Welcome to South Korea, where you DIY your barbecue
Wrap a slice of lettuce with a pork belly morsel dipped in condiments
As delicious as this looks, barbecuing wasn't always so popular in South Korea
Meat consumption in South Korea grew in tandem with economic growth
From 1970 to 2015, South Korea's GDP per capita grew almost 100 times
During the same period, meat consumption also increased almost 10 times
With recent experiences of poverty and war, many South Koreans associated meat-eating
with abundance and wealth
They would eat any kind of meat they could afford
Previously, they boiled meat to make soup to maximize its use
With more meat to eat, South Koreans started grilling more often
But how did 'Korean BBQ' come to be defined by pork belly -- samgyeopsal in Korean?
In fact, South Koreans eat a lot of pork
In 2016, half of meat consumed was pork
In the past, Koreans preferred beef over pork
The predilection dates back to Joseon Dynasty
Even in early 70s, eating pork was associated with greying hair or lethal parasitic infestation
So what changed all this?
Price and availability, most likely
So one theory goes, South Korea's hog industry grew massively around Busan in the 1970s
to meet demands from Japan
Because Japanese preferred lean meat, greasy pork belly was notably left out
Another theory is South Korea's rapid urbanization gave way to an increase in pork consumption
During the urban development of the 1970s, poor rural migrants who moved to Seoul started
grilling pork -- especially the parts that were thrown out
such as pork belly, skin and skirt meat
So South Koreans started marinating it in soy sauce, cooking with gochujang or making
a bite-size lettuce wrap with white rice, garlic cloves and sauce
The rise of pork belly in South Korea cannot be talked about without mentioning SOJU
South Korea's unofficial national drink
From the early 80s, it was common to pair samgyeopsal with soju shots to balance out
the greasiness of the meat -- be it in cramped alleyways in Seoul or on mountain tops
If the advent of pork belly had to do with South Korea's export industry and urbanization
It was during the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis that samgyeopsal became
the king of Korean BBQ
Due to its affordability, financially struggling families and companies started dining out
at cheap pork belly joints, instead of more expensive beef barbecue restaurants
And some families would just grill at home on those portable butane gas burners that
became available
Today, pork belly is more than just a cheap option
Well, because it's not that cheap any more because of high demand
In 2015, 350,000 tons of pork was imported to South Korea
despite the increasing domestic supply
40 percent of imported pork, you guessed it, was samgyeopsal
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