Annyeonghasaeyo! Shall we have some Galbi BBQ tonight for dinner? Galbi (갈비) or Gaibi-gui (갈비구이) is grilled ribs. The word gui stands for a grilled dish while galbi stands for ribs, but most people call galbi for short.
This popular plate of Korean dish is usually made with beef short ribs that come from the chuck portion. In the chuck section, there are some shorter ribs which are not the standard sizes for ribs. Hence, these are taken out as short ribs.
Galbi is often served raw on the tables with diners cooking their galbi on tabletop grills. There is always the marinated and non-marinated short ribs that are featured in Korean BBQ.
All in the CUT
Traditionally, galbi is called Wang Galbi, or rather, King Ribs. In this version, the short ribs are cut across the bones by butterflying away the meat into 2-3 inch segments from the bone to create a thin, flat layer of meat having the bone connected at one side.
The traditional cut is hard to come by in the western countries, so when Koreans immigrated to Los Angeles, people started using the LA Cut or in other areas, the flanken cut. The meat is cut across the rib bone for these flanken-cut ribs.
Thus, thin slices of beef with a cross-section of the rib bone are along one side. The high point about these version of cuts is that they make galbi much faster to cook.
To marinate the short ribs well, the slab of beef is often scored on each side to allow the flavours to seep in.
A taste of Pear-fection!
Can you imagine the taste of placing a piece of cooked galbi into your mouths? It is sweet, salty, with a glaze of BBQ flavour!
Well, most galbi and bulgogi uses the Asian Pear in their marinade, which gives an enhanced natural sweet taste to the galbi. Having a burst of flavour to the galbi, it is the taste of pear-fection!
The marinade is made of ingredients such as a blended Asian pear, soy sauce, honey or brown sugar, garlic, onion, ginger and pepper to taste. The ingredients are made of easily found herbs and spices and can be found in most grocery stores.
Grilling
Anybody can grill an excellent galbi dish! You do not need a certificate to grill a perfect galbi. Place the butterflied short ribs on the tabletop grill or any grill available and cook each side for about 3-4 minutes. Make sure both sides, through and voila, galbi BBQ is served!
Pairing it up
Indeed, you can have the galbi on its own just like pieces of steak, but nothing beats eating galbi in the Korean way.
Cooked galbi pieces are usually paired with lettuces or perilla leaves, kimchi and a special ssamjang dipping sauce! Indeed, a burst of flavours will fill the entire mouth with sweet, salty, tenderised short ribs and a tinge of freshness from the vegetables.
Kimchi is always the pair for any Korean dish as the staple can be found everywhere. While galbi is marinated well, some would like to bring it to the next level with the ssamjang dipping sauce made of soybean paste, hot pepper paste, green onion, minced garlic, honey, sesame oil and sesame seeds.
Not only does the sauce ups the galbi game to another level, but it does also add some spicy kick to the beloved dish.
Where to get some Galbi BBQ?
Galbi BBQ is a special dish for all occasions, dine-in or at home! Midam Korean BBQ Restaurant offers assorted beef galbi BBQ, and you can order some chicken galbi BBQ from Oiso Korean Restaurant if you are not a beef lover.
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