Christmas Shopping

It's very weird not being in LA in December. And what's weirder is that it's now December 23 here in Korea, but I'm not getting that Christmassy feeling, despite the cold wintry weather. I think I need my family, my mother's wreaths and garlands and red ornaments, my father's outdoor Christmas lights edging the roof, my sister's purchasing of obscene amounts of butter, and the insistent meowing of the cat, fat with her winter coat, to feel appropriately Christmassy. Even when it snows (it's been snowing on and off for a few weeks, but nothing that sticks for long), it doesn't feel as Christmassy as it does being in LA, walking around in flip-flops, drinking iced coffee.

Despite my somewhat depressed Christmas spirit, I went out and saw some Christmassy sights and did a little Christmassy window shopping (eye shopping in Konglish, which sounds disturbing to me- shopping for eyes??). I'm proud of myself for going out when it's been so dang cold that I fear my nose and ears will fall off due to frostbite before winter's over.

This is the crosswalk between The Galleria East and West (Korean site, English site here). The Galleria's a department store in the Apgujeong neighborhood (압구정) of the Gangnam District (강남) in Seoul. The Galleria's on Apgujeong Rodeo street (oh, Korea, really?), a very posh street in the already very posh Apgu area.

I really liked the lights and the Christmas tree-shaped stack of Christmas presents. Though the Galleria in Apgujeong is "luxury," selling designer brands and such, their food court and grocery store make me feel like I'm back home, so I love it. Their grocery store (in the basement of Galleria East) carries a lot of stuff that I can't find anywhere else, or have to travel very long distances to find. Some of the things I buy here are Sriracha sauce, tortillas, flavored salts, pasta in shapes other than spaghetti, chutney (for a country that pickles and jars vegetables like crazy, Koreans don't make chutney at all), cheese (REAL cheese! Stinky cheese!), charcuterie ... the list goes on and on. Yes, because it's the Galleria (the branch in Apgu is actually divided into and called Luxury Hall East and Luxury Hall West), prices are marked up disturbingly high, but that's supply and demand. The food court is generally bustling, but not nearly as loud as in other department stores. I think the acoustics were well-planned in the Galleria. And the food court has a Vato's Tacos, which is nice.

One of my favorite dishes is naeng-myeon (냉면, also spelled naeng-myun), which, seeing as how it's an average of about 25 degrees Fahrenheit lately, is not a good idea. But I was craving naeng-myeon, so as a nod to the cold weather, I had it with grilled skirt steak (is it still called skirt steak if it's from a pig?). This is a really delicious combination, which sounds weird but tastes good and is pretty dang addictive. Yummy.

This was at SeoRae (서래 갈매기살, website's in Korean and English), a chain of skirt steak (skirt meat?) restaurants. They sell other cuts of meat (pork and beef), of course, but I quite like the skirt. One of my favorite ways to eat steak in L.A. was skirt steak, Argentinian-style. It's not the same as Korean-style grill-your-own-meat, of course, but it's still good.

Coffee (yes, mine is iced, even in this weather!) at Willium Cafe (links to a Korean blog with nice photos), close to my office. It's tucked away and quiet, and has teddy bears that live there. Aww. I'm a sucker for a cute teddy bear, though I don't like owning them, as their fur seems like dust traps to me. (I'm so not a romantic soul...)

A very odd thing lately is that I sometimes forget that I'm in Korea. I don't know why, I don't know how, but I sometimes think I'm in LA, and that I can just get in my car and zip to my parents' house. Perhaps the cold is addling my brain.

Anyway, hello from Korea and happy Christmas Eve Eve!

Read more...

My Love Affair

I'm having a torrid love affair.

I need a fix at least once a day.

It's ... not hot ... actually, it's cold. Because my love affair is with iced coffee.

Hello, lover. You look gorgeous. All cold and icy with those little playful bubbles. Yummy.

Korea's going through a drip coffee phase lately (I lay at least part of the blame on 커피프린스1호점 (The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince), a 2007 Korean drama that was hugely (HUGELY) popular and featured coffee) with artisanal, boutique-y coffeeshops sprouting up all over the place.

There are large chains, of course (Starbucks, Coffee Bean, Pascucci, Caffe Bene, etc.), but there are more and more places that specialize in drip coffee. These shops tend to be a little pricier and the coffee tends to take a little longer, but they're generally quieter than those mega-shops and have a nicer environment.

This is one of the local shops in my area, featuring coffee from single sources (Kenyan coffee is one of my favorites here). That lady back there makes all the coffee, including roasting the beans (before customers arrive, of course).

The shop is quite cute, too. Maybe they serve wine at night? I've only been during the day. It's cute regardless, and they have barista classes here. Apparently, it's called Ilsan Barista Academy (website's only in Korean, sorry).

Look at that. Those cookies are made on site as well, and are quite good. Yeah, it's just coffee and cookies, but the ambience and the soothing design really let me catch my breath when I'm having a bad day or give me a little respite when I need to get away from some of the little monsters at work.

All That Coffee
Shop: Crystal Building #106 (behind Homeplus) JangHang-Dong 756-3 Ilsan Dong-Gu Goyang-Si Gyeonggi-Do
Academy: McDonald's Building, Third Floor, JangHang-Dong 770-2 Ilsan Dong-Gu Goyang-Si Gyeonggi-Do

Telephone: 031.907.5748

올댓커피
정발산역 3호선
본점: 경기도 고양시 일산동구 장항동 756-3번지 크리스탈빌딩 106호 (홈플러스 뒷편).
아카데미: 경기도 고양시 일산동구 장항동 770-2번지 (맥도날드 3층).

