We often find that a particular food tends to be served together with certain other dishes that complement it well. The reason is undoubtedly that in the course of long experience, people came to realize that the two different foods went well together and that the contrast between them made both dishes all the more delicious. In Korea, bulgogi is usually served with kimchi and with ssam.
Ssam refers to various green leaf vegetables which are used for wrapping pieces of meat into bite-size bundles, adding a little fermented soybean paste and perhaps some rice. The vegetables used for this are primarily lettuce, sesame leaves, sukgat (crown daisy) or dandelion leaves, chwinamul leaves (aster), or even parboiled young pumpkin leaves. Outside of Korea, this way of using leaf vegetables is found in some parts of Mongolia but appears to be unknown elsewhere.
In modern times, a new ingredient has been developed to add the perfect touch to these leafy bundles: ssamjang. When soybeans are cooked, fermented, and salted, the result is soybean paste. When these fermented beans are mixed with larger quantities of grains and chili powder and fermented again, they produce chili paste. When used with leafy bundles, the soybean paste can be a bit too salty, and the chili paste too spicy, overpowering the taste of the meat. So ssamjang is made by mixing the two pastes together in just the right proportions to make an ideal flavoring for leafy bundles. With its combination of rice, meat, vegetables, and soybean paste (or ssamjang), bulgogi offers a balanced intake of necessary nutrients without the greasy aftertaste that is left by many forms of meat. |