My uncle’s brother was in town, so we had a little bbq in Delaware. It’s usually my uncle’s job man the grill, but for whatever reason, my mom was womanning the grill this time.
Before we started cooking outside, earlier in the day, we had a little snack. It was fairly simple really, just some raw fish. I can’t really call it anything else, because that’s all it was, a plate of raw fish. There was some spicy kochujang to dip it in, some sliced raw garlic, and some red leaf lettuce or perilla leaves to roll it in. But any way you looked at it, it was just sliced raw fish on a plate. Delicious raw fish, at that.
Once we started our proper dinner, we kicked things off with a noodle dish. This isn’t the first time my aunt has made this. But what’s not to like? We have soba noodles as the main starch, and cucumbers, watercress, and shredded perilla leaves for veggies. Then we have squid, shrimp, and imitation crab meat for seafood.
Everything is mixed together with a spicy kochujang sauce, not unlike the dip that we were using for the raw fish earlier. That’s all there is to it! I hate perilla leave, with a passion, so I make sure to get a batch without it. It’s that gross to me. But without the perilla leaves, I just love this stuff. And for a hot summer day, cold noodles with veggies and seafood are perfect.
Here’s the galbi that my mom, the griller of the day, cooked up. I prefer pieces that are nearly, if not actually, burnt. I’m odd that way.
My mom also marinated up some dried file fish and grilled those up.
Here they are after they’ve been cooked. They were a bit too salty for my liking.
She also marinated some large pieces of squid. My mom always scores the flesh with crosshatches on one side, so they can curl. I’m not sure if it’s necessary, but it’s fun watching them curl up. It was another lovely, lazy, and food-filled day!

While in Bend we were staying at a kick ass condo that had pretty much every amenity you could ask for. There was a balcony in front and a raised deck and patio out back. And the patio had a perfect little grill. So one night we grilled up some steaks and asparagus and I caramelized some onions. Everything turned out really well, except for the extra burnt pieces of asparagus. But I really like burnt things, so I didn’t mind at all! I also grilled up some sweet corn, but it wasn’t very sweet. Trader Joe’s, you lied to me!

Another night, we switched to chicken. I can’t do just plain, so I grilled up some pineapple rings (thanks for the brilliant idea, J), and also used sweet baby ray’s hickory & brown sugar bbq sauce, which I’m rather loving right now. It’s hard not to grill when you have amazing sunny and warm, not hot, weather and are surrounded by majestic freakin pacific northwest beauty.

Memorial Day weekend gives my family an excuse to get together and do pretty much nothing but eat. We went to my aunt’s house in delaware, as usual, and started the festivities with these korean style pancakes. Mrs. W brought these over. This is really the easiest way to cook them. It’s an electric non-stick skillet. Just throw in some oil, which gives you the crispiness, and cook them on each side until they’re lightly browned.

They weren’t typical, in fact, they had shrimp and broccoli in them. And because the batter had some yeast in it, they were a bit on the puffy side. So chopped up raw shrimp, chopped broccoli, julienned zucchnii, and chopped scallion. And voila, lovely shrimp and broccoli pajeon. You can buy dipping sauce or just make some with soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, sesame oil, and whatever else you want.

Next up we had some riblets. We didn’t have actual proper courses or anything, we aren’t that fancy. It’s just that we started off with one thing, and then just ended up moving to the next dish, and then cooking the next thing, etc. We also had some lovely lettuce from my mom’s friend’s garden so we could make little riblet ssams. You know, like the fancy people do at momofuku and what not.

It was memorial day weekend, so you know what that means. That’s right peeps, it means firing up the grill. So as usual, my uncle manned the grill and we had some korean bbq. How easy are these to make? Super easy. You go to H-Mart and buy them marinated. Then you throw them on the grill. It doesn’t get easier than that.

Alongside the ribs, we grilled up some spicy dried file fish that my mom prepared. They were extremely thin and delicate and were boney, so you had to be careful. These had tons of flavor, but were a tad too salty for my palate.

We ate rice too, like the asians are known to do. And we had plenty of banchan. There were random green things that I did not eat. There was tons of spicy kongnamul, or soybean sprouts to you, which is one of my favorite banchan in the whole wide world. There was kimchi too, not made with your typical napa cabbage, but this one was quite the hit with everyone. I particularly liked it.

What did I do at this feast? The only thing I was in charge of was the corn on the cob. I peeled back all the husks and removed all the silks. If you can, get someone else to do this, because it’s a pain in the ass. Then put the husks back into place.  Then soak these bad boys in water before putting them on the grill. The soaking will help steam these beauties. Don’t worry about burning the husks, the corn inside will be perfectly fine. Make sure to not undercook them. I got a little scared and took them off the grill too soon. It was still good, but because it was slightly undercooked, they weren’t freakishly sweet, like they could have been. They were just normal sweet. Don’t make my mistake!

We even had dessert! This doesn’t typically happen. My aunt happened to have this lemon cake, which was pretty f’in lemony and amazing and beyond moist. I wanted to eat the whole thing. But alas, I controlled myself and shared.

We had our little bbq the day before memorial day. On actual memorial day, we didn’t really do much. My mom brought some berries and I happily ate them up for breakfast.

Later in the day for a late lunch, we had miyeok guk, which is a korean seaweed soup. When my mom makes this, she just cuts up meat. But my aunt’s version had rib meat in it and I think she had basically stewed the meat so that it fell off the bone and was super tender. I literally ate all of the meat from the entire pot of this. We didn’t just eat well this weekend, we also cooked! Or at least my mom and my aunt did. Recipes coming up next!