4th of July BBQ

美國的國慶日基本上感覺和台灣中秋節一樣，無論如何就是家家戶戶都要烤肉就對了，今年一樣是到公園先生家烤肉看煙火，不過去年我只張嘴等吃，今年可是親手下廚準備了超多海鮮料，吃到公園媽媽開心到送我一件貴孜孜的義大利名牌外套，公園先生還要求今年他生日除了吃頓我們早就訂好的生日大餐，那個周末還要再烤一次肉，今年烤肉真是無敵大成功！忙了一下午都值得啦！

In Taiwan, people always have BBQ on Moon Festival holiday. In the US, BBQ seems to be the tradition for July 4th. Dr. Park's family always have a BBQ in his house for July 4th, then watch the fireworks from the country club right across the street from his house. Last year we had delicious Korean BBQ ribs from Korean supermarket. I didn't do much last year. Pretty much just sat around and waited to be fed. This year I actually did some cooking. The result turned out great. We had quite a feast.



To keep the Park family tradition, there must be kalbi (Korean BBQ beef ribs) in every BBQ.  Dr. Park's brother did a great job cooking these ribs on the grill.  (The foil packs were mushrooms which I will talk about later.)





We bought pre-marinated kalbi from Korean supermarket for $3.99/pound.  Very very good ribs.  I am so craving for it right now just looking at the pictures.



Dr. Park told me they always only have kalbi as the main course for every BBQ.  So this year I wanted to cook up some seafood for them.  This was my masterpiece, Prosciutto and Basil Wrapped Shrimp.  This dish took me a LONG time to prepare.  I had to shell and devain the shrimps, put them on skewers, cut prosciutto into long strips, then wrap basil leave and prosciutto on each shrimp.



Even though it took a lot of work, when I saw Dr. Park's happy face when he ate this, it was all worth it.  No extra seasoning is needed for it because prosciutto is always salty.  The basil was a very nice touch.



All the other food that I prepared only used a few simple ingredients: chopped cilantro (because there's no parsley in Korean market), minced garlic, hot peppers and butter.



We bought somke fresh and alive mussels from the market.  Dr. Park cleaned the mussels for me.  He also helped me mix cilantro and garlic with the butter.  ^^  I put the mussels on a big piece of foil paper, then spread the garlic herb butter on top, seasoned with salt and pepper and seal the foil.  Put the sealed pack in the oven and baked in 450 degrees for about 30 minutes.  Everyone loved this dish.  Mrs. Park even wanted to save the mussel juice to cook pasta for next day.



We cooked the king oyster mushroom with the same garlic herb butter and the same technique as the mussels.  But we cooked this on the grill.  This dish was also a big hit.  Even though we cooked both dishes with the same butter and seasoning, they tasted completely different.  Both mussels and mushrooms gave out lots of juice when cooked.  I guess their natural juices changed the flavors. 



I roasted a whole head of garlic and made roasted garlic herb butter for the corn.  We spread the butter on the corn and put the skin back on to grill.



The sweet corn was delicious.  Ahhh I love butter and garlic. 



Oyster, oyster, oyster!  Yes, we even had oysters!!  Slices of lime and my special sauce to go with BBQ oyster.  Everybody raved about the sauce.  Mrs. Park asked me for the recipe.  What recipe?  I just opened their cupboard and used whatever condiments were in there.  haha....  I don't mean to boast, but the sauce was seriously tasty.  I used cilantro, garlic, hot peppers, rice vinager, sesame oil, soy sauce, sugar, lime juice and water.  I'm not sure about the measurement of each.  Just add and taste it to your liking.



We got half dozen of oyster for BBQ.  Just leave the whole oysters on the grill for 10~15 minutes, open the shell, put on some sauce and lime juices, enjoy!  The oyster was so good.  Mrs. Park said it was better than the ones she had in restaurant.  ^_^



Mrs. Park also prepared some mackerel.  We were going to BBQ these, but already had too much food.



So Mrs. Park just cooked it in some Korean spicy sauce.  I love the sauce with rice.



Also there was Mrs. Park's marinated squid that we didn't get to cook.  Too much food!  Only 4 of us and we cooked enough food for 10 people.

We also had great wine and some Hite beer.  According to Dr. Park's quote, "This was the best BBQ ever!!"  He even requested for another BBQ with the same menu for his birthday weekend.  I had a lot of fun cooking.  I was just so happy to see everybody's happy smile when they eat the food.  I love BBQ!

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