Hae Jang Chon

Our table is loaded with food but we’ve only just begun…


Hae Jang Chon is my current favorite all-you-can-eat (“AYCE”) Korean bbq. It’s not my favorite Korean bbq place, that spot is reserved for Park’s and/or Sa Rit Gol, but for an AYCE place Hae Jang Chon is pretty good. For $16.99 per person you not only get all of the pork belly, sliced brisket, and marinated kalbi that you want but that price also includes, but is not limited to, the following:

Cold fermented radish soup (this is so refreshing when you are cooking and eating bbq):


Kimchee pancake:


Spicy soybean soup with tofu (complete with the de rigueur chipped vessel):


Kimchee fried rice:



Take a peek at our brisket and the marinated kalbi:






I liked both of these meats. Once most of the fat is rendered off the brisket you don’t feel so guilty eating it. I usually don’t like marinated meats since the marinade is often too sweet and you can end up with candied meat. But at Hae Jang Chang the marinade on the kalbi has a nice balance of sweet and savory.

Considering that this place specializes in pork (I assuming this because of the cartoon of the very happy pig on the sign) I was surprised that the pork belly lacked flavor. It looked good though:


To eat with your meat you receive both pickled daikon radish slices and rice noodle sheets. You also get a really nice salad that has a wasabi dressing on it that complements the meat very well.


Four yummy dipping sauces to choose from: fermented bean paste, sesame oil seasoned with salt and pepper, red chile sauce, and a very nice vinegar based marinated garlic and jalapeno sauce. Note the stone grill. A friend of mine, who is originally from Korea, told me that this is a particular type of grill used in a certain region in Korea. It has been placed on an angle and it has a hole in it at the low end. Every now and then the server comes over and pours marinated radish on the grill to clean it and scrapes all of the liquid waste out through the hole. Another reason why my preference is for charcoal bbq.

Hae Jang Chon
3821 W. 6th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90020
http://www.haejangchon.com/

The Corner Place

A preview of coming attractions – my bowl of Dongchimi Guksu (somen like noodles in cold radish broth):


Late last year I started working for a Korean firm. One morn, before work, I was perusing the Chowhound board and read a post about these cold noodles (Dongchimi Guksu) at a place called The Corner Place. I was in love with these noodles, sight and taste unseen. Later that morning, the office manager, Judy, asks me if I want to go to lunch with her and Chris. She said, “It’s probably going to be Korean, is that ok?” and I replied, “OMG! I’ve been cravin’ Korean all day!” and she looked at me really funny and said, “You’re serious, aren’t you?” Perhaps she had forgotten that I and another employee were the only two people to eat the Jo Gee Gui (fried whole Yellow Corvina fish) at the last firm luncheon.

Needless to say the noodles were all that I had expected and more. I had been meaning to go back, like every day, but there have been so many other places to try. Finally, I got a group to go on what would definitely be a hot summer day. The day before, one of my colleagues tells me that the Dongchimi Guksu “aren’t as good as they used to be.” What! “I think they changed the recipe or something.” Oh, mon Dieu!

The recipe for Dongchimi Guksu is a closely guarded secret. Legend has it that a little old lady in Cerritos makes the broth and it is delivered to the restaurant in a Brinks truck. This is one secret that you’ll never learn: you are not allowed to take home your leftover noodles nor may you order them to-go.

The one secret ingredient that everyone can agree on is 7-Up which was very distinctive the first time that I had these noodles but since the 7-Up flavor has diminished somewhat. My colleague was right, the recipe probably has changed but in my opinion they are even better now. They are slightly more spicy (almost like a jalapeno agua fresca) and taste a little more of cucumber.

The waitress splits our noodles for us:



Raven wants something extra in her noodles and I explain why she’s out of luck:



Below, a photo of our Kalbi that we ate with the noodles:



Above, we just ate the meat with the scallion salad and sesame oil dippy. Rice and lettuce leaves were extra and with the noodles who needed them anyway?

Below, select photos of our panchan:





Above, the fermented cabbage in jalapeno water. This was so refreshing! It’s pretty spicy but it also came with a whole bunch of ice cubes in the bowl – perfect for a hot summer day.