Read more...

Duck, Duck ... Duck!

It's been a tough couple of weeks.

I'm homesick for my family and friends, and I've been having moments of feeling very out of place and awkward here. I don't know why-- is it Korea? Is it work? Is it me?-- but the random pauses of loneliness are surprising and not at all welcome.

Then-- BOOM! Things are as they should be. I am my normal smiley, happy self again.

Is this what senility feels like??

Anyways. Onward with my food posts!

A few weeks ago, two of the girls and I went to Anygol (애니골), an area in Ilsan that's a little bit slower paced and a little more spread out than the bigger shopping and eating areas. There's one street (alley?) that consists of faux traditional Korean buildings that house duck restaurants.

Korea has a lot of streets like this, that are themed- wedding shops, shoe shops, musical instrument shops, and everything in between- Koreans like to group all like things together. Makes it easier to bargain shop, I suppose?

Being a lovely summer afternoon, we decided to have a leisurely dinner at one of the duck restaurants, which is quite famous, if I'm not mistaken, called Canaan Duck (가나안덕). Because eating duck is ... a religious experience...? Whatever the story behind the name of the place, we had a good time and a lot of duck.

Duck! I've never seen duck served like this in LA. I feel like perhaps this is a Korean thing- raw duck, chop it up, throw it on a grill, cook the crap out of it.

There were three of us and one duck was plenty. These aren't huge ducks, but the skin is very fatty and what with all the sides, we didn't need to order more fowl.

I don't drink beer because I think it tastes gross, but I loved this beer glass. It's a diagram of how much soju and how much beer to pour into the glass, and what the percentage of alcohol is for each of the different measurements. And yes, this is a typical beer glass in Korea- they also have those big stein-sized glass mugs, but usually at fried chicken places and hofs, not at restaurants.

We all had on baseball caps because no one bothered to put on makeup. I'm turning so Korean, aren't I, concerned about makeup and such?? We didn't really eat or drink much this day-- I think it's because this was when it was just starting to get hot here, and the humidity really puts a damper on any desire to eat or drink until stuffed.

Aw, look at the happy, makeup-less Korean girls. This was actually taken while we were waiting for a table to open up, as the duck restaurants in this area have a very brisk business. Tons of people were loitering around- see the little arcade behind us? Kids were running around and playing on see-saws and other swings, adults were sitting around panting in the heat, and we were acting like idiots and taking photos of everything.

I drove for the first time in Korea yesterday!

We (the three girls in the photo above) went to watch a movie (YeonGaSi, 연가시) last night, so I took one of the company cars from one of the guys, who happened to be in the same shopping area as I was yesterday afternoon. We met for coffee and I took the car and the girls and off we went.

Driving in Ilsan isn't nearly as daunting as driving in Seoul, I would think. If (when?) I know my plans and I decide to stay in Korea for a year or more, I would seriously consider buying a car. Too bad I have no idea where I'll be in six months!

Read more...

Cafe Lemon Table, Ilsan

Cafe Lemon Table
Janghang-Dong Ilsan-Dong-Gu Goyang-Si Gyeonggi-Do 868
Western Dom B #221

Telephone: 031.902.2305

레몬테이블
경기도 고양시 일산동구 장항동 868번지 웨스턴돔B동 221호

All week:
11:00 am - 11:00 pm

Cafe Lemon Table is a funny place because it says up front, with a sign near the door, that the food will take twenty minutes to prepare.

Koreans are not a patient breed of people- they expect to walk into a restaurant, peruse the menu for all of sixty seconds, place their order in the following twenty seconds, and have their food piping hot and on the table within five minutes. And that's the way it is in most Korean establishments, as Korean food can be prepped ahead of time to be very quickly served.

Lemon Table is not a Korean place. Their food takes a little while (though not twenty whole minutes) to get to the customers. But it's pretty good, and their bread makes it worth the wait.

The bread is fattening and served with honey. The honey comes in a little dish with a face on it. That face is the face I make when I think of how much butter must be in their bread, which practically oozes with fat. Delicious, delicious fat. Mmmmm.

That's a normal pasta (note how much sauce there is- Koreans really love to over-sauce their pasta. I like very little sauce, because I prefer the noodles, so eating pasta has been tough here at times) and pizza that you're supposed to eat with a fork or spoon. Why? Because the pizza is so gloopy, so full of melted (fake) cheese, so overly topped that the crust cannot handle the weight of its load.

Lemon Table isn't extraordinary, not by any means. But the ambience is nice, the restaurant is clean and well-decorated, their service is good (service in Korea surpasses American service, in general) and when I'm in the mood for (fake) cheese, I think of this place.

Again, I don't have pizza or pasta all that frequently in Korea, but when I want it, I do have it. Sometimes a girl just needs some (fake) cheese to make herself feel better or to celebrate some small something!

My brain's not working well enough for a clever segue, so here's my abrupt change of topic:

Last night, I went with two girlfriends to watch "The Cabin in the Woods." That movie was TERRIFYING at moments and HILARIOUS in adjacent moments.

I've been watching thriller, suspense, and horror movies lately, which confuses me because I've never really liked them. I watched "Faces in the Crowd" a couple weeks ago, which scared me (I'm a wimp!) and wasn't that good.

