Tag: bbq

Majang Meat Market: The Ultimate Guide to Seoul’s Hidden Meat Paradise
If you’re a food lover visiting Seoul, you’ve probably heard of Noryangjin Fish Market for fresh seafood. But what if you’re a meat lover?
Enter Majang Meat Market —Korea’s largest and most famous butcher market, supplying over 60% of the country’s beef. If you love Hanwoo beef (한우, pronounced Han-oo) and want to experience authentic Korean BBQ in a unique, local setting, this is the place to go!
Why Visit Majang Meat Market?
Majang Meat Market isn’t just a place to buy meat—it’s a foodie destination where you can experience Korea’s butchery traditions, meat culture, and dining customs firsthand.
✅ Top Reasons to Visit:
- 🥩 Premium Hanwoo Beef: The highest-quality Korean domestic beef at 20-30% cheaper than restaurant prices.
- 🔥 Unique Korean BBQ Experience: Buy meat directly from the butcher and grill it at a restaurant on-site.
- 📸 Authentic Market Atmosphere: Explore a bustling local market where butchers skillfully prepare fresh cuts of beef.
- 💰 Best Bang for Your Buck: Enjoy top-tier Hanwoo at a fraction of the price of luxury restaurants like Born & Bred.
What Makes Hanwoo (한우) Beef Special?
Hanwoo is Korea’s prized native breed of cattle, often compared to Wagyu and USDA Prime beef. But what makes Hanwoo so special?
🐂 Why Hanwoo is Unique:
1. Incredible Marbling: Hanwoo beef is richly marbled, creating a tender, melt-in-your-mouth texture.
2. Sweet, Nutty Flavor: Unlike Wagyu, which is ultra-fatty, Hanwoo has a balance of meat and fat, giving it a more robust, beefy flavor.
3. Farm-to-Table Transparency: Every cut of Hanwoo beef must be labeled with its origin, farm, and grade, ensuring top-tier quality.
4. Rare & Expensive: Hanwoo cattle are raised in small numbers compared to American or Australian beef, making them a premium delicacy.
5. Preferred for Korean BBQ: The balance of marbling and tenderness makes Hanwoo perfect for grilling over charcoal.
🥩 Must-Try Hanwoo Cuts
- 🐄 Ggotdeungshim (꽃등심) – Ribeye → Super tender with excellent marbling.
- 🐄 Anchangsal (안창살) – Thin Skirt → Deep, beefy umami flavor, slightly chewy.
- 🐄 Salchisal (살치살) – Flap Tail → Juicy and flavorful, great for grilling.
- 🐄 Chaekkeut (채끝살) – Strip Loin → Steak-like cut with rich layers of fat.
When eating Hanwoo at Majang Meat Market, you get the best quality at a fraction of the price of high-end restaurants.
What to Expect at Majang Meat Market
Majang Meat Market is divided into three main areas:
1️⃣ Wholesale Meat Section (도매시장)
- Open early in the morning, this is where restaurant owners and butchers buy in bulk.
- Expect to see giant slabs of beef, pork, and lamb being cut and prepared.
2️⃣ Retail Butcher Shops (소매 정육점)
- Where individuals can buy fresh meat for personal use.
- Many butchers offer free tastings and custom cuts for grilling.
3️⃣ BBQ Restaurants
- Bring your freshly bought meat to a BBQ restaurant, where they’ll grill it over charcoal. Many of them are on the second floor.
- Most restaurants charge a small grilling fee (~₩5,000 per person), including unlimited side dishes.
Note that you may hear a lot about Majang BBQ Beef Alley. It has recently been razed with the resident restaurants scattering around the area. So sad. Even though they had been illegally squatting on that land for over forty years and were a fire hazard (around 30-percent of the restaurants burned down in 2023), it was a cultural landmark.
How to Experience Korean BBQ at Majang Meat Market
Unlike typical BBQ restaurants, here’s how to do it the local way:
✅ Step 1: Choose Your Butcher
- Walk through the market and look for butchers specializing in Hanwoo.