The Corner Place
2819 W. James M. Wood St.
Los Angeles, CA 90006

Suhrabal Korean BBQ

Editor's Note: My Guest Blogger, Raven, and I (and a large group of people) went to Suhrabal for lunch about a week before the tragic shooting there. We decided to wait to post the review until a respectable time had past. If mention of the shooting might be offensive to you, please read no further.

Gee, it's been about three posts since I, or most likely Raven, has written about Korean food so I decided it was about that time. Thanks to Raven for being my Guest Blogger (again!) this week.

We Enter Korean Drama Territory: Suhrabal

FADE IN:

INT. SUHRABAL – DAY

A KOREAN MAN enters, gun in hand... Okay, I don't want to be flippant about the tragedy that occurred at Suhrabal barely a week after we were there, but you have to admit it could be something out of a kdrama (a dark one where folks get killed). The restaurant owner was rumored to be having an affair with one of the waitresses, so her husband showed up with a gun and killed the owner and himself. Plus the restaurant was open for business the very next day, or so I'm told. I can't imagine who would have gone there then...

But when we were there this tragedy was still in the future, and we had no inkling that it was going to take place. So...

BEGIN FLASHBACK

A large party enters Suhrabal. From the ambience you expect this place to be expensive. It has an upscale dining room, heavy tables, overall an upscale atmosphere. You walk in past an area where the many meats available are open to view. This could seem chintzy, but it doesn't. It seems classy.

We ordered a LOT of food. In fact we ordered so much that we couldn't keep track of it all before we placed the order, so I had to write it down in Korean to give to the waitress, proving that I have bad handwriting in every alphabet. I'm not sure she bothered to read it, though, since she ended up bringing us an appetizer we hadn't ordered. Here it is, the accidental appetizer:



Granted, although we did pay for this appetizer (since we ate it), because of the mistake we also received an order of kimchee jigae on the house. I don't do spicy, so I didn't try it, but it looked appetizing. See what you think:



The barbecue (Note from Bon V.: charcoal, baby, charcoal!), of course, was our main course. Take a look:



We also ordered a number of other dishes to round out our meal. Hey, there were a lot of us. We deserved a lot of food. We pigged out on a delicious seafood and egg pancake (yum!), delicious chapchae (noodles with vegetables), and a plate of kimchee dumplings. Despite the fact that I don't do hot food, I was enticed by the dumplings (below).



I don't recall much about the panchan except for the deep-fried seaweed. I think this is the Korean answer to potato chips. I loved it at the time. It's sort of salty, sweet, and crisp all at once. I have to say, though, after I picked up a whole container of my own at HK Market, I got tired of this seaweed treat really fast.



Finally, after we were done eating, we all received a refreshing rice drink, which I really enjoyed.



And the best part is, the bill didn't live up to the pricey atmosphere. I was sure we'd be paying through the nose, but it was really quite reasonable.

END FLASHBACK

FADE OUT.

Note from Bon V.: After Suhrabal, we all went over to HK Market and saw this crazy warning:



Suhrabal
100 S. Western Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90004

Pho 2000 v. Pho 4000

I'm used to Pho 79, Pho 99, and I seem to remember that Pho Cafe in Silver Lake was originally called, for a very short time, Pho 101. But in Koreatown pho has gone bigtime with Pho 2000 (branches at 7th & Vermont and Western near 1st) and Pho 4000 (located at Western and 4th).

Pho 2000's website states that "many in Koreatown, Los Angeles, have voted PHO 2000 as 'BEST PHO' restaurant in Los Angeles." But word on the street is that Pho 4000 is exponentially better. Just how good are these Korean phos?

Amy dresses her rare beef pho at Pho 2000:

Sassy C and I split an order of rare beef pho at Pho 4000:

This is one of my favorite videos! Check out Sarah's beautiful noodle technique:

The side of herbs served at Pho 4000 was definitely better; the herbs were fresher and more varied. The day that I went to Pho 2000 the herbs were a little wan.

Love-15

Crab and pork spring rolls at Pho 2000:

And at Pho 4000:

While 2000's were hot and crunchy, they lacked a lot of flavor. 4000's were really good (and too hot to eat!)