I watched "The Shining" over the weekend for the first time (Jack Nicholson ... holy crap!) which I had to keep muting. (When I watch scary movies, I'd rather see it than hear it, so I tend to put my fingers in my ears and try to block out the screams and the suspenseful music.)

What is it about Korea that's got me changing so much? Is it adaptation or is it conformation?

At least the long working hours haven't changed...? It's one aspect of my personality that won't be changing, at least not until I move to Italy or France or some other like-minded laissez-faire society.

More food posts soon!

Read more...

Trevi, Ilsan

There are a lot of restaurants in Western Dom, most of which I haven't been to. Why? Because my co-workers claim that most of those places are awful and that we can't eat there because we'll regret every bite. Koreans tend to be quite opinionated when it comes to food.

So out of the many pasta places around here, I only go to two. The one I go to more frequently is called Trevi.

Trevi
Western Dom
Janghang-Dong IlsanDong-Gu Goyang-Si Gyeonggi-Do 867

Telephone: 031.931.5450

트레비
경기도 고양시 일산동구 장항동 867

Koreans will typically order a few dishes and share when in a restaurant where Americans would order their own entree. Eating in Korea tends to be a communal experience, with everyone's forks (spoons, chopsticks) in everyone else's dishes. I don't mind, because it means that I get to try more dishes.

This is a typical salad in Korea, even if it is in an Italian restaurant. Overdressed, in my opinion (like all the pastas and most everything else!), and lacking real cheese. I miss real cheese.

See that dish of pink and green? Koreans eat pickles with pizza, pasta, Indian food, American food- any type of food where kimchi isn't served. They claim it cuts through the greasiness of the food, which is how they're able to eat carbonara with about a liter of cream in it.

The pizza's okay at Trevi. Much better than Pizza Hut (though Pizza Hut in Korea is worlds away from American Pizza Hut-- someday, I'll have to do a study comparing American and Korean versions of the same restaurants and fast food chains), though Koreans and their habit of dipping their pizza in honey (!) baffles me.

Me and my big honking glass of wine. Again with the pointy chin, so bizarre how it pops up in photographs. The bread at Trevi is decent, though their sweetish bread is better than their focaccia, which is very un-focaccia-ish.

Ricotta pasta. I really wished that this sauce had been paired with a sturdier noodle. Penne would have been much better than spaghetti, but Koreans generally have all sauces with spaghetti noodles. Those garlic chive sprouts were really strong but good. The ricotta tasted like nothing, but then again, all cheese in Korea tastes like nothing.

Squid ink risotto. The risotto didn't taste like risotto, as it seemed like regularly cooked rice, but it may be because Koreans reserve soft rice (juk, 죽) for the sickbed. Since I'm not a fan of risotto (I like chewy things, like super al dente pasta), I quite liked the texture of this dish. The squid ink was okay, it lends a briny flavor but not much else.

All these dishes (except for maybe the salad) are quite fattening. I find that this is especially true because pasta and pizza don't have that sticking power that rice does, for some strange reason. If I have pasta and pizza for lunch, I'm hungry again in a couple hours, so I'll find something to snack on.

Moderation really must be key, because though I have pasta and/or pizza at least a couple times a month, I don't really feel guilty for it and I don't think I put on an unnecessary amount of weight because of it. I did tend to have pasta more frequently in the States, because it's easy and satisfying and a great go-to, but because it tends to be slightly more expensive to eat Italian food in Korea than eating Korean food, it's not one of my go-to's anymore.

What I really want to find in Korea is a good lasagna. It's impossible to make at home, since I don't have an oven. It might be quicker to buy an oven and get my mother to ship the ingredients (real cheese!) to me.

Read more...

우마이도, Ilsan

우마이도 (pronounced oo-mai-ee-do, Anglicized to Umaido) is a Japanese ramen place just on the outskirts of Western Dom (웨스턴돔) in Ilsan (일산). I've been a couple times now, and tried all two main dishes that they offer there.

I usually feel that restaurants are best when they concentrate on their signature dish and refine it. This place takes that notion to an extreme, literally only serving gyoza (potstickers) and ramen. Even their ramen only comes in two flavors- regular and spicy. They don't mess around. They don't even serve rice, so if you're hungry, order some extra noodles (for 1,000 won, or less than $1). They do sell their chashu (the pork that is usually served in slices on top of ramen) by the dish, if you need more meat. Chashu is part of Japanese ramen cookery, as are half-boiled eggs (hanjuku eggs), so I don't consider them to be separate dishes.

True to form for me, I prefer the spicy ramen. It's a little more interesting, and the spice cuts the heavy greasiness of the broth. Both are quite good, and if I was looking for something comforting, I might go with a bowl of the regular, but I think that most days, I prefer the spicy. They have the same base, and it's a good base. I believe that there's a reason that they charge you a whole extra 1,000 won for the spicy bowl, though.

Sadly, their gyoza is a little lackluster. I don't think they make their own, which I completely understand, but I wish they would buy tastier dumplings. Not that they're bad, they're just sort of typical dumplings that one could make at home. I think they make their own gyoza. Shame that their noodles are so good but their gyoza are just so-so.

I usually can't finish a bowl of ramen at other establishments, but I find that I actually eat the entire bowl plus a few gyoza at Umaido, so big eaters should really get the extra noodles added right off the bat. I almost never finish an entire rice bowl of rice at restaurants in Korea, so I wouldn't say that I eat a lot- I actually don't eat as much as most girls that I work with, especially when it comes to rice or noodles or ricecakes.