- Tip: If unsure, ask for a “meat platter” (Gogi Modeum 고기 모둠) to try different cuts.
✅ Step 2: Buy Your Meat
- Expect to pay ₩30,000–₩60,000 per person for premium Hanwoo cuts.
- Some butchers offer complimentary “service” cuts—often lean beef for eating raw (Yukhwe 육회) with sesame oil & salt.
✅ Step 3: Take It to a BBQ Restaurant
- Find a restaurant in the market and hand them your meat. Many times the butchers are connected to restaurants and will direct you there.
- They will grill it for you over charcoal and provide banchan (반찬, side dishes).
✅ Step 4: Enjoy Your Meal!
- Try dipping the beef in ssamjang (쌈장, spicy soybean paste), salt, or wasabi.
- Wrap it in perilla leaves (Kkaenip 깻잎) or lettuce for the ultimate Korean BBQ experience.
Majang Meat Market: Visitor Tips
- 📅 Best Time to Visit: Mornings (for fresh cuts) or early evenings (for BBQ).
- 🚇 How to Get There:
  - Take Subway Line 2 to Yongdu Station (용두역), Exit 4.
  - Walk 5 minutes to the market entrance.
- 🚗 Parking: ₩3,000 per hour, but free parking vouchers are available with purchases.
Join Our Majang Meat Lovers Experience!
Want a guided tour to Majang Meat Market with exclusive tastings and insider access?
Join our Majang Meat Lovers Experience, where we take you to:
✅ The best butcher shops for premium Hanwoo
✅ Hidden BBQ spots with charcoal grilling
✅ Secret tastings of rare beef cuts
🍖 Book Your Spot Now!

Final Thoughts: Why Majang Meat Market is a Must-Visit
Majang Meat Market isn’t just a place to buy meat—it’s an authentic cultural experience for food lovers. If you want to:
✅ Eat the best Hanwoo beef at the best prices
✅ Experience Korean BBQ in the most authentic way
✅ Explore Seoul beyond the tourist hotspots
Then skip the overpriced BBQ joints and head to Majang Meat Market for a legendary meat feast! 🔥🍖
Bonus Video
I joined Bart in his video on Majang-dong. You can see more of the market and the old Beef BBQ Alley here.

Bonus Podcast Episode
Oh! And we also did a Dark Side of Seoul Podcast episode about Majang Meat Market. Check it out here >>
January 29, 2025
Holiday Gift Guide: The Best Korean Food & Culture Gifts
Looking for the perfect holiday gift for the Korean food lover or culture enthusiast in your life? Whether they’re obsessed with kimchi jjigae, exploring Korean traditions, or crafting their own bibimbap, this guide has you covered. Here’s the ultimate 2024 holiday gift guide for Korean-inspired gifts, all conveniently available on Amazon. Bonus: by shopping through our affiliate links, you’re helping support our blog while ticking off your holiday list!
For the Korean Food Enthusiast
1. Voohek Korean BBQ Raclette Grill: Your All-in-One Indoor Grilling Solution
Looking for the ultimate Korean BBQ experience at home? The Voohek Korean BBQ Raclette Grill combines a non-stick grill plate and a natural cooking stone for perfectly seared meats, veggies, and more. With 1300W of power, it heats quickly to 500℉, making it easy to whip up a feast in minutes. The 8 raclette pans and wooden spatulas make it perfect for hosting, letting everyone cook their favorites—from steak and seafood to melted cheese and butter. Versatile enough for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, this smokeless indoor grill is easy to clean and store, making it a must-have for foodies and families alike.
Check it out on Amazon →
2. K-Food: Korean Home Cooking and Street Food by Da-Hae and Gareth West
Discover Korean cuisine through this vibrant and approachable cookbook.
This cookbook features a blend of traditional Korean recipes and fun modern twists. Plus, it includes one of my own recipes! A perfect gift for home cooks and foodies alike.
