Three Tasty Grilling Menus: Perfect for Labor Day!

Memorial Day. Third year of Korean barbecue at David's Weber grill. The tradition is so established now that David calls the day before to ask, "Same setup as last year?" Same setup. Galbi, samgyeopsal, lettuce, ssamjang, kimchi, kkakdugi. David's grill. The Park family Korean barbecue. American holiday, Korean food, adopted daughter, biological ingredients, cultural fusion cooked over charcoal in a Bellevue backyard. The annual paradox served with sesame oil.

This year Kevin came up from Portland with Lisa — the first time Lisa has joined a Park family gathering. She's calm, smart, funny in a quiet way, with the steady energy of a school counselor who has spent years managing other people's crises and has learned to keep her own center. She and Kevin are — I'm not sure what. They say "business partners." They live in the same house. They finish each other's sentences. I looked at Sujin (who I brought — her first Bellevue barbecue) and Sujin looked at me and we both raised our eyebrows in the universal Korean gesture for "those two are definitely not just business partners."

Lisa tried the galbi and said, "This is incredible. Kevin, why don't you eat like this in Portland?" Kevin said, "Because Stephanie's the cook and she won't move to Portland." I said, "I'll teach you." He said, "You've been saying that for two years." Fair. I've been saying I'll teach Kevin to cook Korean food and I keep not doing it because our visits are always at Bellevue where I'm the cook, and teaching requires patience and proximity and a kitchen where I'm willing to let someone else mess up. I'll do it this summer. I'll go to Portland and teach Kevin to make galbi. The teaching will be another kind of bridge — sibling to sibling, Korean to Korean, one adoptee showing another how to reclaim through cooking.

David grilled the meat with his customary precision and then sat in a lawn chair eating galbi wraps with his eyes closed, the expression of a man experiencing something that transcends his vocabulary for pleasure. Three years of Korean barbecue at Memorial Day, and David Park has gone from polite tolerance to closed-eye savoring. The trajectory is Karen's trajectory too: from "what is gochujang?" to "pass the ssamjang." The family has moved. Not because I pushed them. Because the food was good enough to pull them.

After the barbecue, Karen and Lisa did the dishes together. I watched from the living room: two women at the sink, one who raised me and one who steadies my brother, both quietly competent, both essential. Karen said something that made Lisa laugh, and the laugh was warm and genuine, and I thought: Kevin found someone who makes him laugh, and Karen found someone who helps Kevin laugh, and the family is wider now, wider than the split-level, wider than Bellevue, wide enough to hold Portland and Seattle and Korea and the spaces between.

Every year I get the same call from David: “Same setup as last year?” And every year the answer is yes—because when something works, you don’t change it. This is the Korean BBQ menu I’ve brought to that Bellevue backyard three summers running, the one that turned polite first-timers into closed-eye savoring regulars, and the one I’ll eventually teach Kevin to make in Portland. If you’re hosting a holiday cookout and you want food that does real work—the kind that widens a table instead of just filling it—this is the spread I trust.

Prep Time: 45 min (plus 4–8 hr marinating) | Cook Time: 30 min | Total Time: 5–9 hr | Servings: 6–8

Menu One: Korean BBQ — Galbi & Samgyeopsal Spread

Ingredients

Galbi (Korean Short Ribs)
3 lbs flanken-cut beef short ribs (about 1/4-inch thick)
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons sesame oil
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
1/2 Asian pear or kiwi, grated (tenderizer)
2 tablespoons rice wine (mirin or sake)
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon black pepper
Samgyeopsal (Grilled Pork Belly)
2 lbs pork belly, sliced 1/4-inch thick
1 tablespoon sesame oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Ssam (Lettuce Wrap) Station
2 heads butter or red leaf lettuce, leaves separated and washed
1/2 cup ssamjang (Korean fermented bean & chili paste)
2 cups kimchi, chopped
1 cup kkakdugi (cubed radish kimchi)
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 fresh green chili peppers, sliced (optional)
Steamed white rice, for serving
Sesame seeds and sesame oil, for finishing

Instructions

Marinate the galbi. Whisk together soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, grated pear, rice wine, green onions, and black pepper in a large bowl until the sugar dissolves. Add the short ribs and toss to coat thoroughly. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight for best results.
Prep the samgyeopsal. Pat pork belly slices dry. Brush lightly with sesame oil and season with salt and pepper. No marinade needed—the fat and char do the work. Set aside at room temperature while you prepare the grill.
Set up the ssam station. Arrange lettuce leaves on a large platter. Set out small bowls of ssamjang, kimchi, kkakdugi, sliced garlic, and chili peppers so guests can build their own wraps. Prepare steamed rice and keep warm.
Heat the grill. Prepare a charcoal grill or gas grill to medium-high heat (around 400°F). For charcoal, let coals burn until ashed over and glowing. Lightly oil the grates.
Grill the galbi. Remove short ribs from marinade, letting excess drip off. Grill 3–4 minutes per side until caramelized and slightly charred at the edges. Watch closely—the sugar in the marinade can burn quickly. Transfer to a platter and let rest 2 minutes.
Grill the samgyeopsal. Grill pork belly slices over direct heat, 2–3 minutes per side, until the fat renders and the edges crisp and char. Cut into bite-sized pieces with kitchen scissors directly on the grill or on a cutting board.
Serve family-style. Bring all the meat to the table alongside the ssam station. To eat: place rice and a piece of meat on a lettuce leaf, add a small spoonful of ssamjang, top with kimchi or kkakdugi and a sliver of garlic, then wrap and eat in one bite. Drizzle everything with a little sesame oil before serving.

Nutrition (per serving)

Three Tasty Grilling Menus: Perfect for Labor Day! — The Korean BBQ Setup That Became Our Memorial Day Tradition