Love-30

Pho 2000 has a menu limited to pho and spring and summer rolls while Pho 4000 has a much more varied menu. Check out Raven's Bun Tom Thit Nuong (aka "Number 11"):

Love-40

Championship point for Pho 4000? Hardly! The restaurant keeps double faulting. The fatal error is that their broth sucks (how else can I put it?). You know how people talk about things looking and tasting like dish water? Well, this broth really does. I should have known since I noticed that most people before us left large amounts of broth in their bowls.

The non-pho dishes were pretty good. A big foodie turned me onto the stir-fried rice noodles. They were good but they came with a price:

So, I wanted to order another order of the stir-fried noodles. I go into the back to look for our waitress but she has disappeared. I go up to the owner, a matronly woman, and say, "Excuse me, may we order another order of number 16?" She nods her head affirmitively. But 30 seconds later, she grabs a menu, walks over to our table, and starts yelling at me in pigdin english and pointing to number 16 (stir-fried noodles). She's getting madder and madder. I guess that I'm not getting my noodles. So we call the cook/busboy/waiter over and tell him what happened and he says, "that's just the way she is." He tells her that we want another order of number 16 and she's headed back to the table. Uh oh. But this time she's all smiles and says, "yes, you get number 16!" WTF!

So, Pho 2000 has pretty good broth and the service is friendly, efficient, and quick so it wins the Korean Pho Bowl.

How do these two places stack up against Vietnamese places? Well, not very well but if you live mid-city and you don't feel like driving to Westminster or SGV (or you don't want to pay $10 for a bowl of pho at a trendy Silver Lake Vietnamese place) it might be worth it to stop in at Pho 2000.

Pho 2000
698 S. Vermont Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90005

Pho 4000
414 S. Western Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90020

Paris Baguette

Dear Reader, as of late I've been having car problems, dog problems, and not surprisingly, brain problems; thus, this week we have another guest blogger! Here is Raven's review of my favorite bakery in Los Angeles, Paris Baguette:

My Culinary Adventures Goes to Paris (sort of)

I haven't been to Paris myself. Maybe someday I'll go. But in the meantime I'm told by a reliable source (namely, Bon V.) that the pastries at Paris Baguette are nearly as good as you'd find in Paris.

A visit to Paris Baguette starts out with a feast for the nose. The bakery is tucked away off a small parking lot around First & Western. The upside to this location is that you can park in the lot when you go, assuming there's room. The downside is that if you don't park in the lot, it's hard to find the door to the bakery, even after you've found the address from the street. But once you do locate the door, which will probably be open if the weather is warm, you'll immediately know you're in the right place. Because the heavenly smell of baking pastries will waft out and surround you.

Paris Baguette is apparently part of a Korean chain that has opened up shop in the United States. They bake throughout the day, and outside they post a signboard listing which items will be coming out when. This means that whatever you buy is going to be fresh. And if you see something that looks appetizing, snap it up on the spot, because an hour later it will probably be gone, and someone else's taste buds will be enjoying it instead of yours.

Part of the charm of Paris Baguette is that it's a feast for all the senses. In fact, in some ways I'd say the smell and presentation of their baked goods is even more important than how they taste. Everything they makes looks gorgeous. Check out these beauties (not mine, by the way):



The bakery isn't large, but there's room inside for a display case filled with cakes, and on the opposite wall you'll find help-yourself bins full of reasonably-priced pastries. Basically, you grab a box and a pair of tongs and help yourself.

I helped myself to the following: a rice flour doughnut (sweet sugar coating but a bit bland), a pastry with green pea filling (yes, the vegetable), a banana cream pastry (it was heavenly), and some kind of pastry stick with black seeds. Bon V. told me what this was when she recommended it, but I promptly forgot (Editor's Note: it's like a sweet potato croissant dough twisty thingy).

Meanwhile I was maneuvering my way past the staff in white hats and aprons who were busy restocking the bins and helping customers. In addition to sweets, Paris Baguette also offers savory options, which I will be sampling when I go back sometime soon.

So if you're craving French pastries and you don't feel like going all the way to Paris to get them, head over to Koreatown in Los Angeles and pick some up.

Paris Baguette

125 N. Western Avenue

Los Angeles, CA 90004

Koreatown Plaza Food(ie) Court

Here, Dear Reader, is a new feature: Guest Blogger! I want to thank Hiking Gourtmet T for writing this review:

Bon Vivant, Raven and I hit the Koreatown Plaza at Western and 9th Street at noon on a Sunday, ready to sample what its food court had to offer. Like those at most other malls, the food court was full of hustle and bustle and lacked much atmosphere. However, the food choices more than made up for it. Of the 10 or so food vendors in the food court, the primary dishes offered were Korean soups and stews, noodles and meat dishes.

