Cooking in
Ontario
Korean · South Korea
Samgyeopsal
Samgyeopsal (three-layered meat — pork belly) is Korean BBQ at its most primal — thick-cut pork belly grilled directly on a tabletop grill, cut into pieces with scissors at the table, then wrapped in perilla leaf or lettuce with garlic, ssamjang, and kimchi. The simplicity is the point: quality pork belly, live-fire cooking, communal eating. No marinade. The fat renders onto the grill and crisps the edges of each slice.
‹Swipe for the next dish›
I
The Market List
The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.
800g
pork belly
skin on, sliced 5mm thick against the grain
Your own market
200ml
soy sauce
Not yet stocked in Ontario
100ml
mirin
Origin · JapanWismettac · Vancouver →
50ml
rice vinegar
Your own market
3 tbsp
sesame seeds
toasted
Not yet stocked in Ontario
4 cloves
garlic
thinly sliced
Your own market
2 tsp
Tellicherry black pepper
freshly cracked
Your own market
1 tbsp
sesame oil
Your own market
30g
scallions
cut into 3cm batons
Not yet stocked in Ontario
Each tap is counted, so the stockist sees the demand Provenance sends them.
II
The Method
1
Combine soy sauce, mirin, rice vinegar, and sesame oil in small bowl; set dipping sauce aside.
2
Heat charcoal grill or cast-iron griddle to high heat (until wisps of smoke appear).
3
Arrange pork belly slices directly on grill; cook without moving 3–4 minutes until fat renders and surface chars.
4
Flip each slice; cook 2 minutes until cooked through, fat fully rendered.
5
Transfer to serving platter; immediately sprinkle with cracked pepper, toasted sesame seeds, sliced garlic, and scallion batons.
6
Serve with dipping sauce, steamed rice, and fresh lettuce leaves for wrapping.
III
Sensory Tests
◇Where it lives or dies. The moment where samgyeopsal lives or dies is when the rendered pork fat begins to smoke on the hot grill — this is the moment to stop cooking on that side and flip. The fat should have golden, slightly crisped edges; the meat visible between fat layers should be white and set. Flip once and cook the meat side for 90 seconds. The finished slice should have a rendered, golden fat cap and a moist, just-cooked interior.
Pillar IV
Cross-cuisine parallels are part of membership.
The dishes this one teaches you, across the cuisines — on every recipe.
Enter · from $49 a year
V
What to Pour
The pairing
Bushmills Malt 10 Year Old
Old Bushmills Distillery · County Antrim — Bushmills Distillery
Not yet stocked in Ontario
Whisky
From Ontario
Nothing from Ontario holds against this yet.
Without alcohol
Genmaicha — Yamamotoyama Genmaicha Green Tea with Roasted Rice
Yamamotoyama · Uji
Not yet stocked in Ontario
Tea
Why each one works is part of membership — Enter · from $49 a year →
The whole pairingPillar VI
Origin and lineage are part of membership.
Where the dish comes from and how it came to be — on every recipe.
Enter · from $49 a year
The working kitchen