Grab the book here →
3. Hagary Dragon Stainless Steel Chopsticks: Elegance Meets Durability
Elevate your dining experience with Hagary Dragon Chopsticks, designed in Korea and crafted from 316 surgical-grade stainless steel for unparalleled durability and hygiene. These reusable chopsticks are non-slip, thanks to their textured tips, making it easy to grip everything from sushi rolls to Korean BBQ. The laser-etched dragon design adds a touch of royalty to your table, and their dishwasher-safe, rust-resistant construction ensures they’ll last for years. Perfectly weighted and beautifully packaged, these chopsticks make an excellent gift for foodies, newlyweds, or anyone who loves Asian cuisine.
Shop the set →
4. DAGAON Finest Korean Snack Box
Discover the ultimate assortment of Korean snacks with the DAGAON Korean Snack Box, featuring 42 individually wrapped treats from top brands like Lotte, Orion, and Crown. This curated collection includes a mix of chips, cookies, pies, candies, noodles, coffee, tea, and more—perfect for sampling the best of Korea’s snacking culture. Whether it’s for gifting, parties, care packages, or just treating yourself, this snack box is ideal for any occasion. Packed with variety and flavor, it’s a surefire hit for friends, family, coworkers, or anyone craving a taste of Korea.
Get a snack box here →
5. Ramen Pot with Chopsticks, Spoon & Bowl Set: The Ultimate Ramen Lover’s Companion
Make instant noodles an art form.
Perfect for quick, delicious meals, this Ramen Pot Set comes with everything you need: a 1Qt Korean-style ramen pot, chopsticks, a spoon, and a bowl. Inspired by authentic Korean cuisine, this portable ramen cooker is ideal for dorms, small kitchens, or on-the-go dining. The pot’s compact size is perfect for single servings or meals for two, whether you’re making noodles, soups, or steamed eggs. The unbreakable bowl doubles as a serving dish for snacks, oatmeal, or salads, but remember: it’s not microwave-safe. Easy to clean and versatile, this set is a must-have for students, busy professionals, and anyone who loves quick, satisfying meals.
See it here →
For the Korean Culture Lover
6. Hanbok-Inspired Accessories
Celebrate Korean heritage with modern elegance.
From hanbok-patterned scarves to traditional-style jewelry, these gifts add a touch of Korea to anyone’s wardrobe.
Find hanbok accessories →
7. The Dark Side of Seoul: Weird Tales from Korean Lore Comics
Immerse yourself in Korean horror.
These comics are fun doorways into Korean folklore. You can order the digital or physical copies. Note that the physical copy takes around three weeks or so to ship from Korea.
Get the comic →
8. Calligraphy Set
Explore the artistry of Korean Hangeul writing.
A brush and ink set makes a unique gift for creative types interested in Korean culture. Pair it with a beginner’s guide for an even more thoughtful present. NOTE: Chinese calligraphy sets work as well.
Shop calligraphy kits →
9. K-Drama and K-Pop Merch
Perfect for the ultimate Hallyu fan.
Whether it’s BTS-inspired hoodies or Goblin-themed mugs, there’s no shortage of K-drama and K-pop gifts to choose from.
Browse fan merch →
10. Korean Language Learning Tools
The gift of speaking Korean.
Books like “Talk to Me in Korean” or language flashcards are ideal for anyone dreaming of learning Korean. Combine this with a subscription to online classes for the ultimate gift.
Explore language tools →
11. ZenKimchi Experiences Gift Card
Give the gift of experience.
Know someone who is planning to travel to Korea? Give them one of our ZenKimchi Experiences. Dine at the same BBQ place as Anthony Bourdain. Explore the dark alleyways on the Dark Side of Seoul Ghost Walk. Indulge in a Korean Chicken & Beer Pub Crawl. Or go off the main trail to find Korea’s real secrets on the Seoul Hike.
Check out the gift cards →
**BONUS**
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From now until December 26th
Book a tour for any time in the future.
Use the coupon code
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For the Adventurous Cook
12. Fermentation Easy Starter Kit
DIY Korea’s most iconic dish.
