Sangam-dong Lamb BBQ: Genghis Khan Grilling Solo in Seoul

Travel · Published 6/30/2024 ·

I booked a flight to Hokkaido, Japan — a “workation” combining a business trip with a bit of travel. When I looked up famous foods in Hokkaido, oddly enough, lamb came up as a local specialty even though it’s Japan. After endless searching, it turned out that plenty of places serving the same dish exist in Korea too. Of course, grilling meat means smoke and smells, and I didn’t really want to fly all the way to Japan just to cram into some tiny spot and pay a fortune to grill meat. So I decided to give it a try here in Korea… This is a tour of the lamb joints in Sangam-dong, where I’m living the solo life.

This is the Genghis Khan grill — supposedly named after old records of Mongolian warriors taking off their helmets to grill meat on them, though apparently the Mongolians themselves aren’t fans of it. It domes up in the middle and has sections that are blocked off, so the fat drips down onto the charcoal in a way that keeps the smoke and flames from flaring up too much, while still being open enough to let that smoky char flavor soak into the meat. The owner uses Australian lamb, all under 12 months old… and you can taste it — it’s tender and soft.

You pack vegetables around the edge of the grill, and as the lamb fat runs into them, they roast up naturally. And of course, the star of the show — the lamb — is grilling away over the open flame on top. The owner did a great job grilling it for us, which I really appreciated.

He cooks it perfectly and even carves off the meat clinging to the ribs for you afterward. All you have to do is eat. And eat very well at that…

He also walked us through how to eat it — with salt, with wasabi, with perilla leaves… about four different ways, including a dipping sauce, before heading off. However you eat it, this grilled lamb is just delicious.

The wasabi-and-perilla-leaf combo he recommended…

And then with the sauce…

This is some seriously appetizing open-flame grilled lamb — Genghis Khan style. We had it with beer. I’d been trying not to do food posts… but hey, everything we do comes back to eating in the end, so I figured I’d jot down a few words whenever I come across a decent restaurant on my travels.

This post is a paid-with-my-own-money, my-own-experience post.

Thank you.

#SangamdongLamb #LambButcher #DMCLamb #DMCGenghisKhan #SangamdongGenghisKhan #HokkaidoLamb #SapporoLamb

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