K-FOOD RECIPE

Thin-Sliced Pork Belly with Mung-Bean Sprouts is A Hot Item from Itaewon Class

Thin-sliced sprouts is pork belly one of the with mung-bean hot-selling items at cart bars on the streets of Korea. This dish features salty pork stir-fried with soy sauce, and mung-bean sprouts that add the crispy texture to the dish. It is also good in nutritional terms. Ingredients used to make the dish contain various nutrients including protein, fat, and vitamin B2, making the dish more nutritionally balanced. The dish appeared on Itaewon Class, a Korean TV drama that was recently ended with success and is now enjoying a high popularity abroad. It was a representative entry on the menu of a cart bartype restaurant run by Park Saeroy who is a hero of Itaewon Class played by Park Seojun, a famous Korean actor. Let’s make this popular dish with the following simple recipe.

Thin-Sliced Pork Belly with MungBean Sprouts

Two Servings Cooking Time: 20min 1630kcal(twoservings)

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Main Ingredients 500g thin-sliced pork belly, 1/2 onion, 1/2 green onion, 200g mung-bean sprouts, 2 chilis, 7 cloves of garlic

Sub Ingredients(sauce) 5 tbsp of soy sauce, 4 tbsp of water, 3 tbsp of sugar, a pinch of ground pepper, and a pinch of sesame seeds

Tip Mung-bean sprouts shrink quickly. So, after turning off the heat, the sprouts need to be stir-fried with thin-sliced pork belly over lingering heat to make them remain crispy.

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Clean mung-bean sprouts in the running water.

Cut onion lengthwise, cut green onion and chilis sideways, and mince garlic.

Oil a frying pan and stir-fry the minced garlic and the cut green onion in the pan.

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After there is a smell of garlic and green onion from the pan, put the onion and thin-sliced pork belly and stir-fry them in the pan.

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After blood is drained out of the thin-sliced pork belly, add the prepared sauce and stir-fry them like boiling down.

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After the pork belly is done, turn off the heat and put the mung-bean sprouts and chilis into the pan, and cover the pan.

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Put it on a plate, and garnish it with whole sesame seeds atop.

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Pork Belly, A Soul Food for Koreans

Pork belly is a cut of meat around pork ribs. The fat of the meat appears in three layers, and the cut is thus called ‘samgyeopsal’ in Korean which literally means flesh in three layers. Although pork belly is high in fat and low in protein, it is still well-balanced in taste between fat and protein. The fat is relatively high compared to other lean cuts of meat, and pork belly is thus consumed mainly for barbecued dishes. One way of enjoying pork belly is eating it with well-fermented kimchi. Another way is eating it by wrapping a piece of well-cooked yellowish pork belly with a sheet of lettuce or sesame leaf with the addition of slices of garlic and chili atop. Whichever you choose, it is still true that pork belly is the most sought-after cut of pork for Koreans. So, it can be easily found on dining tables for company dinners or gatherings with friends. What’s more, due to

the recent retro craze in Korea, an old-fashioned type of pork belly that is thinly sliced and then frozen for storage for a longer period of time has come back to the spotlight.

A Craze for Korean Sauces in Southeast Asian Countries

Traditional Korean sauces such as soy sauce, soybean paste, and chili pepper paste are enjoying a growing popularity in the Southeast Asian market. Thanks to the huge popularity of Korean pop culture, the so-called Korean wave, the interest in Korean food is also increasing there. In fact, the amount of soy sauce, soybean paste, and chili pepper paste exported to the Southeast Asian countries in 2019 was equivalent to approximately USD 10.84 million, which is a whopping 14.9% increase year-on-year. Such a drastic increase demonstrates how popular Korean sauces are abroad. These Korean sauces are made with meju which is made by kneading blanched beans into square lumps. Korean chili pepper paste tastes spicy and soybean paste has its unique delicate flavor. Say sauce has a combination of salty and sweet flavors.

