Korean Job Discussion Forums

[DanseurVertical]

What do Korean people have against filleting?

With the popularity of hamburgers and tonkatsu, I would think that Korean cooks might consider that people here enjoy eating meats that aren't full of bones.

I'm not suggesting something like boneless galbi... but is it really more pleasant (or efficient) to eat pieces of fish and fowl chock full of tiny, sharp bones? Or tiny shrimps or crabs which after being cooked are mostly just exoskeleton?

Is there some superstition surrounding this? Is it believed to be for nutritional benefit?

[chrisinkorea2011]

My mother eats softbones like in chicken. She was raised in Gwangju and my grandparents did the same. I however ABHOR it lol i think its really a culture thing? ive seen quite a few koreans munch and crunch on them, il eat them if they are smaller in like sam gyup sal lol.

[swinewho]

[fermentation]

This bothers me as well. I don't see the joy of eating fish when I have to constantly pick out the little bones or eating a meat stew that has more bones than meat.

I think it's because Koreans lived impoverished and had to make do with whatever they had and with little preparation during the Japanese Occupation and the Korean war. That same culture persists today. I've been to Korean joints in the US and they didn't serve the same boney stuff to Americans. Although, I did once have these little crabs that were fried and it was pretty good. The exoskeleton was crunchy.

[The Floating World]

Yeah, they even eat shrimp / prawns wit the full shells on, heck they even eat the heads.... And fish bones, bits of shell...

Just ruins the meal for me. There's a place that does great kalguksoo nearby choc full of clams and mussels but it takes me 25 minutes just to de-shell all the seafood and fish out all the shells.

[DanseurVertical]

[Caffeinated]

I find that fish in a lot of Korean foods is cooked so that the bones are soft enough to chew. Most grilled fish seems to be cooked so that the spine can be removed pretty easily.

The heads of shrimp and prawn add flavor to the broth. Again, the shells can be removed rather easily for the larger ones. For the smaller ones I don't mind crunching on the exoskeleton.

Even back home mussels and clams are just cooked shells and all. So much more efficient to cook them that way and have the eaters deal with the shells later.

[waynehead]

I'm typically a "Korean apologist" who tries to see everything from their point of view, but I've never been able to contrive a legit excuse for this practice. It just doesn't make sense to me to leave the bones in fish.

[adzee1]

I think meat with bones in stews is fine because the bone adds flavour to the stew and you can get the marrow out which is nice, but yeh fish bones are a bit nasty as are prawn shells.

[Rutherford]

You are all a bunch of whining babies who were raised on North American processed food. Animals have bones, that's why there are bones in your meat.

You know what's more annoying than having to fish a fishbone out of your mouth? Listening to an American say "oh, I don't eat meat with bones in it".

[NYC_Gal 2.0]

[Triban]

[The Floating World]

[methdxman]

[pkang0202]

Most Chefs will tell you leaving the bones/shell on food helps give more flavor.

I agree with them.

Seems like the OP is whinging with a "First World" problem.