July 21, 2010
spicy squid
saeyoung, very concerned for her white shirt
despite her facial expression, she really liked her noodles
oh, hi marcus
ban chan
su jeh bee
I’ve been meaning to go to this restaurant since Saveur featured a picture of Ma Po Kkak Doo Gee’s banchan in their Los Angeles issue. I went with my two favorite people–my sister and Marcus. I love dinners with both of them. I feel almost selfish getting to spend time with them at the same time.
Everyone ate a little too much. I, as always, was the last one to stop eating. The banchan was, as promised, very good. My favorite was the ggeng neep. I think it’s related to the Japanese shiso leaf. Marcus said it tasted like toothpaste.
I’ve been craving Korean food lately, which makes me wonder—am I becoming my mother???!!
May 3, 2010
braised short ribs and radish stewed fish
min hee and whun
ban chan
kimchee fried pork belly
My cousin Min Hee and her mother moved to Los Angeles from Seoul this weekend! First thing off the plane—we went to get Korean food! hahaha.
We went to Seong Bok Dong which is our families go-to favorite Koreatown restaurant. Everything there tastes like a grandmother has made it. It’s a small menu but everything is delicious. It probably isn’t the place you’d go if you’re not familiar with Korean food but this is fairly close to Korean comfort food.
April 3, 2010
clam boyfriend
oysters, prawns, scallops, abalone, clams, bigger clams, baby octopus
Korean mixed rice with clam juice on a shell! mixed table side
koreans love grilling everything! steamed egg, dduk bok ee, seafood
korean pancake, sweet potato tempura, creamy corn stuff
abalone porridge
hand-cut flour noodles
Sometimes I question the logic of how much food served in a Korean meal. The general pattern is banchan (small plates), a substantial meat course (most reasonable stomachs would stop here), a starch course (usually a noodle or rice dish), and then something sweet. A great many places only serve things by fixed menus and you just order the small, medium, or large course and so you don’t even have the choice of eating lightly.
Marcus and I walked to Koreatown yesterday. It was a rigorous 1.8 miles and I’m not going to lie, I was a little grumpy about it. Hunger does not bring out the best in me. In fact I’m pretty sure I’m fairly monstrous when I’m hungry. But in the end I’m glad Marcus insisted that we walk because:
1) it was nice to walk through MacArthur park into dramatically different territory after crossing Vermont. This is the amazing thing about Los Angeles. In less than a mile you’re all of a sudden in a different country. Walking makes me feel like I really do live in a city.
2) I love walking but have generally considered it something I like to do alone with headphones. Also I like to do this at night. In my neighborhood. Apparently this is unwise. But walking with Marcus felt perfect and sweet and will now be my preferred method of city wandering.
3) We desperately needed some form of exercise after our gluttonous (also, glutinous. ha!)meal
We went to the Flaming Clam Grill on 6th and ordered the smallest portion, which could easily serve 3. The meal started with abalone porridge, cucumbers and carrots, a salad, a korean pancake, sweet potato tempura, and some sort of mysterious creamy corn thing. Then the waiter(s) stacked clams, scallops, steamed egg, and dduk bok ee on the grill. Dduk bok ee has rice noodles with vegetables in a red pepper sauce. Marcus kept calling them rice babies which I found hilarious. They also put cheese on the dduk bok ee. Highly unorthodox and unexpectedly delicious. After all those things had been cooked the waiter poured the grilled clam juice into a bowl of rice with seaweed and sesame seeds and red peppers and grilled that on a shell. And after that, oysters and prawns and abalone were added to the grill. At this point we thought we were done and felt quite round and full. But no, the waiter then brought out a pot of flour noodles. I think we were almost angry at the amount of food that we were intaking. Marcus actually made me stop eating at some point, scared that my stomach might burst.
This morning I woke up, still full.
March 8, 2010
This is my grandmother. She is visiting from Seoul.
Isn’t she adorable?
She is the most extraordinary cook I have every met. Not only is her food delicious but she is miraculously capable of making vast amounts of intricate dishes and plates them beautifully. She always makes a point of making food arrangement beautiful.
Like this:
and this
and this
and this
so that we can all partake in this
September 14, 2009
Sometimes I get ridiculous cravings and actually, I don’t really feel any sort of obligation to repress them. If I want to eat something, I should probably do just that.
On the way back from Calarts it dawned on me, I want lotus root. I detoured to Koreatown Galleria (it still amazes me that I live so close to Koreatown for some reason) where they have an impressive selection of prepared dishes in the basement grocery market.
I bought lotus root slices and some Korean pickles. Also, they were selling something called “Marinated Rape”, which kind of sent me through a rolling guilt trip. I laughed inwardly quite a bit about it and then felt awful for somehow making light of that and then I felt stupid about feeling guilty because it isn’t my fault that no one at this grocery market had the foresight to see that “Marinated Rape” is a problematic thing to name a food item. Apparently Rape is another name for monkfish. Who knew?
I ate all of the lotus root I bought in the car on the way home, save for one that I had to willfully keep away from so that I could take a picture of it to show to you. Isn’t it pretty? The texture is fascinating, it’s simultaneously crunchy and soft. I wish I hadn’t eaten all of it or rather, I wish I had bought more.
I should learn how to make this.
September 13, 2009
steamed nancy
Nancy is one of my favorites. She braved police helicopters and potential murderers to meet me in Koreatown at BCD Tofu.
I feel like it’s been a while since I hung out with Nancy alone and I had such a good time. We ordered the same thing, which is kind of funny except that I ordered mine extra spicy. I don’t know why I do that. It’s like I’m competing with myself but what is accomplished from scorching my tastebuds…I don’t know. Nancy and I both agreed that as we get older we can’t handle spicy food the way we used to.
