Do targeted ads work? I have to say that sometimes they do. I kept seeing ads on my Instagram feed for the Korean BBQ Kit, and it looked amazing and intriguing. It took me quite a while to give it a try though, as it was always available in Los Angeles, but only sporadically available in San Francisco. I finally did manage to find a time when it was available, and I hadn’t planned on cooking anything extravagant, so I placed an order. I found out later that it is affiliated with um.ma, a Korean restaurant in San Francisco I had wanted to try before COVID hit, so I was extra excited to give it a try.
For $60 for two people, you get the whole kit consisting of pork belly (and for extra you can change the meat or get extra meat), a selection of banchan (kimchi, corn cheese, sweet and sour cucumbers and sesame bean sprouts), 2 servings of white rice, several dips and toppings, seaweed snacks and an extra bottle of K-pop kimchi mayonnaise. Honestly, some of the stuff I could have probably made at home (as I’ve been doing Korean a lot), but it’s nice when you don’t have to think about it and it all comes ready for you to cook.
Given it’s Korean barbeque, there is the tricky situation of how to cook it at home, as I don’t have a fancy schmancy gas grill at the table like the restaurants have.. Their website also sells some barbeque grills, but I decided to try using a steakstone a friend had given me randomly at a party (yes, weird things happen) to try to sear the meat. I also chose to upgrade from pork belly to beef short ribs. Almost everything else can be eaten as is, but you do need to heat up the corn and the rice in the microwave before serving.
Honestly, I was pretty impressed with everything in the kit. Sadly, I’m still learning how to heat up my steakstone, so it could have been hotter for actually cooking the meat, but it did pretty well and the marinated meat was full of flavor. The corn cheese was really unusual, but super tasty! Some of the dips weren’t that interesting (for me), but the spicy gochujang sauce was a winner! The whole experience was really a lot of fun, and definitely something I look forward to ordering again sometime! If you live in the San Francisco or Los Angeles area, you can order your kits here.
Score: 4.5/5