A kimchi-making kit and more with fermentation jars makes it easy to create homemade batches. Add some gochugaru (Korean chili flakes) for an extra-special gift.
Shop fermentation kits →
13. Dolsot (Stone Bowl)
Perfect for sizzling bibimbap.
A Korean stone bowl turns rice and veggies into a restaurant-quality dish. Bonus: it’s great for stews too.
Find stone bowls →
14. Jang: The Soul of Korean Cooking
Master the art of Korean sauces and pastes
For the ultimate DIY cook, how about making authentic Korean jang (pastes and sauces) at home? Named a Best New Cookbook of Spring 2024 by Eater and Epicurious
Grab the book →
15. Korean Drinking Set
Drink like a Korean.
For the makgeolli and soju parties! If you’re going to indulge in some Korean rice beer and soju, you gotta pour it and drink it out of the right vessels.
Check it out →
For the Tea and Wellness Lover
16. Korean Tea Sampler
Experience the subtle beauty of Korean teas.
OSOLLUC from Jeju Island makes some of the best premium teas in Korea. This is a must-have for any tea enthusiast.
Check it out →
17. Ginseng Supplements
Boost their health with a Korean superfood.
Korean red ginseng, known for its immunity-boosting and energy-enhancing properties, is a thoughtful and practical gift.
Shop ginseng gifts →
Wrap It All Up
This holiday season, celebrate the joy of Korean food and culture with these thoughtful gifts. From cookbooks like K-Food (featuring one of my recipes!) to the sweet, savory treats of a snack box, there’s something for everyone on this list. And remember, shopping through our links helps support the blog—so thank you for sharing the love!
Happy gifting! 🎁
December 2, 2024
Honey Cuisine Sushi & BBQ, Rohnert Park, Calif.
Honey Cuisine Sushi and BBQ is located in the Wolf's Den shopping center near the south entrance of Sonoma State University. (Photo by Tammy Quackenbush)
Honey Cuisine Sushi and BBQ is just a stone’s throw from Sonoma State University. Since the restaurant opened May 2008, its patron mix has been 50-50 college students and locals, according to restaurant owner Hyun Kim. Most of the diners on the two nights I visited didn’t appear to be of Asian descent.
Kim said they’ve been blessed with busyness from day one, even though they opened just after the start of the recent U.S. economic recession in December 2007.
The restaurant is a newcomer to the sparsely served north San Francisco Bay area Korean food scene. Two Korean restaurants in Santa Rosa — one focusing on barbecue and the other on fusion fare — opened and closed in the past decade. Traditional-leaning Bear Korean Restaurant in the Sonoma County accordion capital of Cotati also opened in that timeframe and remains open under new ownership.
Honey Cuisine has traditional Korean selections at the back of the menu. But as sushi in the name suggests, much of the menu features a number of Japanese dishes, mainly sashimi, sushi, tempura and intriguing mixtures of the three, including baked sushi. So Honey Cuisine deserved at least two visits to sample the spectrum.
On our first trip, we focused on Korean standards.
Honey Cuisine’s bibimbap has the traditional elements, as seen here before one pours a lake of gochujang on it and puts the bibim (mixed) to the bap (rice). (Photo by Jeff Quackenbush)

My husband ordered 돌솥 비빔밥 dolsot bibimbap with chicken ($10.95). The hot stone bowl featured a mix of mushrooms, carrots, onions, zucchini, spinach, grilled chicken and sunnyside-up egg. Adding a familiar Korean restaurant touch, a squeeze bottle of 고추장 gochujang on the table allowed for do-it-yourself spiciness.
The barbecued chicken was brought on a hot iron plate, just as the bibimbap was brought out in a hot stone bowl. (Photo by Tammy Quackenbush)
I ordered barbecued chicken ($12.95). It included some zucchini, mushroom, carrot and jalapeno peppers mixed into the smoky, spicy sauce. Barbecued menu items, which include beef and pork, come with kimchi and steamed rice.