Actually there seemed to be a fair amount of reflection on growing older tonight, which I guess could be deemed pre-mature as we’re only 25. But maybe 25 is old. I mean biologically speaking we’re passed the optimum point, right?
How terrible. But also, I’m a little excited to see how my body chooses to deteriorate. It won’t be graceful, I predict.
As for dinner, dinner was good. Korean tofu stew is pretty predictable and generally satisfying…not that exciting but you get your money’s worth, which is something I can appreciate at the moment. Later this week Nancy and I are eating Ethiopian food, which I’m quite excited for.
Also, Nancy, why didn’t you tell me I had a red pepper flake on my cheek?
August 3, 2009
 fish in red pepper with radishes, potatoes, and tofu  the communal pot of vegetables and beef–this will eventually be made into a porridge when the broth is all cooked down  mung bean pancakes  the spread  pork belly that you wrap in cabbage with kimchi and an oyster
After the Out of Nothing reading I went out to dinner with my family with Nancy and Lan. Predictably we got Korean food. Saeyoung and I had this discussion afterwards about how Korean food is just not conducive to conversation. There is nothing leisurely about it. The server is constantly bringing food-small side dishes, checking on the meat, bringing rice. It feels something like an attack of food actually. Korean food is aggressive. Are we an aggressive people?
And the other problem is that the table gets so full with food that there isn’t even room to put your elbows down (that’s bad manners anyhow, but still). My brain kind of stops working when i’m overwhelmed with food in this way.
We went to Dae Sung Oak which specializes in a Korean shabu-shabu type dish. A boiling pot of broth is set in the middle of the table and vegetables are added (mushrooms, cabbage, seaweed, sweet potatoes, peppers, etc). When the broth looks like it’s at a scalding level, thin raw almost carpaccio like slices of beef are added. When the meat is cooked through we dip it in a sweet soy sauce. When the broth is all cooked down an thickened, they add rice and make it into a porridge. It’s quite gluttonous, also glutinous. haha.
Dae Sung Oak
2585 West Olympic Blvd
Los Angeles, Ca 90006
213.386.1600
June 23, 2009
soon dubu (silken tofu stew)
ggo joo jang ji geh (red pepper stew)
pa jun (green onion pancake)
Sam and I went out for Korean food today. Well, wait, first let me tell you a story. The first time I introduced friends to Korean food it was in first grade and I brought some roasted seaweed to school. For whatever reason we were treating the whole experience like we were sneaking contraband and decided to eat in the girl’s bathroom, which is gross in retrospect, but that’s besides the point. We were in the large stall and my two friends took a piece each. One of my friends made an awful face, like she had just tasted death or something. The other friend threw up. It was not pleasant and I felt simultaneously annoyed, insulted, and guilty.
So here is the point, I am grateful for friends who do not throw up when trying new things. Because, truly, that piece of roasted seaweed was really tasty and that throwing up was more psychological than anything, I’m sure. Or maybe this is a big assumption but still, she only took a bite and the throwing up was a bit dramatic. And I’m not even sure why, but I feel really great when my friends like Korean food. This does not make any sense to me and I don’t know why I should take any sort of ownership of Korean cuisine in general and maybe I’m even a little embarrassed that I’m pleased when people are pleased with Korean food.
Once I went to BCD Tofu with Nancy and she was really amused by the raw egg that she got to crack into her soup. I hadn’t really considered the egg as anything special before then but it made me really happy that Nancy found it so great.
Okay, so back to the beginning. Sam and I went to Park Dae Gam. She ordered the soon dubu. I don’t think I’ve ever tried their soon dubu but it looked pretty good. The egg came pre-cracked and I think Sam was a little startled to discover a “liquid inside of a liquid”, which I thought was a great way of wording it. I ordered the ggoh joo jang ji geh, which is probably one of the easiest Korean dishes to make. Park Dae Gam puts rice cake in theirs, which is exciting.
We also ordered a pa jun, sans the shrimp. It was $17, which is confusing because the ingredients are green onions, flour, and eggs. It was good though, and it was a very large portion. I suppose I could be upset about the $17 but really, all my money goes to food anyhow and I’m more likely to be upset about paying $5 for parking than any amount of money for good food. As far as I’m concerned, money for food is money well spent.
All in all, a very lovely evening.
Park Dae Gam
955 S Vermont Ave
Los Angeles, 90006
213.380.1717
March 24, 2009
I guess it could be considered unusual that i don’t feel a special connection to korean food. but then i think, “hey, why should i? there’s no rule that says i have to be genetically pre-disposed to love korean food.” so, yeah…my attitude about korean food is: I’ll enjoy what’s put in front of me but I’ll rarely crave it.
That being said, I might crave Ondal from time to time. Ondal specializes in a communal crabstew. Once the crab has been eaten, they use the broth to cook sujaebi (thick, hand stretched noodles) and then to make fried rice. If you ask me, it’s a pretty great way to use and re-use the same broth.
And also, we had to wear aprons.
Ondal 2
4566 W Washington Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90016
(323)933-3228
January 26, 2009
My mom is the greatest. We’re complete opposites but the one aspect in which I’ve taken after her is an eagerness to force feed people when we discover something tasty. She’s been trying to imitate a dish we ate in Korea. Fermented soy bean stew (basically a Korean version of miso soup) is a staple in korean cooking but adding noodles makes it something of a trendy food in Korea lately. My mom tried making it and being pleased with the results she’s systematically making every member of our extended family within a 30 mile radius try her version. Like everything she cooks, this was delicious.
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