Just as Koreans differentiate between Japanese (and Korean) style curry (카레) and Indian curry (커리) with slightly different pronunciations and spellings, the difference between Korean ramen (라면) and Japense ramen (라멘) is very slight, probably not easily discernible to a Westerner.

One thing that is unique about this place that I've never seen before is the presence of raw garlic cloves and a garlic press at every table. You pop a clove or two (or three or four) into the press and squeeze freshly minced garlic into your ramen, stir it all around, then dig in. Koreans love garlic, of course, so I wouldn't be surprised if this is a Korean addition to a Japanese dish. I, personally, can't really taste garlic all that much, probably because I grew up on garlic-heavy Korean food. I think I had about a clove of garlic in my ramen today and I couldn't even tell it was there.

With the very simple menu of ramen, gyoza, and beer (no sake, as far as I know), this place is almost austere. Their decor is stark, and they seem to stake their reputation on their ramen. Frankly, I've had ramen in LA that I actually preferred to this (I love opaque white shio ramen), but I know that I'll be back for at least one more bowl of spicy ramen at Umaido before I leave Korea.

Their prices aren't bad at all, though pricier than having "normal" Korean food (and more of it):

7,000 won ($6.33) for a bowl of regular ramen
8,000 won ($7.24) for a bowl of spicy ramen
2,500 won ($2.26) for six gyoza

I have no idea how much the beer is because I didn't take note, since I don't care for beer. I'm sure it's not exorbitantly expensive, though.

That's it for today, I'm too tired from work to write anything with thought and opinion, too tired to attempt any type of wit. Hopefully, leaving work a bit early today (before 10:00 would be swell) to have dinner with some co-workers so we can whine and moan about how much our jobs suck. It's a necessary part of life in this industry.

My mother's back to my house tomorrow afternoon, yay! I have to work tomorrow, but I'm going to try to take off early and take her somewhere yummy for dinner. Have to work out where exactly that might be...

*EDIT*

I took my mom to Umaido for dinner! She had never had Japanese ramen before, so off we went. I took the opportunity to snap a picture of the spicy ramen:

The gyoza were better this time around. I actually paid attention this time and saw one of the guys making the gyoza, so I can confirm that they are actually made on-site. I think the skins of the gyoza are mass-produced and shipped, though, as they were in pre-packaged little containers, while the filling looking to have been put together by the people in the restaurant.

So there you have it.

Read more...

Korean-Japanese Food, Western Dom

I've been working here in Korea since July 11 (over a month ago!) and had lunch out pretty much every single workday. There is only one (one!) time that I've been to lunch at a restaurant that I had already been to. Yes. Over a month of going to a new restaurant every day. There are a LOT of restaurants right around my work because I work (and live) in the busiest part of Ilsan (일산). There's not much just outside this area- which is to say, there's not much outside of Western Dom (웨스턴돔) and LaFesta (라페스타), two large, outdoor shopping areas (sorry, neither of their websites have English versions).

Western Dom (no 'e', I promise), in particular, is literally right next to work. I've been out to lunch in Western Dom more than anywhere else. There are tons of restaurants and tons of coffee places (including a newly opened one, called Beans & Berries, which is pretty cute).

One of the types of food we eat quite a bit is Korean-Japanese. Much like Korean-Chinese food, there is (usually) a Korean twist to the Japanese food here. I couldn't say for sure, as I've never explored Japan or China, but it seems to me that Korean-Japanese is a lot more authentic than Korean-Chinese. From what I've experienced in the U.S. and here in Korea, Korean-Chinese food is quite a departure from "real" Chinese food, whereas Korean-Japanese is passably Japanese (other than the fact that Koreans like spicy more than Japanese do).

I've been trying to remember to take pictures of things (very difficult sometimes, as I'm distracted by all kinds of things in this rather hectic city), and what better to take pictures of than food? Who doesn't love food? (I don't want to know if you don't love food, that's just wrong.)

So, a couple photos of recent Korean-Japanese lunches.

Curry (Koreans distinguish between Japanese-style curry (카레) and Indian-style curry (커리) with slightly different pronunciations) at Abiko (아비꼬, あびこ), on the second floor of Western Dom.

Donburi (Koreans call this 덥밥, which translates to "covered rice") at Millefueille (밀피유), also on the second floor of Western Dom.

Yes, I've been eating a lot of donkatsu (돈까스) lately (Japanese-style fried pork cutlet). The donburi was actually really very good, with runny eggs covering the whole thing. I don't like donkatsu in donburi, and I've always known it, but I always get it anyway. I like my donkatsu to be crisp and crunchy, and when it's covered with cooked soft eggs, the crisp and crunch disappear.

I bought Western fast food for the very first time today (Burger King) because I had to run home for lunch (I left my access card at home) and I had left really late (around 1:30). Burger King is on the first floor of my building, so I dashed in, dashed out, went upstairs to my house, inhaled my food, then dashed back to work. Burger King is, not surprisingly, better in Korea than in its home country. Sigh.

This past weekend was my first really social experience in Korea. I belong to a Facebook group for people in Ilsan (apparently, we're called Ilsanites?)- specifically, foreigners and expatriates. Since I'm mostly foreign and somewhat of an expat, I joined the group. Saturday night was a pub crawl fundraiser in Ilsan, right near my house, so I decided (with only a little bit of trepidation) to meet some English speakers and check out the bar scene here.

