Los Angeles has some of the BESTEST Korean food in the WORLD! And I don’t mean like the world of LA; I mean in the entire wooooorld. The Korean-Koreans tell me this, too, but I live in LA and choose to enjoy and not debate that fact at all. We inherited this recipe from a Oaxacan worker who called himself Gordo who worked in Korean kitchens before us. We used to serve it at our lunch spot and resurrected it as a sandwich at Button Mash!
2–4 SERVINGS
1 pound skinless pork belly; sliced Berkshire pork, aka Kurobuta pork, aka black pig, is best*
1½ tablespoons light soy sauce
1 teaspoon minced ginger
Pinch ground black pepper
1⅓ tablespoons water
5⅓ tablespoons Korean gochujang pepper paste†
½ tablespoon Korean chili powder, medium coarse
1 tablespoon sugar
BALLS OUT
40–80 SERVINGS
20 pounds skinless pork belly, sliced*
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
6⅔ tablespoons minced ginger
1¼ teaspoons ground black pepper
1½ cups plus
2⅔ tablespoons water
6½ cups Korean gochujang pepper paste†
3⅓ tablespoons Korean chili powder, medium coarse
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar
1. Set aside sliced pork. Combine soy sauce, ginger, black pepper, water, gochujang, chili powder, and sugar in a bowl and mix. Add pork belly and massage the marinade into the meat by hand.
2. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
3. When ready to cook, grill or sauté for 3–4 minutes per side over high heat until both sides are nice and brown under all that gochujang red deliciousness.
Eat it with any starch that just begs for flavor/sabor/SOUL . . . and share with someone you love (and feel free to be greedy and don’t share with others if they aren’t deserving of your love).
* The easiest way to cut a slab of any meat is to partially freeze it, and then slightly thaw it out.
† Don’t skimp on the gochujang, y’all.