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Intro

Disclaimer: I’m not Korean, which is why I’ve filed this recipe under the “Abroad” section vs “Heritage” even though the recipe is my own.  I wouldn’t technically call this “fusion” since I’m not mixing Mexican and Korean flavors...I would call this more a “reformatting” of Korean food similar to the way Kogi BBQ, Korilla, etc. have made popular over the past decade or so! 

Let’s talk grease flare-ups vs grease fires.  Usually, “grease flare-ups” and “grease fires” have a negative connotation when BBQ-ing because in American-style BBQ, you’re cooking big slabs of meat for long periods of time; in these cases you’d end up with burnt-ass BBQ and no one wants that.  For this recipe it’s a little different since we’re using maximum ½-inch-thick slices of meat with lots of fats and flavors that taste amazing seared and barely-charred (think of the brown sugar, sweet & spicy gochujang, mirin, Korean pear).  That being said, once the small flare-ups start, I’m constantly moving the meat — either flipping it or moving it to a cooler area — so that the meat is only cooking in the flame and not burning.

For this recipe I like to cook with one side of the grill on High heat and the other with just a Medium-Low heat.  Again, flare-ups are almost unavoidable for this because of the marinade and fattiness of the pork but you shouldn’t be afraid of it!  Use it to get a nice char on your pork belly.   I’d recommend you give it a try over high heat and if you start to feel uncomfortable, just turn off the heat and/or move the meat to the cooler side of the grill.

Something “weird” about me: I prefer flour over corn tortillas.  Growing up in SoCal around lots of Mexican food and friends, I got a lot of flack for this because I guess corn tortillas are, for some reason, “better.”  Maybe it’s because I’m Taiwanese and I like the more chewy texture of flour tortillas due to years of eating scallion pancakes?  Who knows << shrug >>  Anyways, one clearcut reason I do prefer flour tortillas is because they tend to break less.  Since I first made this for a small group of friends and I know I’m usually the odd one out, I bought a mixture of corn and flour tortillas (I use store-bought because I don’t think I can make tortillas as well as those who really know what they’re doing; that being said, try to pick up fresh tortillas from an actual Mexican restaurant if possible!).

One final note: you can just make this as a Korean BBQ dish, just skip the steps after you BBQ the pork and enjoy as is!

For the marinade/pork:

• ~ 3 - 3½  lbs of pork belly (sliced at least ¼” thick and no more than ½” thick) (or a combo of pork belly and pork jowl)

• 1 medium yellow onion, halved and then sliced thinly

• 8 cloves garlic, finely minced

• 3 scallions, cut into 1” pieces

• 2 TBSP mirin (or cane sugar)

• 2 TBSP dark brown sugar

• 1 medium Korean pear, cored and cut into chunks* 

• 7 TBSP gochujang

• 3 TBSP soy sauce

• 1 TBSP gochugaru

• 1 TBSP sesame oil

• 1 cup Napa cabbage kimchi

• 2 large (gallon-sized) Ziploc bags 

* Size of the chunks doesn’t really matter, as long as they easily fit into whatever blender/food processor you are using; I’ve never tried this but I’ve heard you can also use a Bartlett pear if you can’t find Korean pear

For the tacos:

• Corn and/or flour tortillas 

• Green and/or purple cabbage, thinly shaved

• Lime wedges (optional)

• Kewpie mayo (optional)

• More Napa cabbage kimchi (optional)

Marinade the pork (24 hrs before):

1. Add the Korean pear into a food processor/blender and blend on high until smooth (you can also use a grater to achieve the same effect if you don’t have one/don’t want to use it)

2. Combine the sliced onion, minced garlic, scallions, mirin, dark brown sugar, black pepper, blended Korean pear, gochujang, soy sauce, gochugaru, sesame oil, and kimchi in a large mixing bowl; mix well to combine

3. Take your pork belly* and/or jowl and divvy them equally into the 2 Ziploc bags; add in half of the marinade per bag and give both a good mix so the marinade fully coats the meat; refrigerate overnight

* Even though we won’t be using the full pieces of pork belly in the tacos, I wouldn’t cut the pork into smaller pieces until after you BBQ otherwise the pieces will fall through the BBQ grate; same goes with the kimchi

Making the tacos:

1. BBQ the pork — I did this on High heat on half the grill and Medium heat on the other half; it’s really difficult to account for everyone’s grill strength and pork thicc-ness so I don’t have any cooking time associated with this unfortunately...the good news is you can easily cut the meat to check doneness and adjust accordingly; if you don’t have access to a BBQ (or if it’s just raining), you can also cook this meat in a pan over a stove

2. [Optional: if you have a cast iron pan, you can also heat this up on the grill and sautée the onions and kimchi from the marinade; just make sure to cook very thoroughly since it was in contact with raw pork!  You can also do this over a stove in a regular/non-stick pan]

3. Once all the meat is cooked, put it aside until it’s cool enough to handle; in the meantime, thinly shave some green or purple cabbage, cut up some lime wedges, and heat up your tortillas (I did this in a non-stick pan, one at a time; no oil necessary)

4. When the pork has cooled enough to handle, cut up the pork into smaller pieces for the tacos

I like to make these tacos with a little shaved cabbage topped with some of the BBQ’ed pork, a squeeze of lime (optional), and some more fresh kimchi (either on the tacos or on the side).  Sometimes, I like to add some Kewpie mayo on the tacos =]

Enjoy with Hite, Cass, or OB beer (Korean lagers)!

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