Name: Korean Beef Bulgogi BBQ at the Team Family Tailgate
Prep time: 10 h
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 10 h 10 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 1 pound very thinly sliced Beef Rib Eye (found at any international market and many supermarkets); 3 Tablespoons soy sauce; 2 teaspoons sesame oil; 1 Tablespoon rice wine; 1 Tablespoon water; 2 Tablespoons or more Brown Sugar (many Koreans like their meat with a sweeter flavor and add more sugar, Asian pear or juice, even cola but I add this amount of sugar when I prepare Bulgogi at home; 4 scallions, sliced lengthwise and cut into thirds; 4 large cloves garlic, crushed; 2 onions, peeled and cut into crescents; 3 teaspoons fresh chopped ginger; 1 bunch of red leaf lettuce, cleaned and separated; 1 container of Korean red pepper paste, or hot red pepper paste

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Korean Beef Bulgogi BBQ at the Team Family Tailgate

Even Chefs and well-seasoned cooks have favorite foods that they prefer purchasing fresh, ready-made by a specialized source.

My favorite fresh, ready-made foods are Banchan, the broad variety of Korean side dishes served in both restaurants and many Korean homes, always accompanied with a bowl of rice.

A big selection of Banchan are available at any local Korean market.

Each fall sports season to honor my youngest daughter, Alex who was born in Korea, I make one of my weekly Team Family Tailgate contributions a Korean Beef Bulgogi BBQ and share foods of her culture with others from among the many tasty foods that she loves.

If you do not Tailgate, Korean BBQ is a great party theme anytime.

Along with Beef Bulgogi, and rice, when you see below some of the many varied side dishes available, all very healthy too, you may agree that there is a dish to suit most every kind of taste. I have captioned the Banchan using English name product ingredients.

Beef Bulgogi is likely one of the most popular dishes in Korean food, including among Koreans who regularly serve it at cultural events and special occasion gatherings at their local churches along with many other traditional Korean specialties.

Beef Bulgogi is frequently the first dish that people will try at a Korean restaurant when initially becoming acquainted with the food. Since the flavor of Beef Bulgogi is so good, sometimes folks enjoy it so much that it takes a while for them to move forward in tasting some of the other fabulous dishes that Korean cuisine has to offer.

One helpful Tailgate tip if grilling your Beef Bulgogi at the Tailgate is to grill it on well oiled grill trays. This prevents small slices of meat from falling into the grill.

With the grilled Bulgogi at the Tailgate I provide a large bowl of fresh red leaf lettuce leaves alongside a bowl of Korean red pepper paste, an essential ingredient to eating Bulgogi.

Each guest can then make their own Bulgogi lettuce bundle and move down the table spooning a little of each of the selections of the Banchan provided on the table.

Rice is always served with a Korean meal and may be added onto the lettuce bundle too. I take a rice cooker to the Tailgate site where it is cooked and kept hot until the team is ready to join the guests following the game and everybody can then enjoy the post celebratory meal together.

Seasoned Seaweed

Cabbage Kimchi

Seasoned Eggplant

Seasoned Daikon Radish

Prepared Korean Banchan with Beef Bulgogi and rice at a Tailgate also makes for an easy week of food preparation, especially at season junctures where along with travel time there are two games and two Tailgates in one weekend.

The bigger part of the job in providing such a broad range of dishes is being sure to package each of the selected Banchan into leak proof containers and stacking them evenly to prevent tipping in the cooler.

Muk seasoned with sesame oil and black sesame seeds, it resembles a gelatin

Today I observe a real assimilation of Korean food into the mainstream culture from years past. At last year’s Tailgate when I served Korean BBQ I only provided one large container of Kimchi. I unwittingly became like many a Korean mother unsure how many non-Koreans would enjoy this dish. There was one string of scallion left in the bowl: the dish was immediately empty.

This year when I provide Korean BBQ at the Team Family Tailgate, I am sure to provide a larger offering of Kimchi. Hope you enjoy the Korean BBQ at your next theme party or upcoming Tailgate. Go Team!!!