Perfect Harmony of Land and Sea: Osam Bulgogi
Perfect Harmony of Land and Sea: Osam Bulgogi
What dishes truly bring together the best of land and sea?
If someone asked me that, a few contenders would spring to mind.
Haeshintang, for one — a restorative stew that ranks among the finest imperial tonics, simmered with chicken, octopus, abalone, and a whole catch of other seafood.
Then there's samhap, a dish literally named for bringing three ingredients together on a single bite.
The most famous version is hongeo samhap — fermented skate, pork belly, and kimchi wrapped together. But there are others: beef, pen shell, and shiitake mushrooms make up Jangheung samhap, and if you swap the skate for octopus, you get octopus samhap.
Beyond those, you've got stuffed squid, assorted fried platters — plenty of dishes that marry surf and turf in their own way. But personally, if I had to name the single most accessible dish that nails the harmony of sea and land, I'd pick osam bulgogi every time.
It's dead simple to cook, and it doesn't demand a long list of ingredients.
It's the kind of thing the army would actually serve as a side dish. That says plenty.
You don't even strictly need pork belly — plenty of times I've used shoulder cuts or whatever stir-fry meat was on hand.
'The Knight Order loved it back in the day, too.'
Even when I had to work with squid that was days past fresh, it still got solid reviews.
Truth be told, I'd originally planned to make stir-fried squid.
Squid body scored in a honeycomb pattern, well-trimmed tentacles, tossed in a hot pan with vegetables — stir-fried squid is a top-tier dish. Pour the sauce over rice for a rice bowl, or serve it as a standalone side. Either way, it's perfect.
But Andrea wasn't exactly enthusiastic about seafood, so I tweaked the menu a little.
The ultimate dish for introducing our picky eater to a new flavor!
And that dish was squid and pork belly bulgogi. Osam bulgogi, for short.
"Bldi, bring over the minced Gallek."
"Th-this one, sir?"
"That's the one."
She shuffled over, clutching the container of minced garlic with visible hesitation.
The moment I opened the lid, Bldi gave a full-body shudder.
"Ah, aahh..."
"The smell's strong. Stand back a step."
I could've sworn she was salivating at the sight of the Gallek — or rather, the garlic. Probably wasn't my imagination.
Coco and Seonji had both gone absolutely crazy for garlic too, after all.
"Y-yes, sir! Understood. Slurp."
First, I scored the peeled squid bodies in a honeycomb pattern.
Scoring with mana flowing through the blade meant I had to juggle about ten things at once.
'It cuts too easily.'
That was always the downside of using mana to slice ingredients.
Everything cuts like butter, so the real challenge is controlling how deep you go.
Scoring is harder than chopping through solid ingredients. What a pain.
'Is there a machine that auto-scores squid? Somebody invent one.'
With every diagonal cut, a fresh groove appeared in the pale white flesh of the squid body.
I didn't strictly have to peel the skin off, but I wanted a softer texture, so I'd gone ahead and removed it.
This was a staff meal, after all. A little extra care was warranted.
'If this ever becomes a regular menu item, I won't have time to peel every squid.'
I cut the squid into larger pieces than I would for hoe.
Squid shrinks when you cook it, so you need to start with bigger chunks.
'Given how much these girls put away, I should probably do two whole squid, right?'
With pork belly going into the mix too, three would've been overkill.
This fresh, I could've just served the squid raw — hoe or mulhoe, the way I'd done for Michelle — no cooking required. But there's a catch to eating nothing but raw squid.
'It makes you crave alcohol.'
And I'm not about to start pounding soju first thing in the morning while I'm working.
So it had to be a cooked banchan. What choice did I have?
I tossed the cut squid with chili powder, soy sauce, gochujang, a dab of doenjang, minced garlic, minced ginger, cooking wine, and sugar.
Chop-chop-chop-chop.
While I massaged the seasoning into the squid with a spoon, I called out to Andrea.
"Get the pork belly going on the frying pan."
"You want the meat cooked first?"
"Yeah. Makes the stir-fry taste better."
"How many strips should I cook?"
"How much do you want to eat?"
Her eyes lit up.
"Three strips?"
"Make it four. That ought to be about right."
It wasn't as if we were only going to eat one meal and then clean up.
"Got it!"
