lineup of jeollibtugol dishes he had been testing for weeks. Because heat intensity changes how meat cooks, the raised brim of the jeollibtugol — where conductive heat rules — was used to grill thinly sliced meat; from there came yukjeon, meat coated in egg and pan-fried. And beyond just simmering a broth inside the jeollibtugol, the rising steam from that broth was put to work steaming mandu. Song said he wanted to show that there were many more ways to use the vessel than had been tried before. Director Lee Young-ra of WeCook lent a hand, adding depth to the menu he had prepared.
The charm of "sparkling" — drinks to keep the palate fresh through a long meat-filled meal
Han Chung-ui, owner of Geumsyappa, and Choi Su-young, owner of Chun Sikdang, came with a lineup of sparkling drinks so that the long meat-forward meal wouldn't wear anyone's palate down. From Champagne and a range of other sparkling wines to lightly sparkling makgeolli and fermented plum liqueur, the tasting spanned drinks that pair broadly with grilled meat. And, almost inevitably, everyone let out an involuntary "keu-eu" as the mood picked up.
Nam Yoon-seo of Realism Bacon, Director Kim Eun-ji of Meetme, and Lee Sun-min — then a journalist at JoongAng Daily's English edition — worked through pairings of dishes and drinks together, revisiting the sides of Hansik culture we have grown so used to that we barely notice them. Beyond the Korean drinks that make Hansik shine, what about drinks from abroad — could any of them become a vehicle for carrying our grilling culture further out into the world? The group turned the question over, and got a little tipsy and lively in the process.
