Koreans are famously carnivorous people. We downright LOVE our meat, and we hardly discriminate between our protein sources. But let's face it, we live for all things pork, right down to their fatty feet. I, personally, could not imagine life without bacon, pulled pork, or some good ol' blood sausage (soon dae). Sure, it's not for everyone, but look at my recent feast below, courtesy of Mr. Bossam in Koreatown, and just TRY to tell me it doesn't look gooooood. While not typical Korean BBQ, this style is just another satisfying fix for the carnivorous appetite. "Bossam" refers to style of pork belly served and all its glorious accompaniments. The meat is served on cast iron pans and kept warm over open flames. Once you are stuffed silly and left staring at the piggy remnants taunting your defeat on that fiery plate, the servers take it all away only to come back moments later with a full platter of heavenly kimchi fried rice mixed with the pork bits, and topped with a perfectly sunny and runny egg. The heavens will part and the angels will sing until all piggies fly home to our bellies.

Balancing things out with some veggies...potato pancake style

My mom is a doll...an infinitely adorable doll. She, like many other Asian moms, thinks constantly about my foodie needs. We'll have a discussion about whether I'm able to find the "essentials" (e.g. KIMCHI, rice, ramen, etc) out here and I'll insist I can make do with the single international market in town. In reality I obviously can't find anything remotely close to the homemade good stuff, but I just try to deter her from attempting to ship kimchi across the country to me to spare any non-Korean postal worker who handles the pungent package. But like I said, my mom is a doll, and I am so grateful that she cannot help herself from looking out for my needs. She went ahead and sent me a care package that says it all: my mommy loves me, not the monopolistic U.S. Postal Service! Well, I'm sure that thought never crosses her mind, but she did complain about their prices! My mom was originally just forwarding me some mail and decided to turn it into a full-on, Gangnam-worthy, care package complete with a jar of homemade kimchi, some ramen, and a giant container of crispy rice. I know only my fellow Asians, and perhaps only Koreans, will understand the depth of love here, but for me, this is yet another reason why moms will NEVER go out of style.

The crown jewel, packaged to perfection!

Bossam belly

Care package...Gangnam style!