Andrea, grinning ear to ear, laid the pork belly onto the hot pan. While she worked on that, I started chopping the vegetables for the osam bulgogi.
"I-I'd like to help too... if I m-may."
Bldi had shuffled up beside me, fumbling over her words.
"Wipe down those bowls and plates over there."
"Th-these will do?"
"Yeah."
Michelle, who'd long since polished off her mulhoe, watched me quietly.
"You certainly know a wide range of dishes."
"Gotta do what it takes to make a living."
"What is this one called?"
Michelle pointed at the seasoned squid.
"That's the prep for stir-fried squid. Once I toss it with that pork belly over there, it becomes osam bulgogi."
"..."
Her gaze drifted toward the pork belly sizzling on the pan, letting out a steady hiss.
"Why bother stir-frying it with land meat?"
"Because they cancel out each other's weaknesses."
"Weaknesses?"
"That's right."
I kept talking as I sliced green onion, onion, and cabbage.
"What would you say squid's weakness is?"
"...I'm not sure. I've never really thought about it."
"Compared to land meat, it lacks savory depth. It's got that chewy texture, sure, but the lean protein just doesn't carry the same richness."
"Then..."
"That pork sizzling over there — that's what fills in squid's shortcomings."
"And what's the weakness of Pog meat, then?"
I answered Michelle's question while chopping hot peppers into fine rings.
"Hmm. It's got deep flavor, but it's fatty and a little short on pure protein. The range of textures you get from the meat alone is limited, too."
"And the squid compensates for that?"
"Exactly."
If we're being completely honest here, pork belly doesn't really have a weakness when it comes to flavor. It's an all-rounder. A flawless hexagon, you might say.
So the squid was doing more to shore up the pork belly's limited texture and nutritional profile than the other way around.
'But I'm not going to spell all that out in exhaustive detail...'
A little strategic glossing-over never hurt anyone.
Still, it was true — the two ingredients compensated for each other's gaps to create a genuinely perfect dish.
Osam bulgogi was a certified hit back at the Knight Restaurant for exactly that reason.
A dish that perfectly satisfied people who wanted seafood but also weren't willing to give up their pork.
Osam bulgogi.
I was going to introduce them to this beloved Knight Restaurant classic.
'Sure, the Empire has its hang-ups about squid...'
But Andrea the elf and Bldi the vampire didn't seem to have any particular aversion to it.
'Though why Michelle's so crazy about squid, I honestly couldn't tell you...'
She seemed to have some secret she didn't particularly want to shine a light on.
Everyone's got things they'd rather keep to themselves.
No reason to go prying.
The last thing I wanted was to make things awkward and lose a regular.
Sizzle-pop.
By the time all the vegetables were prepped, the aroma of perfectly cooked pork belly had drifted all the way over.
"It's ready!"
Andrea pointed at the pork belly, which had achieved a flawless, golden-brown Maillard reaction.
Her face was already the picture of eager anticipation.
"Set the meat aside and leave the pan as-is."
"Understood."
Andrea removed the pork, and I dumped all the chopped vegetables straight onto the rendered fat and browned bits left behind in the pan.
Green onion, onion, cabbage, a little carrot for color, and the hot peppers for kick.
The pork fat coated every surface of the vegetables in a glossy sheen.
I gave it all a light sprinkle of soy sauce.
That was my secret step — a touch of seasoning for the vegetables that also deepened the overall savoriness.
I stir-fried the vegetables in the pork fat and soy sauce until they'd just started to wilt, then added the pre-seasoned squid and kept tossing.
Tssssss!
The spicy seasoning bubbled and sizzled around the squid, releasing an impossibly good smell.
Spicy and savory, with rich, roasted notes. That scent. The one layered with rendered meat fat that practically hypnotizes you.
'This is the smell of a Knight Restaurant.'
Once the squid — the last ingredient to hit the pan — was just about cooked through, I added the seared pork belly back in.
And with that, osam bulgogi was born in full.
I worked the meat and seasoning together with a spatula so the sauce coated everything evenly. Left hand on the pan handle, right hand on the spatula — proper wok technique — giving it one last blast of wok hei.
'What I wouldn't give for some Hwayu right now.'
A splash of Hwayu would've made that wok-fired flavor effortless. Instead, I had to earn it the hard way.
