Korean bulgogi with moose meat: 'I was desperate'

CBC North is telling the stories behind recipes posted on our Facebook group, The Arctic Kitchen: Recipes of the North. Join our group and follow along!

What would you do if your favourite restaurant shut down?

And to make matters worse, it was the only one like it in town?

Jen Laliberte was faced with that in Whitehorse. 

Her favourite Korean spot closed and that left her craving a very specific meal.

"I was desperate to try to replicate a dish that I loved best there," she said. "That was beef bulgogi."

"So I started to look up different recipes online … I kind [of] combined a bunch of them together."

She knew it had to be just right, and that it would take some trial and error to get there.

"The Korean part of it would come from the flavour profile of having the soy and the ginger and the garlic. The thing maybe that would set it apart from a Japanese marinade is that it has the hot chilli paste in it."

Laliberte is the first to admit she is not an expert in Korean food. But there's no doubt, she's learned quite a bit in her journey trying to replicate her favourite dish.

But here's the thing — she's added a twist to her bulgogi: moose meat.

"I feel like in any recipe I ever make that says beef you can substitute moose or caribou or whatever really easily," said Laliberte.

Once she was satisfied with how it turned out, she decided to share it on CBC North's Facebook recipe group.

One commenter said, "Looks great! Can you send some to Hungary?"

If she could, she would.

"It was really great," she said.

"To me it suggests that other people feel the same way as me and it's like 'Yeah, Korean food!'"

But it's more than that; one great thing about this recipe is that the ingredients can be found in most communities. 

"It's a pretty flexible recipe and easy."

And she knew when she shared it that it would be accepted with open arms on the recipe group.

"It's really supportive, I feel like that's a pretty rare gift in today's world," she said. "The Arctic Kitchen is really positive … it's like everybody lifting everybody up all the time."