Woorijip has been my to-go place for years when I want some Korean food. The food is affordable and good but not great. Their kimbaps are good and great if you add a miso soup for $1 but my friend was right when she said their kimbaps tasted old. Once in a while you’ll find a random gem. My most recent trip to Woorijip I had no idea what I wanted to eat so I walked up and down the hot food section. Nothing really stood out for me and so I ended up getting the pork spare ribs since it was the only thing I haven’t tried before. For $5.50, not including tax, you get a container of spare ribs and a small steamed rice.
I took it back to work, sat down at my desk and opened the container not having too much hope for it. I was thinking it’s going to be just okay with the spare ribs a little tough to chew. I took a bite of the pork and was BLEW AWAY by how freakin’ awesome it was! It was super tender and delicious. The sauce was equally good but couldn’t figure out what went into the sauce besides the very obvious ginger flavor. I poured all the sauce into my container of rice, mixed it and it was heeeaaavveeeeennn.

Thanks Woorijip for totally surprising me.

- Woorijip 12 West 32nd Street New York

What would you do with a 2.5lb slab of pork belly? I can always just do my usual “sake braised pork belly” or just plain roast the thing in the oven. Looking around the kitchen and in the fridge trying to see what I need to use up before they go bad. Also stashed in my to-do recipes book, I thought about doing a roasted pork belly with miso paste. Well as always I have miso paste in the fridge. Okay what else, mint from few weeks ago, rice wine?, yakitori salt that my friend got me in Japan, ginger and peppercorns. I thought about curing the belly with just the salt and peppercorn but there wasn’t enough salt to cure the whole slab. In my mind the ginger and mint should work good together right? A little spicy and a little refreshing.
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