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Jeju’s Black Pork BBQ and Horse-shaped Lighthouses

7 November 2022

The best way to pamper ourselves after a day of physical workout hiking up and down Hallasan is to enjoy Jeju’s Black Pork BBQ.


 
We went to Neulbom Heukdwaeji, one of the larger restaurants in Jeju specialising in this cuisine. There are many similar restaurants but this one comes highly recommended. It is also located on our way back from Hallasan to Jeju City.

The two-storey Neulbom Heukdwaeji restaurant that specialises in black pork barbecue and uses pork only from Jeju Island.

There is a cafe and also sitting area with sofas on the ground floor. We took the escalator up to the second floor where the main restaurant is located. In mainland Korea, one would usually go for Korean beef at a BBQ restaurant. In Jeju, the main protein served in BBQ restaurants is the black pig. 

Jeju’s black pig originated in Manchuria and are carefully bred since the 1400s in Korea to provide the pork’s unique colour, taste, and texture. The meat is redder, does not have the gamely pork smell and the texture is crunchier.

Black pork on sale in Dongmun Market.

The best way to enjoy the meat is to cook it on the BBQ grill, Korean style. The locals like their meat with a bit of fat on it. Hence, the pork belly or samgyeopsal (translated as 3 layers of fat and meat) is the most prized cut.

Our group of 8 persons was seated on a large long table, with 4 persons sharing a grill. It costs 22,000 KWR per 180 grams order of the meat. For my group of 4 sharing a grill, we had 3 orders of 3 pork belly and 1 order of pork collar initially. The pork was so good that we added one more order of the pork collar later on.

4 pieces of thick slab of black pork on the charcoal grill.

Not all BBQ restaurants in Jeju use the charcoal grill for cooking the meat. Some restaurants use gas with a metal hot plate to cook the meat. Neulbom restaurant uses hot charcoal to grill the pork which in my opinion provides better charred flavour from the fat dripping onto the hot coals.

Our meal included ample portions of free side dishes or banchan as shown below.

There is also free flow of crispy fresh lettuce leaves that are to be used to wrap the grilled meat. In Neulbom restaurant, there is also a unique sauce that is provided called the myeolchi-jeot. This is a salty anchovy-based dipping sauce that comes in a small metal bowl and placed on the side of the grill to keep warm.

After browning the outside of the pork, the staff uses a pair of scissors to cut the meat into bite size pieces and we were to let it cook further.

The staff was pretty busy, having to serve a few tables. So we were left pretty much to cook the pork ourselves. Being experienced with grilling meat at home, that was not a problem for us. 

Like most good BBQ restaurants in Korea, there is an air extractor above the grill to suck out all the smoke and oil from the grilling meat.

The way to eat the grilled meat, Korean style, is to dip it in the myeolchi-jeot and/or ssamjang, and then wrapped it with the fresh lettuce leaves. One can also include some pickled onions or fresh garlic into the wrap as well.

Once done, the whole package is put into the mouth. Eating pork this way, I can smell the charred flavour from the crispy, rendered fat and taste the crunchy meat, with crispy greens plus the kick from the dipping sauce.

The meal is best eaten with drinks of soju, beer and makgeolli. Makgeolli is milky, off-white, and lightly sparkling rice wine that is a little sweet in taste.

Overall, we enjoyed the drinks and dinner and also the good company. Once done, we went downstairs to have free coffee from the vending machine while waiting for our driver to pick us up. Some of us actually paid 8,000 KWR for 2 cups of Americano from the cafe at the ground floor, thinking that they were complimentary but actually not! The free coffee are those from the vending machine!

My original plan was to visit Iho Tewoo Beach in the evening to see the unique horse-shaped lighthouses at sunset. But we started our hike at Hallasan too late and our hike took too long.

Even though it was now dark, our driver took us to view the light houses at night before driving us back to our hotel along the rainbow coastal road.

Unique Horse-shaped lighthouses at Iho Tewoo Beach.

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