A short guide to ssam

Ssam means wrapped, and it is the most efficient piece of engineering in Korean food: leaf, rice, meat, sauce, something sharp, one bite. Built in the wrong order it falls apart in your hand.

The order we use

1. A leaf — perilla for anise, red leaf lettuce for crunch, or both stacked
2. A small spoon of rice, flattened, so the sauce has somewhere to sit
3. The meat, straight off the grill, cut to one bite
4. Ssamjang, a dab only — it is salt and it will win if you let it
5. Something sharp: raw garlic, a sliver of chilli, or the scallion salad

Then fold it closed and eat it in one go. Half a ssam is a dropped ssam.

If your table wants to argue about whether rice belongs in a ssam at all, you are having the correct dinner.