This was the first time I tasted Korean barbecued chicken with a strong smoke flavor. The use of smoke as a flavor ingredient is commonly thought of as an European-American trademark.
The kimchi was the only banchan on the menu, and it's only offered with the Korean barbecued dishes. (Photo by Tammy Quackenbush)
Honey Cuisine does not overwhelm customers with the typical Korean practice of covering the table with small-dish appetizers, called 반찬 banchan in Korean.
Even the classic spicy cabbage kimchi (배추김치 baechu kimchi) is not king in this Korean restaurant. Our server asked me, “Do you want to try some kimchi?” Of course, I did. Honey Cuisine’s baechu kimchi had the balance of sweet, spicy, sour and salty one expects from this Korean staple.
White daikon contrasts well with the green seaweed. The delicate crunch of the daikon went well with the more chewy texture of the seaweed. (Photo by Tammy Quackenbush)
I also ordered seaweed salad ($4.95). The seaweed was thinly julienned and piled on a bed of thinly julienned, slightly pickled daikon radish and drizzled with sesame oil dressing.
The 911 Sushi dish featured spicy tuna sashimi and seaweed, tucked in a wrapping of white rice and topped with avocado and a couple of different spicy sauces. (Photo by Jeff Quackenbush)
One the second visit, I had to try something from their extensive sushi and sashimi menu. The sushi that caught my eye was called 911 Sushi ($9.95). This spicy sushi featured a spicy tuna center rolled in 김 kim, or the rolled seaweed wrap the Japanese call nori. A layer of rice circumferenced the kim and tuna core.
A top view of the 911 Sushi dish shows the decorative plating with two sauces, pickled ginger and wasabi. (Photo by Jeff Quackenbush)
Avocado covered the top along with a playful sunbeam-like painting across the plate with a spicy, creamy sauce and a savory oil. The spiciness slowly sneaked up on me, causing a light sweat and a little drip from your nose. It’s not “I dare you to eat this” spicy.
Honey Cuisine’s japchae seems to be a fusion of the traditional Korean noodle dish and teriyaki-style stir fry. (Photo by Jeff Quackenbush)
My husband ordered chicken 잡채 japchae ($9.95), which seemed to be a fusion dish of japchae and chicken teriyaki. The dish arrived on a plate had white rice on one-third, and on the rest was a mound of chicken strips grilled in a teriyaki-style marinade as well as lightly steamed and stir-fried onions, zucchini, broccoli and carrot. Peeking out from underneath the chicken and veggies were cellophane noodles, appearing dark golden brown from the sauce.
Japchae can be a bellwether for attention to detail in Korean cuisine because of the subtle balance in the noodle sauce among pungent sesame oil, salty soy sauce, strong garlic, zesty black pepper and sometimes a touch of sweetness.
Honey Cuisine’s japchae sauce tasted heavier on soy sauce and light on sesame oil, garlic and pepper. I’ve had successes and failures in achieving that balance when making the dish myself. And even Bear Korean’s japchae has been soy sauce–heavy at times.
The noodles were left uncut — i.e., more fork-friendly than chopstick-friendly — and had a more rubbery texture than we’ve tasted to date. The appearance of food-only scissors when food is served can be off-putting to foreigners visiting Korea, but it is a hallmark of hospitality to serve food that one can eat with chopsticks and without cutting. Yet the ethnic mix of Honey Cuisine’s clientele mentioned earlier explains the restaurant’s place setting with fork, steak knife and bamboo chopsticks, rather than the traditional Korean setting of chopsticks and spoon.
Here are some additional pointers:
- On a busy night (Friday and Saturday, especially) exercise some patience in getting your meal, and expect a 30 minute wait for your meal.
- The restaurant seats about 40 people inside and accommodates small parties.
Honey Cuisine Sushi & BBQ
1712 E. Cotati Ave.
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
(707) 795-9700
Hours: Monday–Saturday, 11 a.m. – 9 p.m. Closed Sundays.