The fundraiser, by the way, was for a little girl named Hannah Warren, who has a rare condition that requires that she get a tracheal transplant. See her story and donate here- the fundraiser ends on October 22. She's really adorable, it's impossible to see her little face and not donate.

Drinking, meeting new people, and doing it all for a good cause? It seemed like a great idea, and it was (for the most part). One thing I've realized is that having a pub crawl in Korea, while a fantastic idea, is really difficult, especially when the crawl only includes Western bars.

Pub crawls are easiest if all the locations are right next to each other (i.e. downtown Culver City, or Abbott Kinney for First Fridays). This Korean pub crawl had four locations (all bars- Intos, Whiskey Weasel, LePub, and Old Rock) that were in something like a four-block radius (city blocks). But because addresses are non-existent in Korea and none of the bars were on the ground floor, they were a bit hard to find.

A group of four of us got lost on the way to LePub and wandered around Ilsan late at night (we eventually found the place). I wasn't going to judge the bars during this pub crawl because it was a biggish event, and I knew the bars wouldn't be their typical selves, with their regular vibe. They were okay, as far as bars go, and I didn't dislike any of them. My favorites were LePub (lots and lots of cocktails, if that's any incentive) and Old Rock (good atmosphere- the wall behind the bar is stacked with records (vinyl!) rather than bottles of booze).

The hundred or so people that convened for this fundraiser were all English teachers and their significant others. I was literally the only person (of all the people I met, anyway) that didn't teach English. Also, they were all really young. I mean, that's logical- when you're thinking about what you want to do with your life and decide to go teach English in a foreign country for a year, you're generally young, trying to find yourself, and/or trying to travel when you have no money. New college graduates, kids that haven't started a "real" career yet, etc.

I don't know if I was just in that sort of group, but I only met two Americans! The vast majority of the people I talked to were Canadian (with a couple Brits and an Irishman sprinkled in), mostly from around Toronto (I think). I've never been so happy to meet Americans before, by the way- it was a strange sensation and I pounced on my two countrymen (a Texan and a San Diegan).

Despite the fact that I felt old and suddenly very Korean in the group of young Westerners, it was a good experience. I got home past 4 a.m. and only slept a few hours before suddenly jolting awake (I don't sleep much if I drink, I find). I was exhausted yesterday (Sunday) and didn't really get to enjoy the lovely weather. The weather today was very nice and clear, sunny without any clouds, but then the thunder just started about half an hour ago and there are little bursts of rain. I didn't bring an umbrella today, so here's hoping that I don't get drenched on the way home.

Oh- the best part of this pub crawl? I walked home and it only took about ten minutes. I really do enjoy being in a walking city.

Read more...

Nekoba's, Ilsan (Korea)

** Edit June 29, 2012:


I've noticed that Nekoba's has closed! This place no longer exists. I'm not too bummed about it because I don't live in that building anymore. **

One of the most convenient things about Korea, so far, has been eating. One of the most inconvenient things has been grocery shopping, so those differences balance out pretty well.

I have never in my life considered how annoying grocery shopping could be, because I've had a car since I was in high school. Having to carry groceries and walk home really makes a person think hard about what the essentials are. I don't drink Coke or eat snacks here (Coke is too heavy and snacks take up too much room in my eco-bag).

I was feeling quite lazy this weekend (I literally didn't leave the house on Saturday) so I called and ordered food from downstairs. Like many buildings here, there are tons of shops and places to eat on the first few floors of the building that I live in- things ranging from shoe stores to a kimbap (김밥) place, with a Burger King (labeled 버거킹 for the very few non-English-reading Koreans?), two convenience stores (편의점), a nail salon, a hair salon, a place that will mend clothes, a place to buy signs (neon and printed!), and a coffee shop in between. This is all in a small little area- some of the stores are wee.

One of the restaurants is called Nekobas (Nekoba's?), right next door to a place with a cartoon corn cob that claims to sell "corn noodles," the very concept of which scares me a little. I called Nekoba one night and ordered tonkatsu (sometimes spelled donkatsu (돈까스)), which is basically fried pork in a sweet, salty sauce.

Because I live in the building, they delivered to me. I called and a girl showed up in about ten or fifteen minutes, food in hand and ready to give me change (she brought exact change). There's no tipping here (I LOVE that, so easy to calculate things!), so she knew that if I didn't have exact change, she would need to give me a specific amount of money. Smart.

Most places in Korea (mostly Chinese-Korean places) will deliver in real dishes, with a little plastic bag for you to use after you're done. Finish eating, put the dishes in the bag, place the bag outside your door, and someone will come pick it up. Nekoba's is adorable (I went in earlier in the week to check it out) and a bit fancier than most delivery places (very cute and decorated with Totoro stuffed animals), so they brought me dinner in disposable containers.

Cute containers. Dinner came with salad (barely visible in the back), which is basically the Korean take on coleslaw (served at most Japanese-Korean places here), miso soup, kimchi (pretty good, actually), takuan (단무지, sweet pickled radish), and the actual donkatsu (pork's on the right, shrimp tempura on the left, and rice underneath it all). That white stuff on top of the sauce on top of the pork is mayonnaise. Asians (Koreans and Japanese, at least) love mayonnaise. I am not as crazy about mayonnaise as they seem to be here, judging from how many dishes mayonnaise sneaks into.

