It's one of the things couple Gavin and Si-Young (also known as Belle) Sutherland miss most about their time living in Korea. So when the couple, who own Black Sheep Espresso at Warners Bay, were looking for a side hustle to get off the ground during the latest COVID lockdown, they developed the idea of dine-at-home meal delivery service Miss Korea.

Servicing Lake Macquarie and Newcastle, Miss Korea offers boxes filled with all the ingredients required to create authentic Korean BBQ at home: sliced wagyu beef, sliced pork belly and marinated chicken thigh, sides (known as banchan), rice, vegetables and condiments.

The boxes are available in three sizes, catering from two (couples box $75) to six people (large box $205), which are delivered every Friday (bookings must be placed before 5pm on Tuesdays) or available to pick up from Black Sheep Espresso. Korean BBQ was an obvious choice given the fact Belle is originally from Korea and Gavin, who is Hunter Valley born-and-bred, spent a decade working internationally as a golf professional, including a long stint in Korea.

"My wife Belle is Korean, and she hasn't been able to go home due to COVID so we came up with the idea of bringing something from her background to the Newcastle market and not have a restaurant as such," Gavin says.

"It felt like there was a bit of a missing piece in Newcastle where we could introduce something that is new. It's food that is not too complicated. It's fresh and damn tasty."

Korean BBQ is best enjoyed as a shared experience. A small barbecue is set up in the centre of the table where slices of meat are grilled and served with sides including lettuce or perilla leaves to wrap the meats, and finished off with tasty condiments.

"Everyone sits around the table and it's a very communal meal, so you grill things as you go and enjoy them as you go," Gavin says. "You can enjoy it as a quick couples dinner in 10 minutes or if you want to bring a group of guests over then you can create a little bit of an experience with it and get some drinks flowing."

If you don't have a barbecue that is suitable for the table, Sutherland says an outdoor barbecue works just as well, or simply grill the meat in a pan. Alternatively, you can purchase a tabletop Korean BBQ grill and burner kit for $99 which includes a gas cooker, grill plate and gas canisters through Miss Korea. Each kit includes a preparation and cooking guide, and takes no longer than 15 minutes to prepare.

Gavin points out that even though the meal is barbecue-based, it is not particularly meat-heavy.

"Typically Korean BBQ is known as a pretty healthy sort of meal and quite light. The meat is a mouth bite size and is a small component to adding all of these little banchan," he says. "Basically the way to do it is to grab a lettuce leaf or a perilla leaf, which is a wild sesame leaf, add a little bit of rice, add your meat and add any kimchi or soy bean - it's a choose your own adventure - and then you wrap it all up."

Miss Korea has paired with local suppliers to source ingredients for the boxes, with a focus on using premium meats.

"We try to source everything locally, so all of the meat comes from Elermore Vale Meats which is a new Korean-specific butcher that recently relocated from Hornsby," Gavin says. "We have also partnered with Korean S-Mart in Cardiff which helps us source and provide the fresh ingredients, and we even have the barbecues supplied from them."

Each box also includes a bottle of soju (rice wine) because, according to Gavin, it wouldn't be a complete Korean BBQ experience without it.

"Korean BBQ is very social so we thought we would add a little snippet of what you might experience in Korea. It would be very unusual if you went to Korea and had BBQ and a bottle of soju wasn't involved."