The oil and sauce caught the stabbing flames of the Flare Range and bloomed into tiny bursts of fire.
While Lucas stir-fried the osam bulgogi, three sets of eyes were locked on the pan.
And though Lucas didn't know it, each of the three women was salivating for a different reason.
'That meat smells insane... a bowl of rice mixed with that would be absolute heaven, right?'
Andrea, a carnivore's-carnival elf who'd already adapted 120% to Korean food, had her attention fixed on the pork belly and the spicy osam bulgogi.
'Squid... the raw fish and mulhoe were delicious, but I wonder what it tastes like stir-fried?'
Michelle's focus was on the squid, sizzling in the seasoning.
'G-Gallek smell... hehehe.'
Bldi trembled faintly as she inhaled the sharp, pungent scent of garlic.
Michelle kept sneaking glances at the sweat running down Lucas's forehead and cheeks beneath his headband, and the way his forearm muscles moved with every toss of the wok.
'W-wow, he's incredibly strong.'
Maybe it was because she'd already filled up on hoe and mulhoe?
Her gaze kept drifting, drawn to Lucas's forearms.
The focused intensity of his gaze, the beads of sweat, the thick muscles of his arms glistening damply —
Smack!
Without realizing it, she brought both hands up and clapped them against her own cheeks.
"Sh-shameless. What kind of thoughts are you having, watching a chef hard at work..."
When Lucas finished the stir-fry and shut off the Flare Range, Michelle let out a small, inward sigh of disappointment.
"Ahh..."
And that was a reaction Michelle herself didn't consciously register.
"Alright. Let's eat."
At Lucas's words, Andrea immediately set about arranging the table, as if she'd been waiting for exactly that cue.
"Bldi, you too — move. You're slow."
"S-s-sorry!"
Bldi followed Andrea's lead, scooping rice into bowls and ferrying them to the table.
Clink.
Michelle, who'd been watching Lucas set the heated frying pan onto a trivet on the table with a slightly dazed expression, raised a hand.
"Excuse me, Sir Lucas. If it wouldn't be an intrusion... might I join you?"
"Ah... was the earlier meal not enough?"
The moment the words left Lucas's mouth, both he and Michelle registered them with a mutual wince.
Asking a young noblewoman expected to uphold elegance and dignity whether she'd had enough to eat?
That was a question that would get you called rude in any world.
"N-no, it's not that. I was simply curious. About this osam bulgogi dish."
Andrea shot her a look and shook her head, mouth slightly open.
The gesture meant "there won't be enough for my share," but Lucas knew perfectly well there'd be plenty left.
The osam bulgogi already on the table was easily six servings or more.
"Of course. You're more than welcome to join us."
The jewels Michelle had already handed over were exceptionally rare, after all.
"Thank you."
Before Lucas started eating, he took Bldi's bowl and spooned a generous portion of osam bulgogi over her rice.
Then he drizzled a red sauce over the top.
That was Bldi's special sauce.
Andrea, who knew Bldi was a vampire, would recognize immediately what Lucas had just poured over her food.
Fresh blood.
'Next time, I'll make you squid sundae.'
This was meant as a stand-in.
"Th-th-thank you... M-Master..."
Michelle, who had no way of knowing what it was, blinked at him.
"What was that you just added?"
"A special sauce for Bldi. She can't eat without it."
"Then might I also..."
"That one's not available, I'm afraid. It's a sauce only she can eat."
"Ah..."
As she sighed in disappointment, I took her bowl and spooned osam bulgogi onto one side of the rice, rice-bowl style.
"If you want more, just use the ladle and help yourself."
"Thank you."
"Boss, me too!"
"Yeah, I've got you."
I piled the osam bulgogi high onto Andrea's bowl and my own, too.
Even after all that, there was plenty left.
'We're going to have a ton of leftovers.'
Looked like I could pack it up and serve it again for dinner.
"Bon appétit!"
"Thank you for the meal!"
"Th-th-thank you for the m-meal! Ack!"
"I'll eat well."
With Bldi's tongue-biting pratfall providing the opening act, I mixed the osam bulgogi into my rice and lifted a spoonful.
My mouth started reacting before the spicy food even touched my tongue.
Saliva pooled, and I guided the spoon straight in.
"Hoo-ah!"
Delicious.