This dish was served to the King in Dae Jang-geum and, in my humble opinion, is a form of Korean torture for the novice chef. Eight ingredients are meticulously hand-cut into fine strips similar in thickness to the Japanese soba noodle. For presentation, each ingredient is place in a separate pile (or compartment when using a 9-section dish), with crepes placed in the center. When eating this dish, a small amount of each ingredient is placed on a crepe, which is then rolled so that it is easy to pick up and eat. I think that everyone will appreciate this dish even more than before now that we know the intense amount of time and labor put into cutting up and cooking all the ingredients for this dish.
Chef Lee's secret tips: Cutting beef into small slivers is difficult when it is fully thawed out. The trick to cutting the beef into fine strips is to cut it when it is half-thawed. Also, do not marinate the beef for more than 1 hour. Soaking it overnight makes the beef tough. |
