Palsaik Samgyupsal
Palsaik Samgyeopsal serves pork belly meat (samgyupsal)
They are seasoned or perhaps marinated with eight (pal) special sauces.
All the sauces have different colours (saik)
eight + colour + porkbelly = Palsaik Samgyupsal
The flavours are amazing and the novelty fun is the constant bickering over which is the best flavour: ginger, wine, ginseng, pine leaves, herbs, curry, soybean paste, and chilli pepper paste or gochujang (as it’s known in Korea). My personal favourite is the pine leaves, but I enjoyed all the other flavours too. Each sauce has its own nutritional benefits, however, I’m not sure of eating one of the fattier parts of a pig counts as well-being food. I read some research not long ago about pork fat producing some kind of chemicals in the brain to make you feel good – like pineapple and chilli. Every time I eat samgyupsal I feel great, mentally. I would recommend this place as a great introduction to samgyupsal, my only reservation is that it is perhaps too good. This may lead to the typical street corner BBQ places being pretty run of the mill. If you are a seasoned veteran when it comes to samgyupsal, I still think this place would provide something of a welcome surprise. As you can see from the map there hare various branches in other global locations. This is one of the flagfliers for the wave of Korean food which is set to sweep across the early 21st century – along with Bibigo’s bibimbap and Kimchi. If you have a chance to visit I strongly recommend you take the opportunity. It does smell of clever marketing and contrived advertising copy, but the flavours are real and the atmosphere is authentic.
There are various options available, but if it’s your first visit then you should definitely get the whole lot. The aesthetics alone make this the best option because they come in their own small bowls on a long wooden serving tray. The rest is as you would expect from any BBQ place, just throw it on and cut it up with the scissors once it’s done. Due to the often messy nature of fat spitting and sauces dripping you have the option of wearing an apron. This is a feature of many dalkgalbi restaurants in Korea, but it’s the first time I’ve seen it in a samgyupsal place.
There are a few branches around Seoul (and the World) but I visited the branch off the main shopping area in Sincheon. Come out of Exit three and walk up the street to Paris Baguette, turn right immediately before Paris Baguette then follow the road which bears left for about 75m. It’s on your left as you walk up the street. If you get lost type this into a naver map: 팔색삼겹살
The Happy Wanderer 