Dinner was 7,000 원 ($6.61). No extra charge for delivery, no tip. Crazy.

Also, I called them and they didn't answer. I didn't leave a voicemail, I just hung up. They called me back a minute later, identified themselves as Nekobas, and apologized. Being in a phone-centric country has its advantages.

Nekobas
Woorim Rodeo Suites Building
Janghang-dong, Ilsan-gu, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do

Telephone: 031-904-7909

(No idea what their hours are, but business (restaurants, at least) in Korea seem to open late and stay open late.)

Random updates:

Work's been fine. A little slow and a little dodgy, as we get used to one another and as I get used to having to speak in Korean all the live-long day, but fine. There are more and more (very proficient) English speakers coming out of the woodwork, which I'm grateful for. My brain can only handle so much Korean in a day.

I have to move offices this week, and I'm not happy about it. I like this office. Harrumph. I like my officemates, I'm used to them. Now I'm going to be in a big bullpen with a ton of people. Ew. I'm trying to delay my move as much as possible.

I can't figure out my cable and TV. The first week, I had one cable service and an old-school TV. Sometime while I was at work, they changed my TV to an HD flatscreen. That's all well and fine. Then a few days later, they changed my receiver. And all the channels changed! It's annoying me and I don't understand this new system. I can't find channels that I used to get, which is probably the part that's annoying me. Why they didn't do this before I moved in is beyond me.

Korean TV broadcasts an amazing number of American TV shows and movies. Yesterday, there was a Harry Potter marathon (I think it was on OCN). They regular broadcast marathons of American TV shows (Hawaii Five-O, Without a Trace, CSI, Hellcats (?!), Project Runway (I'm still bitter about the Mondo-Gretchen thing), America's Got Talent, the list goes on and on). I find it odd, but I also like hearing people speak in English. When I'm home alone, I generally leave the TV on. I'm not watching it- I just like the noise.

I also can't figure out my air conditioner. There's a remote, with words that make sense, I'm sure, but don't seem to have anything to do with cooling the air. I turn the thing on and off, set the temperature, and hope for the best. It's not a good system, and I should really learn to use it correctly. I'm terrified for the first time I have to do laundry in my crazy Korean washing machine (it's a washer and dryer in one, which is odd to me).

The rain's let up. I think jangma (장마) season (monsoon season) is pretty much over. Time for typhoon season (though I hear the first typhoon passed through Japan and missed Korea entirely) and then unbearably hot sunshine and humidity, plus temperatures in the upper 80's and 90's. I'm really trying to get used to the whole Celsius thing, but I can't. 30 degrees is cold, people. It's below freezing. America and its refusal to switch to the metric system is ridiculous. Nobody else in the world cares about Fahrenheit, inches, feet, or miles. So dumb.

Read more...

The Bazaar by Jose Andres, Mid-City West

I've been terrible about blogging, but I promise it's because I've been busy living it up in the short while that I've had to spend in LA. Less than a week until I leave for Korea (have I mentioned that?) for probably four or five months!

It isn't sudden, I just haven't posted about it because ... I don't know, I was afraid of jinxing it? It's been an ordeal, let me tell you- receiving a visa is one of the most annoying things I've done in recent history, and I recently moved 800 miles, which is no easy task.

So I'm trying to prepare to leave the country for a while, as I also try to do all the things that I wanted to do in this city and meet all the friends that I haven't seen in a long time. One of the things that we did was go out for a fabulous dinner (after being thwarted by a power outage in chunks of Hollywood and Beverly Hills the first night, during which we were completely infuriated because nobody at the Bazaar picked up the phone or, as I would have expected, called to cancel our reservation and tell us that their kitchen had no power).


The Bazaar by Jose Andres
(in the SLS Hotel)
SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills
465 S. La Cienega Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90048
http://thebazaar.com/
 
Telephone: 310.246.5567
 
Sunday - Wednesday:
6:00 pm - 10:30 pm
Thursday - Saturday:
6:00 pm -11:30 pm

Overall, it was quite the experience. The hotel itself is a cross between how I imagine Mr. Toad's house and Alice's Wonderland. Pretty, unusual, and with lots of little labels and signs for the different things that "SLS" could stand for (sweet little sweets, scribble little secrets, etc.)- the SLS Hotel is just called the SLS Hotel, they're not the initials for the founder or anything like that.

One of the huge points that I noticed right when I walked in- the valet is terrible and the bar, restaurant, and dessert shop are all way too loud. They need to figure out their driveway and add some sound-proofing, because one should not be waiting for a $14 valet (not including tip!) and one should not be shouting to be heard over a platter of Spanish hams that are rare finds in LA.

Lots of pictures ahead, because I was that crazy girl in a bar / restaurant / sweets shop that was taking pictures like mad on her phone.

We started at the bar (Bar Centro) for drinks. An interesting thing about the Bazaar is that if you have a dinner reservation, they will find your party and guide you through. First the bar, then dinner, then the Patisserie (which means bakery in French- I knew that high school French would come in handy one day).

I had a Jale Berry (which is pronounced Halle Berry) because our waitress recommended it. It was a gin drink (I hate gin) with fresh blackberries, Cointreau, and a slice of jalapeno. The jalapeno was mysteriously subbed by lemon peel, but the flavor of the jalapeno was there, with a subtle bite in the aftertaste. It was delicious, though extremely strong on flavor (and gin). I didn't hate the gin, which was a nice surprise.