Click Likes for Camping in Nature

As the so-called untact culture spreads due to the COVID-19 pandemic, camping trips have become the norm. There is a growing number of people who want to go camping to vent out pent-up feelings piled up by being cooped up due to social distancing. According to the Korea Tourism Organization(KTO), the demand for campsites increased by 73% year-onyear during the period from February to April when the hideous COVID-19 was most vigorously spreading. The demand is increasing especially among people in their 20s to 30s. As they enjoy car camping, sleeping in cars as accommodation, and go camping alone, the demand for meal kits is also increasing. Let’s join Korea’s new travel trend, camping!

Car Camping, A New Camping Trend

There were is a fad in camping. some other types of In fact, there camping that won the hearts of campers. Glamping offers fully-equipped spaces so that people can enjoy camping without making a fuss to prepare. Autocamping offers basic amenities such as electricity and water. They were in vogue before. This year, the so-called car camping has been settled as a new camping trend especially among young people in their 20s to 30s. Car campers use their cars for accommodation.

Despite a narrower space for accommodation and a lack of amenities compared to a hotel room, car camping does not require reservations and provides mobility. What is the greatest charm of car camping is that campers can take a rest in their own private spaces in the closest proximity of nature without any disturbances nearby.

For such reasons, car camping is all the rage now. In fact, there are 100,000 posts about people enjoying car camping in nature, as of August 6, on Instagram. According to the survey conducted for 300 persons by a matchmaking company in Korea, seven out of ten single adult men and women are planning to go car camping this year. Even those who had not known about what car camping is at the time of the survey said they would go car camping after they knew about the camping through the survey. The survey revealed that car camping is now the travel trend in Korea.

Additional Info

Make Sure to Search Available Campsites!

You can find available campsites for generaltype camping and car camping by visiting Gocamping(www.gocamping.or.kr) and Korea National Park Service(www.knps. or.kr). If you go deep inside some banned areas, your safety will not be guaranteed in case of an emergency. No matter how beautiful the sea or hill is, you are not allowed to trespass the sea or hill if it is a privatelyowned one. So, make sure to check this first and hit the road then.

Check This Campsite Out!

Jangho hill of Beach Campsite is Jangho Beach in nestled on a Samcheok,

Hakampo Auto Campsite is a car camping site located in Taean in Chungcheongnam-do. The campsite provides campers with fire and electricity and is available in all seasons. However, keep in mind that you book a spot in advance only online. Near the campsite, there are tourist destinations including Sinduri Coastal Sand Dune and Solhyanggigil Street where you can indulge in the beauty of nature while strolling around there. Gangwon-do, that is renowned as one of the most beautiful sites on the eastern coast of Korea. In front of the campsite, there is a picturesque beach. There are also Jangho Port famous for Jangho Fishing Village offering a hands-on experience to visitors, and Jangho Yonghwa Park on the hill of Jangho Port over which marine cable cars ply in the air. In addition to such a variety of attractions to see and experience nearby, the campsite is equipped with 17 general camping spots, a children’s playground, and the latest types of facilities including shower rooms, cookshacks, and snack bars. Jangho Beach in front of the campsite is beautiful with its halfmoon shaped coastline and features shallow and clean waters and dazzling sand. What’s more, it offers some marine leisure activities you can enjoy like canoeing on a transparent

canoe and snorkeling.

Enjoy Camping After Eating

Having a barbecue one of the things outdoors is that cannot be ruled out when it comes to camping in Korea. There are many campers who go camping to enjoy Korean barbeque made with pork belly and neck and other assorted ingredients on thin grills over a fire in a large drum with charcoals in. They enjoy this Korean-style barbeque, especially at dusk. Staring at a fire dancing in a furnace, campers can be lost in thought. They like enjoying the so-called bulmeong, which means spacing out while staring at a fire, before and after they grill meat over the fire.

The camping trend has changed to car camping recently, and the interest in convenient meal kits is thus increasing. According to SSG.COM, a Korean food site, the sales of meal kits during a period from January to July increased by 450% year-on-year. SSG analyzed that this change in vacation trend contributed to the increase in sales. SSG explained that the meal kits were picked by many because they enable campers to cook conveniently wherever and whenever. How about go camping this summer with various meal kit products?

Tip

Shop Around for Best Meal Kit Products! Steak, pasta, Korean sausage stew, or whatever you name it, you can find one you want. http://emart.ssg.com/