After surveying the various choices, we each decided to get one dish and share. Bon Vivant had had her eye on Chew Young Roo’s dumplings since her last visit. Her order of the steamed dumplings, or mandu, consisted of four large dumplings, which resembled bao. Inside the warm, plump buns were a mixture of vegetables, including leeks and onions, sautéed in garlic, ginger and other flavors. The dough was fresh (you can watch them make the dumplings) and light, contrasting nicely with the flavorful vegetables and crunchy celery. The dish comes with a dipping sauce that tastes like soy sauce and vinegar. Four buns would be more than enough for a filling lunch.



At Gamja Bawi, which specializes in bibimbap, Raven ignored the cashier, who tried, yet again, to steer her toward the less interesting #1 bibimbap, and ordered the beef dolsot bibimbap. A mix of rice, vegetables, meat and a freshly cracked egg in a stone pot, the dish is filling and comforting. Like the dumplings, the mix of the soft rice and crunchy bean sprouts (with the bean) stood out. Richly flavored bits of beef add texture and flavor. It came with a variety of traditional Korean side dishes (panchan), as well as radish soup and seaweed soup, which are basically light broths.



I ordered cold noodles (neng myung) from Plaza. The thin noodles are served in a tin bowl, floating in a clear, thick, faintly sweet liquid, with cucumbers, a boiled egg and bean sprouts on top. The nest of noodles can be a little hard to untangle for the inexperienced. Both the noodles and the soup have a delicate flavor. While I enjoyed the noodles (I love noodles), the lack of a strong flavor in either the liquid or noodles left me feeling like something was missing. However, this was the third dish we sampled and thus the stronger flavors of the first two may have made noodles pale in contrast. I can also see how on a hot day, one would not want strong flavors drowning out the cool noodles.





Each dish was around $7, quite a bargain. I highly recommend a visit to Koreatown Plaza’s food court as well as a stroll around mall, especially some browsing time at The Plaza Market.

Editors Note: After Hiking Gourtmet T left, Raven and I went to get some pot bing soo:



Koreatown Plaza Food(ie) Court
928 S. Western Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90006
www.koreatownplaza.com

Soot Bul Gui Rim

A preview of coming attractions:

Our meal started off right at this Koreatown favorite. The top photo reveals our first round: unmarinated short rib, beef tongue, and the de rigueur pork belly. Glimpses into our second round in the bottom photo: marinated short rib (and we also threw on some fresh garlic and jalapeno).

Lately, I've been having a hankering for charcoal Korean bubbaque. With all of the Korean bubbaque places in Los Angeles, only a small percentage use charcoal. On this past Easter my nose took me (you can literally smell this place a block away) to Soot Bul Gui Rim which is known for being the best all you can eat bubbaque places in the city ("awesome" said one reviewer): what makes Soot Bul Gui Rim stand out from all the other all you can eat places is the use of charcoal briquettes and the high quality of meat.

Come, delight your senses in the world that is Soot Bul Gui Rim:

So, for the first round we were limited to the three choices. I thought that the unmarinated short rib was more tender than at Cham Sut Gol ($24 there) and the pork belly was much tastier than at the over rated, in my opinion, Honey Pig (don't even get me started on Honey Pig!).

I really liked the marinated short rib; at most places I feel that they put too much sugar in the marinade and what I'm left with after barbequing is candied meat. At Soot Bul Gui Rim the marinated meat was more on the savory side. And with our second round we also got a dainty...

Have a heart - literally:

You know, Dear Reader, I fail to understand why people do not eat heart more often? It's like a really tasty and uber tender filet mignon.

Ooh, look at the flames:

Below, photos of some panchan - a lovely bean sprout salad and a healthy dose of kim chee:

Take a full tour of the panchan and the dipping sauces:

I forgot to film one dipping sauce (the chili garlic paste) which was fabulous with the pork belly.

And finally, my thoughts on charcoal Korean bubbaque:



Soot Bul Gui Rim
233 S. Vermont Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90020