We proceeded to the restaurant (Rojo Y Blanca) after drinks, where we perused the enormous menu (divded into traditional and modern tapas, the modern dishes being mostly molecular gastronomically enhanced foods). I don't know why (maybe because of the reservation the night before being canceled due to power failures?), but the waiter sent over two dishes to us as we sipped our drinks and powered through the menu, trying to decide what to get.

Sweet potato chips with a yogurt dipping sauce. The yogurt dip had tamarind and star anise, plus what appeared to be a vat of olive oil (good Spanish olive oil, I'm sure). The chips were amazing. Really, really thin, crisp without being greasy, perfectly fried. The dip was just okay. Tasted like Greek yogurt and a little tamarind.

Let me start by saying, I hate olives. This was a mixture of the old and new- old style olives, traditionally made, very cute in their little tin. I declined to try one. I did try one of the modern olives, which is basically a liquid olive held together by science and a spoon. You take a spoon, throw back the little olive-colored ball, and then it explodes in your mouth. It tasted like olive, but it also didn't taste like olive. Liquid, briny, without the texture of a "normal" olive, I didn't mind it.

That drink in the picture above is a Passion Fruit Up!, which consists of orange rum, passion fruit, and ginger-laurel syrup, with passion fruit foam on top. The foam was substantial, more like whipped cream, and delicious. I didn't taste the ginger-laurel syrup at all, but it was a great drink.

Tortilla de patatas "new way," which means ... baby food. Delicious baby food, but it had the consistency of baby food. Spanish tortillas are not like Mexican tortillas- I would say that Spanish tortillas are more like a potato frittata, thick and starchy. This newfangled tortilla was delicious, with carameled onion goo on the bottom. I know. I don't make it sound good, but it was!

One of the "traditional" tapas, which we had to have. There is a rather broad selection of Spanish hams at the Bazaar, and they were delicious. We elected to go for the Fermin platter, which consisted of (from top to bottom): Jamon Iberico de bellota Fermin, Jamon Ilberico Fermin, and Jamon Serrano Fermin. Delicious with Catalan toasts (charred bread rubbed with garlic, smeared with olive oil, and then slathered in tomato). The Iberico de bellota Fermin was by far my favorite, but they were all unbelievable.

From the old world (the hams were sliced the traditional way, with the entire pig leg on display) to the new world- tuna ceviche and avocado roll. Thinly sliced avocado wrapped around tuna ceviche, with jicama, cilantro, and coconut dressing. I love avocado and I hate raw fish, but I tried this. It was too buttery, which sounds like it should be good, but the dressing was overpowering. With the coconut and the avocado, I didn't taste the fish at all. My least favorite of the night.

Not your everyday Caprese. Baby basil, cherry tomatoes, a little balsamic, some pesto, tiny croutons, and liquid mozzarella. Much like those modern olives, these mozzarella balls exploded like salty little bombs. A really good salad- one tomato, one crouton, and one cheese ball were the perfect bite.

The famous cotton candy foie gras! Little bites of foie gras with cotton candy wrapped around them. It surprised me that the foie gras was cold (which makes sense, since the cotton candy would melt off if the foie gras was hot). It surprised me more that I really liked this. The sweetness of the cotton candy, and the grittiness of the sugar, really offset the rich foie gras in a fun way.

Piquillo peppers stuffed with goat cheese. A traditional tapas dish, and very good. Their piquillo peppers were excellent, and the micro-greens were lovely, dressed perfectly. Very filling, what with all the goat cheese, but yummy.

Philly cheesesteaks! If the Jamon platter was my favorite, this came in second. Bread shaped like tiny footballs, puffed with air- they were very thin and delicate, not as substantial as they appear in the least. Liquified cheddar inside the bread, and thin seared slices of Wagyu beef. Really, really good, except the cheese oozes out of the bread after the first bite, and then it's a scramble to finish up the sandwich before you end up with cheese all over the place (I still ended up with cheese all over myself).

We hemmed and hawed about getting this one, but had to because of its name- Your Life Will Change Dashi Linguini. Linguini created with some sort of chemical, so that it's not prepared the traditional pasta way- the noodles had that glassy look, like cellophane noodles. Quail eggs and parmesan, with some sort of white sauce (cream?) were all mixed together thoroughly, then one tomato pierced on a fork, some pasta twirled around said fork, and then whole bite stuffed into your mouth. Sounds so good ... but it wasn't life-changing. It wasn't that great, actually. Dashi and dairy, not a good combination.

At the Patisserie, where we were escorted after dinner, we ordered a few small bites- the chocolate mini-tablettes are white chocolate with red peppercorn and dark chocolate with Maldon salt. They were good- really good chocolate. I couldn't taste much of the red peppercorn or the Maldon salt, but at least their chocolatier knows what he's doing.

That candy-looking thing is saffron pate de fruit with edible paper. Basically, a gumdrop. It was so sticky that they had to use edible paper- unless that paper was greased like crazy, this candy was never going to come off any paper. It was interesting. Very saffron-y, not too sweet. I'm not a big fan of saffron, even at the best of times (like paella), so I took a nibble and was done.

Spanish coffee. Basically, strong coffee with brandy, topped with whipped cream (softly whipped, not too sweet) and orange sugar around the rim. Really good. Not overly sweet, good orange sugar, and a great warming effect from the brandy.

