Jokbal (족발)

Jokbal is Korean braised pig's trotters, and it is one of the great drinking foods of Korea. The trotters are soaked overnight, blanched, scrubbed, and then braised for two hours in a liquid that reads like a spice merchant's inventory: soy sauce, doenjang, mirin, brown sugar, rice syrup, apple chunks, jujubes, garlic, ginger, onion, dried red chilies, green onion, star anise, cinnamon, and a sachet of black peppercorns and ground coffee.

The coffee is the detail that makes people do a double take. It goes into the initial blanching water and into the braising sachet, where it helps remove impurities and adds a faint, almost imperceptible bitterness that rounds out the sweetness of the braising liquid. It is a technique that jokbal sellers in Korea have used for years.

The trotters braise for about two hours, flipped halfway, until a chopstick slides through the meat with no resistance. The final ten minutes on high heat, uncovered, with the broth ladled repeatedly over the surface, glazes the skin into a deep, mahogany sheen. After cooling, the meat is sliced into thin pieces, revealing layers of tender meat, rendered fat, and gelatinous skin.

The traditional accompaniment is a dipping sauce made from saeujeot (salted fermented shrimp), garlic, gochugaru, and scallion. The salty, pungent shrimp sauce cuts through the richness of the pork perfectly. Jokbal is typically served late at night with beer or soju, in the company of friends, eaten slowly and talked over.