When my sisters and i were in our early teens, we lived near the Montclair Plaza, here in So Cal. We had Korean neighbors that new how to throw a party. Its all about the food. I have no idea what they were celebrating, and it didn’t matter. At their events, there was a constant flow of food to any plate held in front of a face. This is where i was first introduced to Korean Barbecue.

At the camp we grouped ourselves into 3 or 4 person teams to share food, to save weight, time, and learn to cope with others i guess. My group had mostly food i came up with, and i thought we did OK with meat & potatoes and an oriental noodle ansamble. Another food group got the attention of the rest of the group when on the day hike lunch break, Joe pulled a crumpled foil pouch full of king crab legs from his pack. then Julia unwrapped some professional looking sandwich shop grinders that she made herself, My tuna burrito and gallon of trail mix lost its appeal. That night they had Korean barbecue for dinner as we ate potatoes and sausage.

Joe has a reputation. It is very unusual to see him without food. His trademark is to thank everyone that gave him food at the campfire meetings. This is a man after my own heart, especially since he looks like a younger Korean version of me. However, he thinks its fun to climb a mountain so hi and cold that you hafta crap in a blue bag and carry the frozen result with you. He was my favorite person to hang out with though, because he always had fun. I think he was the only one on the trip that didn’t complain about anything. of course this was probably a cake walk for him. the month before he climbed Mt Ranier in Washington. But hey, this is about food.

They gave me several good ideas for food that could be stored in a backpack and eaten on the trail. the best however, i heard from Duff, the teacher; Bobboli Pizza. You just stuff the bread and sauce packet, some cheese and peperoni. they dont need much refrigeration. you assemble the unit, slather olive oil on the top of some foil and the bottom of the crust, wrap it up in the foil and rotate it in campfire ashes. i will elaborate further when i have tried this and found the places where this could go wrong.

Hows that for a recipe segment?

Posted on May 31st, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Adventures