Dakgalbi

Dakgalbi is cooked in a wide shallow pan set in the middle of the table: boneless chicken, cabbage, sweet potato, perilla leaves and cylinders of rice cake, all coated in a red gochujang marinade. Someone keeps it moving, the sauce reduces, and everyone eats straight from the pan. It is ordered for a group; a single portion is rare.

Wait until the chicken is genuinely cooked before starting — the red coating makes it look done long before it is. When the pan is nearly empty, ask for fried rice: it is cooked on the spot in whatever sauce remains, with seaweed and sesame stirred through. Many people treat that stage as the main event.