Bossam (Boiled Pork Belly Wraps)

Spring in full bloom. Seattle is performing its annual trick of being so beautiful in April that you forget the eight months of gray that preceded it. The cherry blossoms are gone, replaced by the denser green of full spring, the rhododendrons blooming in every yard, the light lasting until 8 PM. I've been walking home through Volunteer Park after work, the long way, through the conservatory garden, past the Korean tai chi group that I noticed last year and now recognize as individuals — the woman in the blue jacket who does the form with particular grace, the man with the white hair who sometimes catches my eye and nods. I nod back. We don't speak. The nodding is enough. The nodding says: I see you. You see me. We share this park and this morning and this form and this being-Korean-in-Seattle, and the sharing is silent and complete.

This week I tackled a dish from the Korean-language cookbook: bossam — boiled pork belly, sliced and served with fermented shrimp paste, raw garlic, fresh chili, and ssam vegetables (lettuce, perilla leaves). Bossam is Korean festive food — served at parties, celebrations, or when friends gather to eat and drink. The pork belly is simmered whole in a court bouillon of doenjang, ginger, garlic, and coffee (yes, coffee — it tenderizes and adds depth), then sliced thick and served with the accompaniments for wrapping. The result is a feast of textures and flavors: the tender, fatty pork; the pungent shrimp paste; the fresh, crunchy vegetables; the heat of raw garlic. Every bite is an assembly project — build the wrap, fill it, eat it in one mouthful.

I made bossam for the adoptee meetup on Thursday. Fifteen people, two newcomers this month (the group is growing — word of mouth among Korean adoptees, a community finding itself). The bossam was a hit — people wrapped and ate and wrapped and ate, and the table was loud with the sound of Korean and English and laughter and the specific joy of people eating together who understand each other in ways that outsiders can't. Claire said, "This is the best pork I've ever eaten." Daniel said, "The coffee. It's the coffee in the broth." Kevin would be proud — his coffee, contributing to Korean cuisine via doenjang-and-coffee-braised pork belly. I'll tell him.

Dr. Yoon and I had what she calls a "gratitude audit" — a periodic check-in on whether my gratitude is genuine or performed, healthy or compulsive. The distinction matters for adoptees: we're trained to be grateful, and the training can become pathological, an automatic response that masks real feelings. Dr. Yoon asked, "What are you grateful for this week?" I said, "The tai chi group in the park. The bossam. The meetup. Sujin. Daniel. Karen's pot roast. David's nod. Kevin's coffee. Dr. Yoon's questions." She said, "Is any of that performed?" I said, "No." She said, "How do you know?" I said, "Because I feel it in my body. Performed gratitude lives in my head. Real gratitude lives in my chest." She nodded. The gratitude is real. The chest knows. The head is just catching up.

Saturday: Bellevue. Karen made her meatloaf. I brought leftover bossam. Meatloaf and bossam — American ground beef and Korean boiled pork — side by side on the table. Karen tried the bossam with the fermented shrimp paste and made a face — the shrimp paste is strong, even by Korean standards — but she tried it, and the trying is the whole story. Two and a half years of trying. Karen Park, trying Korean food every Saturday, building a palate she never expected to need, loving her daughter in lettuce wraps and fermented shrimp paste and the slow, steady widening of a world she used to think was complete.

After watching fifteen people crowd around a table, building wraps and laughing with their mouths full, I knew this was the recipe I needed to share. Bossam is not fussy food — it’s generous food, the kind that turns a table into a celebration just by showing up. The coffee-doenjang broth does something almost unreasonable to pork belly, and the assembly — pork, shrimp paste, garlic, chili, all bundled into one perfect bite — is half the joy. Here’s how I make it.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 1 hour 30 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 50 minutes | Servings: 6-8

Ingredients

3 pounds skin-on pork belly, in one whole piece
3 tablespoons doenjang (Korean fermented soybean paste)
1 cup brewed black coffee
8 cloves garlic, smashed
1 (3-inch) piece fresh ginger, sliced
1 medium onion, quartered
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon soy sauce

For Serving

1/2 cup saeujeot (fermented salted shrimp paste)
1 head green leaf lettuce, leaves separated and washed
1 bunch perilla leaves (kkaennip)
8-10 cloves raw garlic, thinly sliced
3-4 fresh Korean green chilies (cheongyang gochu), sliced
Ssam sauce: 2 tablespoons doenjang, 1 tablespoon gochujang, 1 teaspoon sesame oil, 1 teaspoon sugar, 1 clove garlic (minced), mixed together

Instructions

Soak the pork belly. Place the pork belly in a large bowl of cold water and soak for 30 minutes to draw out excess blood. Drain and pat dry.
Build the braising liquid. In a large, heavy pot, combine 10 cups of water with the doenjang, coffee, smashed garlic, ginger, onion, peppercorns, bay leaves, and soy sauce. Stir to dissolve the doenjang.
Simmer the pork. Bring the liquid to a boil over high heat, then lower the pork belly into the pot. Return to a boil, then reduce heat to a gentle simmer. Cover and cook for 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes, until the pork is very tender when pierced with a chopstick but still holds its shape.
Rest and slice. Remove the pork belly from the broth and let it rest on a cutting board for 10 minutes. Slice against the grain into pieces about 1/4-inch thick and 2-3 inches wide — substantial enough to anchor a wrap.
Arrange the table. Place the sliced pork on a large platter. Set out the saeujeot, ssam sauce, lettuce leaves, perilla leaves, sliced garlic, and sliced chilies in separate dishes around the pork.
Wrap and eat. To assemble, take a lettuce leaf, add a perilla leaf, place a slice of pork on top, add a small dab of saeujeot or ssam sauce, a slice of garlic, and a piece of chili. Fold the lettuce around the filling and eat in one bite.

Nutrition (per serving)

Bossam (Boiled Pork Belly Wraps) — The Feast That Found Us