Male: In villages and performance halls across South Korea, traditional music and dance are kept alive. One of the most important forms is called Nong-ak or the Farmer’s Dance.

Tea also holds a special place in Korean culture. There are deep meanings in the way that tea is prepared and presented, and crunchy rice cakes are often served on the side. But if you really want a taste of South Korea’s past, nothing beats a visit to one of its graceful palaces, Gyeongbokgung Palace, located in Seoul was first built in 1394.

Today just as yesterday, South Koreans take pride at opening their doors to family and friends. Giant spreads of delicious food are often a big part of their heartfelt hospitality.

Mara: Dinah and her family live in a beautiful neighborhood on Staten Island, just a quick drive from Downtown Manhattan. I was so excited to meet her. She is an amazing cook and has a lot to teach me about Korean Food.

Dinah, thank you so much for having us in your home. I’m so excited to learn about Korean foods.

Dinah Surh: I’m so glad that you are here Mara.

Mara: And this is for your garden. This is some basil for you.

Dinah Surh: Wonderful. I love herbs and gardening so this will be put to a very big use.

Mara: Good. I know one thing that I’m dying to find out about. I know Chinese food and I think that we all know sushi from Japan but Korean food, I’m not quite as familiar with.

Dinah Surh: Korean food is really a combination of various influences since China is right next door and Japan is also contiguous. It has a big influence on Korean cuisine. But what’s different about Korean cuisine is it’s very healthy, light, most items are grilled or braised and there are a lot of vegetables. So I’m just going to share some of those today.

Mara: Good. So what are we going to be making for our first course?

Dinah Surh: Well, what I like to make for you is the most famous Korean dish which is called Bulgogi, Korean barbecue beef. And Bulgogi means fire meat in Korean and we’re going to cook it on a grill.

So let’s begin. What I have here is some sliced prime rib that’s sliced very thin as you could see here and I pre-sliced it to save some time, but you could also use flank steaks, sirloin, anything you want. But we’re going to start off by making the marinade.

So this is where some of the most common Korean spices come in. you will see a lot of scallions, a lot of garlic, use of Korean ground red pepper. Sesame seeds, sesame oil. So what we’re going to start first is to put some either soy sauce or sukiyaki sauce.

Mara: What’s sukiyaki?

Dinah Surh: Sukiyaki sauce actually has a Japanese influence and has some sugar and other seasonings in it but it’s kind of like soy sauce but it has an extra touch. Then, Koreans love to use roasted sesame seed oil.

Mara: I love that.

Dinah Surh: Smell that? It’s so aromatic.

Mara: That smells so delicious.

Dinah Surh: So we’re going to put some of that in here. And then, roasted sesame seeds are a staple in all Korean dishes.

Mara: Is this for flavor mainly? For texture?

Dinah Surh: Yes. For flavor and also a little crunch in there and then we’re going to add just a little bit of Korean ground red pepper.

So here we have some chopped garlic. We have a lot of scallions here, about 2 scallions chopped lengthwise into 2 ½ inch pieces. We’re also going to add a little salt and sugar.

Mara: So it’s going to be a little sweet.

Dinah Surh: A little sweet and a little spicy.

Mara: It’s going to cover all of the different parts of our taste palate.

Dinah Surh: Yes. And we’re going to add a little bit of salt and some black pepper because we want to lay those different flavors of pepper. We’re going to mix this all up and smell. That is very aromatic.

Mara: That smells delicious. I mean, you can tell that it’s got a little bit of a bite and that the sesame seeds really come through.

Dinah Surh: And now, what we’re going to do is just pour this marinade all over the beef.

Mara: How long does something like this have to marinade?

Dinah Surh: You can really marinade about 30 minutes or overnight in the refrigerator. So we’re going to mix this all up and we’ll let this marinate in the refrigerator but I have some prepared already so we can cook because I know you’re hungry.

Mara: I’m ready to try this.

Dinah Surh: Very good. So here we have some already marinated and I have my grill preheated. If you like, you want to help me out to grill some up.

Mara: I’d love to.

When the thing slices of beef hit the hot barbecue grill, it cooks up super fast and fills the kitchen with the most delicious aromas.

So is beef a traditional meal in Korea. Is this a traditional Korean meal?

Dinah Surh: Well, beef is served for every celebration and Koreans prefer to eat beef although they also eat chicken and so forth and fish.

Mara: Fish, a lot of seafood. But this is more of like a special occasion type meal?

Dinah Surh: Yes. Any birthday, any holiday, we would serve Bulgogi.

Mara: Wonderful.

Dinah had a chance to make Bulgogi and other traditional Korean dishes on some of the most popular TV shows in America.

Dinah Surh: Martha Stewart loves Korean food so she invited me on her show to cook Korean barbecued beef and it was such a thrill meeting her and cooking Korean barbecued beef and I gave her a very spicy kimchi as well.

Mara: You did? Can she handle it? I heard you were on Rachel Ray Show.

Dinah Surh: As a matter of fact, I entered a Rachel Ray contest and I was the national winner in her cooking contest last year, and I ended up winning the contest.

Mara: Oh my gosh! That is so exciting. I bet your mom would be proud and I know that your mom is in the living room. So why don’t we go while this is finishing up because I’d love to meet her and hear her story about how she came to America back in the 60’s.

Dinah Surh: Sure. It’s a really fascinating story.

Mara: Great. Okay.

Male: Coming up! A tasted of Korean culture when a taste from the melting pot continues.