October 18, 2010
Brother’s Korean, San Francisco
Brothers Restaurant, located San Francisco’s Inner Richmond neighborhood, is one of the few Korean restaurants in San Francisco that is Zagat-rated. It tied with Namu as Best Korean Restaurant in the 2010 Eat and Drink Reader’s Choice Awards by 7×7 magazine.
Brothers is not a fancy restaurant, but it has a 20-plus year reputation (since 1987) of serving up authentic “old school” Korean food. It has generous operating hours from 11 am. to midnight Sunday through Friday.
There is a second location a block east at 4014 Geary Blvd. It opened in 1993 but operates only Friday through Sunday 5 p.m. to midnight.
Warning: Do not wear “dry clean only” clothes to this restaurant. You will walk out smelling like a barbecue grill, particularly one that uses real wood instead of briquettes. It’s the first Korean restaurant I’ve visited in the Bay Area that has grills embedded in some tables with vent hoods above.
The staff brought out the glowing charcoal ready to cook right away.
Based on the reviews at Yelp! and Zagat, many go to Brothers for the barbecue. My husband and I ordered kalbi (Korean beef ribs) and dakgui (grilled chicken) from their dinner menu and decided to grill them ourselves. The server brought us two different tongs, one for the raw meat and the other to cook it. The attention to sanitation scored points with me.
The first food item brought to our table was a teapot full of hot barley tea. That scored even more points with me than the double tongs. Next, someone brought out the hot charcoal to get us instantly fired up for the main event.
The “main event” came with 10 different kinds of banchan (side dishes), including cucumber, radish and cabbage kimchi as well as spicy anchovies, spicy odeng (fish cakes). We also had two different ssam options, either romaine lettuce or kim (sheets of seasoned dried seaweed; nori in Japanese) for wrapping the grilled meat.
One of the highlights of the meal was the bowl of soon dubu jjigae (soft tofu stew). It was full of dubu, zucchini and chives. The broth may have had some dashi (Japanese fish broth) or seaweed in it because it had a slight ocean taste but it was really good.
Kalbi ssam with a little bit of salty ssamjang peaking out.
The only item we didn’t like much was the ssamjang (Korean wrapping sauce). It was heavily slanted on the doenjang (Korean miso) side rather than the gochujang (Korean pepper paste) side but it was a bit too salty so we decided to get our spicy and good salty fix by sprinkling our ssam (meat and lettuce rolls) with the spicy anchovies instead.
Dak gui ssam is jjang!
Prepare to pay about $30 per person, including tax and tip, for Brothers’ signature barbecue dishes. But this “old school” Korean barbecue is worth it.
If barbecue is not your style or in your budget, Brothers has a wide variety of Korean soups and stews, including kalbi tang (Korean stewed ribs), kimchi jjigae (kimchi stew with beef), soon dubu jjigae (soft tofu soup) and kori kom tang (oxtail soup).
The restaurant also has about a dozen lunch items offered from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Prices on that menu top out at about $15.
Brothers Restaurant
4128 Geary Blvd. (between Fifth and Sixth avenues)
Hours: Sunday–Friday, 11 a.m. – midnight
415-387-799
[googleMap name=”Brothers Restaurant”]4128 Geary Boulevard San Francisco, CA 94118-3102[/googleMap]
August 4, 2010
Korean tacos come to Atlanta
by Tammy
Korean taco trucks are no longer limited to America’s West Coast cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and Portland. Now Atlanta, the largest U.S. Southeast city, has Yumbii. It’s one of the latest such roving restaurants to follow in the wake of intense popularity for Kogi, which has more than 67,000 listed followers on Twitter.
Yumbii chef Tomas Lee fuses Korean, Mexican and Southern cooking traditions onto a small plate. He is the former executive chef of Atlanta’s ritzy Buckhead Diner.
Lee calls Yumbii, “the result is the best damn meal you’ve had out of a food truck east of the Mississippi.” The menu includes Korean barbecue tacos and burritos as well as pulled pork sliders topped with cucumber kimchi.
