The wide world of Korean cuisine is most delicious when it comes to pork and vegetables, and today we would like to introduce you to boiled pork belly slices with kimchi, or bossam.
First, however, we must begin with the seasonal changes on the Korean Peninsula and preparations for the Korean winter. Korean cuisine is founded on the peninsula’s geography and weather: food is of the Earth. Korea has bitterly cold winters, with Manchurian winds blowing from across Eurasia toward the Pacific Ocean. Preparations for the winter require the preparation of vegetables. This family-based and community-based effort is called gimjang (김장). Traditionally, along with your kimchi, many families prepared boiled or steamed pork.
Boiled pork belly slices with kimchi is a winter delicacy, often served with fresh oysters.
Begin with some pork belly. Boil it in some spices, generally grandmother’s well-kept secret. As the saying goes, a restaurant will only taste the same until grandmother passes away. Afterward, over the years, the recipe will change. Standard secret formulas for the seasoning include soy bean paste, soju or vodka, peppercorns, leeks, onions, garlic, ginger, basil leaves, slices of pear, slices of apple, some type of apple vinegar or rice vinegar, granulated sugar, chili flakes, honey, red pepper paste, sesame oil, sesame seeds and liters of fresh, clean water. Every family, and every restaurant, has its own recipe. After a few hours of boiling/ seasoning, slice the pork into thin nibble-sized squares. As it’s cooking, you can work on the kimchi.
This pork is served with a certain kind of kimchi, not your standard run-of-the-mill cabbage-based kimchi. The kimchi eaten with boiled pork belly slices is generally a bit sweeter than usual, and can include such delicacies as peas or seasonal oysters. De rigueur are the long slices of Asian radish.
Every home and restaurant has their own recipe to prepare bossam, or boiled pork belly slices.
This very specific type of kimchi — bossam kimchi — is made every fall or early winter when the community comes together to make kimchi for the winter. The entire fall or early winter food-preparation season, gimjang, is part of the community’s coping mechanism for the brutal Manchurian winter, when few fresh vegetables are available.
Note that the kimchi eaten with boiled pork belly slices (보쌈 용 김치) — heavy on the oysters and the Asian radish, and generally a bit sweeter — is different from the entirely separate and fairly rare dish called Gaeseong bossam kimchi (개성 보쌈 김치), which is kind of like a bite-sized ball of kimchi wrapped in a lettuce leaf.
Finally, boiled pork belly slices with kimchi is often eaten with oysters, as seasonal raw oysters can be caught fresh in Korean waters during November and December.
Oysters are often dipped in a red pepper sauce before being enjoyed.
Pork, oysters and kimchi. Our friends of particular faiths may not be able to partake in this delicious East Asian dish due to religious bans on either pork, seafood or eating animals, but for those of us unfettered by the bounds of dietary restrictions, I can encourage no dish more succulent than boiled pork belly slices with kimchi. Add a fresh oyster and a dip in fermented shrimp (새우젓) and the explosion of flavors is absolutely divine.
As we eat our way across Korea, there are many, many restaurants around the country and across the capital that serve boiled pork belly slices with kimchi. One of the more well-known shops — generally agreed to be one of Seoul’s top-three most-delicious boiled pork belly slices with kimchi restaurants — is in “Golden South Market,” or Geumnam Sijang (금남 시장). This neighborhood in Seongdong-gu District, just east of either Geumho Station or Oksu Station along subway line No. 3, is one of Seoul’s older neighborhoods, with fewer-than-normal towering tenement blocks. The buildings tend to be about three- or four-stories and the area still maintains its “close neighborhood” feeling. Golden South Market has been there for about 60 years and it’s a well-known local landmark.
Walk in through the market’s main gate, and on the right is “Silver Star Boiled Pork Belly Slices With Kimchi” (은성 보쌈), just about the most delicious boiled pork restaurant at which this author has ever eaten.
The kimchi enjoyed with boiled pork belly slices tends to be a bit sweeter than usual and has a lot of Asian radish in it. Some restaurants also add oysters and peas.
It’s of medium size, with both sit-on-the-floor and table sitting. The menu includes boiled pork belly slices with kimchi, oysters and more boiled pork with more kimchi. The walls are plastered with the signatures of celebrities who have eaten there and the place has been in business for 35 years. It’s located at No. 375, Geumho-dong 3-ga, Seongdong-gu District, Seoul, just inside the market.
So let boiled pork belly slices with kimchi, or bossam, be your introduction to the winter and your introduction to a delicious seasonal feast. It’s doubtful you’ll ever want to eat anything else.
By Gregory C. Eaves
Korea.net Staff Writer
Photos: Gregory C. Eaves
gceaves@korea.kr
