over the years before coming here i've had lots of delicious korean food, but now i'm paying the price for never having found out the names of some of m favorite things. usually i'd always eaten korean food with a korean friend, so they would handle ordering, and i would just enjoy whatever showed up. one of my favorite things is a spicy pork dish that i've had at various restaurants. the problem is, i don't know exactly what it's called.

the other problem is that korean food has so many varieties that even if i tell a korean that i want that spicy pork, they aren't even sure what i'm talking about. so ever since i've been here, i've been trying to track down that spicy pork and find out exactly what it's called.

i asked sunny at work and she said that it was called 제육볶� (jaeyook bokeum, literally broiled pork). that got me thinking about it all day, so by the time i got home i decided i had to have it. unfortunately, when i looked on all the take-out menus i have, it usually wasn't there, or if it was it was under the more expensive sections that included larger portions for a few people. luckily, i found a couple that had it for ₩7,000.

wow, it was a lot of food, it could have easily served two people. you know you've got a lot when the delivery guy just gives you the entire box he's carried over. of course the fact that it could have served two people didn't stop me from eating it all.

while it was delicious, and it was almost what i'm searching for, it wasn't exactly right. the one i'm looking for has been marinated and cooked in a spicy red sauce, but it isn't served in a sauce like this one. there were vegetables mixed in with it, while the one i like is just the meat, sometimes served on top of onions.

so, the search continues…