Using an increasingly common marketing method for rolling restaurants, Yumbii updates Atlanta-area residents on the truck’s latest location via Twitter.
ZenKimchi would like to hear about your experiences with this newcomer to Korean fusion gourmet on the go.

July 4, 2010
Interview: Smoked Olive Oil
Walk down any grocery store aisle in the United States and you will find a bounty of olive oils flavored with garlic, orange, lemon, chili pepper and rosemary. You may have one or two spending shelf time your pantry shelf right now. But you probably don’t have smoked olive oil hanging out there — yet.
Smoked olive oil is the newest flavored oil to hit the market. It’s produced by a Santa Rosa, Calif.-based company called The Smoked Olive. The oil was featured on an episode of chef Emeril Lagasse’s Discovery Channel show Emeril Green. The oil has also received rave reviews from Sonoma County chef John Ash as well as Food Network chef and San Francisco Bay area resident Tyler Florence, who called it, “the sexiest new flavor I’ve tasted in years.”
It’s easy to understand why no one has tried to make it before. Olive oils are very sensitive to heat, light and oxidation. Al Hartman, the chef behind The Smoked Olive, developed a patent-pending technology to smoke the olive oil without damaging it. The last thing a chef wants to do is ruin a batch of top-shelf California extra virgin olive oil.
The Smoked Olive currently sells three different varieties of smoked olive oils, described this way on the company website:
1. Sonoma Olive Oil, which starts off bold and smoky and finishes with a subtle olive finish
2. Napa Olive Oil, which has a light smoke flavor that makes the olive oil flavor even more pronounced
3. Santa Fe Olive Oil, which includes a dose of chili with the smoke. The chili sneaks upon you gradually but the chili does not overwhelm or overtake the olive and smoke flavor.
If you are interested in trying some Smoked Olive Oil for yourself, they do ship in North America and internationally (including South Korea) as well.
We discovered the company at the St. Helena’s Farmers Market in St. Helena, Calif. while we were preparing some B-roll — background images — for our follow-up video interview with chef Hector Marroquin of Pupusa Griddle Catering as he served up his kimchi pupusa plates.
Production-wise, this was our first outdoor video session. The first on-location episode was “Innovations With Kimchi,” recorded in The Green Grocer, which is now closed.
Recording outdoors presents all sorts of problems not faced indoors. Wind can rumble in microphones and tousle hair. Differences in lighting between a person in the shade and a sunny background can mess up camera light settings, leaving the person too dark on camera. Sunlight can also make potentially unsightly lens flares without a substantial lens hood. Ambient noise can be loud and distracting, sometimes imperceptibly so until the recording is reviewed in a quiet location.
We controlled the wind noise with a basic foam windscreen for the handheld microphone, and the windscreen also lessens — but doesn’t prevent — popping in the microphones from spoken T’s and P’s. For really windy conditions, we have a special “hairy” foam windscreen for the lapel microphone.
For lighting, it’s best to use a very bright camera light or a reflector to counteract harsh facial shadows from direct sunlight. The best solution is to diffuse the sunlight falling on the on-camera subject then reflect light back on the subject to fill in shadows. However, that requires several people.
We have just me on camera and Jeff behind the camera. To hold the reflector, he had to set frame the shot on the camera, start recording and then hold the reflector. The shot composition couldn’t be adjusted until the end of the segment. The head-to-waist composition of this video did work for most of the shots, because the booth could be seen as actively attracting customers.
The reflector we use is a Lastolite collapsible one, with silver on one side and alternating stripes of silver and gold on the other. The manufacturer said that pure gold would make the image too yellow, and the wisdom of that design was evident on this video. Probably, we should have used the silver side to provide whiter light to blend with the rest of the image.
The background music came from Jamendo again. This time we used a song called Coming Home by Kendra Springer. At the time I discovered this song, Springer’s album, Hope, was number one listened to album that week with over 18,000 downloads since it was posted on November 19, 2009.
