Pull it Good

A lot of people talk about how expensive it is to cook at home in Korea. While it's true that you can get a free piece of fatty, unseasoned pork just for walking in the door of a bbq place, eating at home can be done on the cheap. I'll prove it:

Pulled Pork with Coleslaw and a Side of Home

- chunk of meat. I couldn't find a shoulder or butt at the store, but I did find a sizeable, not very fatty long piece of pork - maybe a loin? Any cheap cut will do for pulled pork, mine cost 4,000.
- onion - I think a basket on the side of the road is going for like 2,000 for about 10 onions, but if you buy them individually in the store we'll say 500?
- bread - 1800 for a baguette at Bary Baguette

For the bbq sauce:
- ketchup and moustard - as a Westerner you should probably already have this. 1 cup.
- vinegar - like 1,000? or just wring out some old kimchee. 1/2 cup.
- sugar - 2,000 for like a kilo? 1/2 cup.
- garlic - 500 for a year's supply? 2 cloves, minced.
- salt and pepper - basically free.
- soy sauce - my house literally came with this. just a small splash.

For the coleslaw:
- cabbage - 1,000 for a quarter of a head. i used half of it, chopped into shreds.
- carrotts - a bag of 7 was like 900. i used one, cut into slivers
- yoghurt - yoghurt is a healthy and deliscious thing to have on hand, but if not it's like 2,000 for a 4 pack (8 if there's a sale). i used one individual serving for this.
- mayonaise - same story as the ketchup and moustard. Check your fridge your fridge you probably already have it. just a smallish squeeze.
- vinegar - you already got it from the kimchee! just a splash.

So even if you have to buy EVERYTHING from scratch, you're looking at max 13,000 and it worked out to about 3 servings for me. Plus I only used one carrott, one yoghurt, and half the cabbage. SO basically it's about 4,000 per serving AND you'll have stuff for next time. Take that, samgyupsal.

To do:

- season the meat with salt and pepper, throw into a large pot with some onion, roughly chopped and a little bit of water. If you have other seasonings you could play around with that at this stage, if not, don't worry.
- mix the bbq sauce ingrediens together. Keep in mind this is just a basic bbq sauce, you can add anything you want. Maybe some hot sauce? I like to use the free packets that come with pizza. Hot peppers? Chilli powder? Maybe some coffee for a smokier flavour? Some dust collected from the top of the refrigerator? Whatevs, go crazy. Just go bat shit, long sleeved white jacket crazy with this stuff.
- When the meat is about 3/4 of the way cooked through you can throw it in the rice cooker to save on your gas bill. Add the bbq sauce and just let it set a while so everything can get groovy.
- in the meantime chop and mix the coleslaw
- when you're done the meat should be so tender that if you glare at it it'll fall apart. Use the tines of two forks to pull it apart into deliscious little shredded pieces.
- put it on some bread, add coleslaw, and enjoy your hard(ish) work.

This is all very longwinded but I promise easier to do than it sounds. Also, I forgot to mention before, but if you don't want three servings just cut your uncooked meat in half and throw it in the freezer, it'll stay good in there for many moons.