The Bulgogi Experience

Jeff and I have not eaten a lot of traditional Korean food (generally, its really spicy and heavy in the seafood department - not really our favorites). However, we found one dish that we love. Its called Bulgogi, and its basically a Korean Barbecue. They bring out a big platter of meat marinated and covered in sea salt that you cook on a small coal grill in the middle of the table. They also bring out a ton of other side dishes with it (sauces, vegetables, leafs for wraps, etc.) so that the table is completely covered with small dishes of random food.

We have now had bulgogi three times. The first two times we had bulgogi it was with Jeff's Korean co-workers and was at an upscale restaurant where we sat on the floor in our own private little cubicle. It was extremely helpful to have Koreans there with us because they ordered everything and explained to us exactly what was in all of the smaller dishes and how we should eat it all.

We felt we had the hang of things after our second time eating bulgogi, so a few nights ago Jeff, Lewis and I decided to try bulgogi on our own. We knew the restaurant we went to the first two times was very expensive, so we thought we would try a less expensive place. Lewis looked up the word for beef before we left so we figured that if they didn't speak a word of English "beef" would get our point across.

We arrived at the restaurant and sat at a little table with blue plastic stools. The waitress came up and gave us an ordering card . . . all in Korean of course. Lewis said what he thought was the word for beef, but our waitress was not at all getting it. She kept saying a whole lot of stuff in Korean and we just sort of sat there and laughed because we had absolutely no clue what she was saying. This went on for seriously two minutes. Finally she said something that sounded like what Lewis said, so we thought she had it. Well I guess she didn't, because then she went to try and find someone who worked at the restaurant who could speak English. She was gone for a while and clearly couldn't find anyone. Finally she asked aa table of Korean guys next to us if they spoke English, and one came over. Thank goodness the waitress wanted to confirm what she though we said because the Korean man told us she thought we wanted long fish! He was able to convey to her that we wanted three orders of beef and we thought we were on our way!

Our waitress brought out the meat and all of the fixings. She placed the meat on the grill for us and sort of showed us how to cook it. We just sort of nodded because we knew how to eat everything. She left and we started to eat. About two minutes later a woman that seemed like a manager of the restaurant came over and started managing our grill for us. We kind of looked at her as if to say "we know what we are doing, this isn't necessary," but the message was not getting through to her. As Lewis said, apparently we must have looked like dumb Americans who needed help. Basically, she stood there for the rest of our meal and kept instructing us on how to eat the food. While it would have been helpful if we had never had bulgogi, we just found it to be hilarously awkward. After the meal we quickly paid, left, and laughed the entire way home!