June 8, 2010
A Journey in home-made barbecue
Vacation from Crestock Creative Photos
Posted by Steve Ward
My contract finishes this week and I found myself at the end of the year with some vacation time left, so this week I’m off all week, trying to get some rest.
…only it hasn’t been very restful so far, as I tend to keep myself pretty busy. Feels like I’ve been running all over town running errands. Anyway, lately, especially with the weather warming up, I’ve been a little homesick for Kansas City (well, to be honest, I’ve been homesick for about the past 6 months to 1 year…), so I thought I’d have a taste of home by using some of my massive stock of BBQ sauce and rubs to make some barbecue.
At first, remembering a classic episode of Good Eats, I looked into building a cardboard box smoker (despite what he says in the video, you can totally smoke meat with the cardboard smoker, but you have to add something to catch the drippings so there’s no flare-ups, which would be very bad inside a cardboard box).
As I made my plans, I realized it might take a while to assemble the proper materials (I’ve since found out that wood chips can be bought at Hannam market), so I decided to make that a long-term project and, in the mean time, to keep it simple and slow cook a pork shoulder (Costco, ~25,000 won for ~1.2 kgs). I’ve done improvised slow-cooker bbq many times before, but this was my first time to do pork and to try and follow some sort of thought-out process rather than just making it up as I went along.
Now here’s a confession: I cheat. I cheat big time. I’ve got a store of rubs and sauces from my three favorite KC barbecue joints and I’m not ashamed to use them because a big part of if, for me, is getting a taste of home. I took the pork shoulder and covered it liberally with the Jack Stack rub. That being said, it doesn’t seem too difficult to make your own brine or rub, or even barbecue sauce. One of these days I might try it myself, but it would be purely an experiment, as I don’t really see how I could improve on the best of the best of Kansas City barbecue sauces (the rub I could understand though, as any pre-ground spices won’t be as fresh after sitting on a shelf for a while).
Based on some recipes I saw online, I put a bed of sliced onions in the base of the slow cooker before I added the shoulder, and then I added a can of beer (Max, specifically). It’s important to note that the meat does not need to be submerged in liquid, nor should it be, because the juices from the meat will come out during cooking. In fact, next time I do this I’ll skip the beer altogether, as it adds significant flavor, to the point of masking some of the flavor of the rub I think.
After ten hours of cooking on low, I woke up at 6am to take the shoulder out, drain the slow cooker, pull apart the pork with two forks, add about a cup of Jack Stack original sauce, then put it all back in the slow cooker for another hour. I intended to go back to sleep, but the hunger pains wouldn’t let me 😉
I used a single slice of whole wheat bread to make an open-faced sandwich and put a little sauce on top (being conservative with it as there was quite a bit of flavor added through the whole process). I didn’t have anything to garnish it with, but I might look into some cole slaw or beans for next tie.
The finished product was pretty darn good if I don’t say so myself. Using beer in the process tasted good, but I think it’s a trade-off and may be masking some of the rub’s flavors, not to mention the natural flavors of the meat. Still, most people probably wouldn’t notice. I’m looking forward to having plenty of meat left over for sandwiches through the weekend!
I’ll definitely be making this again.
Steve Ward has been living in Seoul for nearly five years now and has dabbled in many different hobbies and types of work in that time. SteveWard.TV is the homepage of his official online presence.
March 3, 2010
Grilled Pork WITH SKIN (Ggeobdegi Ogyeopsal 껍데기 오겹살)
Yeah, we know Samgyeopsal. Now get ready for Ogyeopsal. The “sam” in Samgyeopsal means “three,” as in “three layered pork.”
So Ogyeopsal loosely means “five layered pork.”

What’s the fifth layer?
Well, if you’re a little vigilant, it’s the prize in the cereal box for pork lovers: the skin. Not all Ogyeopsal has skin, though. Yet if the menu says “Ggeobdegi Ogyeopsal 껍데기 오겹살,” it definitely will have it.
Oh, crispy goodness.
April 4, 2007