We shared one dessert because we were all stuffed from dinner. Nitro Coconut Floating Island. It looks rather deceptive. That white UFO looked hollow to me, but it was a firm pillow, that was simultaneously light, airy, extremely coconut-y, and not at all dense. Delicious, and I don't like coconut much. The caramelized bananas at the bottom were great, with a thin, crunchy coating, and the passion fruit sauce was amazing.

It was really an entire experience that should be had if possible. The drinks, the food, the desserts- they were fun to eat, but also great to look at and interesting to hear about.

My quibble would be that all the food was way, way too salty. Of all the dishes we had, the only thing that wasn't too salty was the Catalan toasts, and even they were more salty than I would expect from bread. I don't know if they're all about seasoning everything too heavily rather than too lightly, but it was a little overmuch. I felt rather like I had a sodium overdose.

Still, despite the saltiness, I would go to the Bazaar again in a heartbeat, especially with someone who's never been. It's a fun time!

Next time, someone definitely has to get a capirinha, with its dry-ice table service.

I'm exhausted from the sudden blogging (should have stretched first!) but will try to blog again this week. So many pictures, so little time!

Read more...

Kim Chee II, Hawaii

Kim Chee II
3569 Waialae Avenue
Honolulu, HI


Telephone: 808.737.7733

Monday - Sunday:
10:30 am - 9:00 pm

(Here's the UrbanSpoon link- the restaurants don't have a website.)

I've probably mentioned this- I have not one lick of kimchi in my apartment right now. My abode is incompletely Korean. I am upset about this, understandably, but have not had the time to make kimchi. I'm sure that I'll document the process of me, making kimchi by myself for the first time ever. Shudder. I feel that things could be horribly awry.

Anyway, tearing myself away from potential kimchi-tastrophes! I was flipping through photos on my phone when I saw something kimchi-esque in a thumbnail. "What could that be?" I said to myself. I looked at the picture and realized that it was from my Hawaii trip, where we ate Korean food once, in Honolulu.

I remember it well (okay, it was only three months ago, but still) because it was so weird to speak in Korean in Hawaii. I had gotten used to people speaking in island-time English (slow) or rapid-fire Japanese. (We had a theory about why people spoke to me in Japanese- it's because I'm pale. My best friend, who actually is Japanese, is darkly tanned, and wasn't bothered by the tourists asking her things.)

The meal wasn't very good, but it was welcome. I just wanted Korean food, what can I say? I took photos on my phone, so excuse the indecent quality:

The kimchi was totally crappy. I hate this type of kimchi, with cabbage sliced and tossed into a rather flimsy marinade. I still ate a lot of it, because sometimes, bad kimchi is better than no kimchi at all.

This is a type of namul (나물) made of dried moo (무). Moo is similar to daikan radishes, but shorter and fatter. It's the radish that is generally used in making kimchi. Anyway, the moo is dried and then kind of re-hydrated in a marinade. This dish was far too salty, but actually quite good, especially with rice.

Obligatory Korean BBQ. It was fine. Nothing to write home about, but not bad.

There aren't many Koreans in Hawaii; at least, not in the places I visited. We had a tough time finding a Korean restaurant to go to, and while this one had pretty good reviews, it pales in comparison to a lifetime in LA, where we have an entire town devoted to us.

I'm going to make kimchi soon, because if nothing else, these pictures make me want to prove that good Korean food can be even in the midst of non-Koreans. I just have to find the appropriate vegetables, and then I'll be set.

Wish me luck, I'll definitely need it...

Read more...

The Hitching Post, Casmalia

The Hitching Post
3325 Point Sal Road
Casmalia, CA 93429
http://www.hitchingpost1.com

Telephone: 805.937.6151

Sunday:
4:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Monday - Saturday:
4:30 pm - 9:30 pm

I know, I've been away from my blog for what feels like an eternity and all I have is a restaurant review. A restaurant review that I've been writing for four days because I can only get a couple words typed before I have to go run around and work.

The past few weeks, spent in picturesque Santa Maria, amid vineyards, fields, horses, and more fields, have been the most stressful of my life. I think half of my hair has fallen out, my skin has broken out into what looks like hives, and I have never tossed and turned more.

The end of a movie has never been so painful, so arduous. I'm in Santa Maria with several of my co-workers, of which there are three that I spend most of my time with. We all leave the hotel together, have lunch together, complain together, have dinner together, and go back to the hotel together, complaining some more. It's a bonding experience, I suppose, in the trenches of what feels like warfare.

(Ah, overly dramatic blogging whilst stuck in the boondocks of central California!)

One night .... Friday, I think (the days all blend together), we decided that we were going to leave at 8:00 and go to dinner at the Hitching Post, a pretty famous place.

There are two locations, one in Casmalia and one in Buellton. Buellton's HP is famous because of "Sideways," which was partially filmed there. The one in Casmalia is famous because it's the original.

I wish I had had the energy to take photos of the place, because it's pretty amazing. Taxidermy, mismatched plates, cowhides on the walls, all the paraphernalia that I connect to cowboys and country cookin' were represented. There were antique metal tractor seats and giant rusty saws on the walls. What could be more cowboy than that?

The drive from Santa Maria to Casmalia isn't long, but it's terrifying. It's been getting dark here around 6:00 or earlier, so by the time we trekked out, it was pitch black. Once we got outside Santa Maria, in all of four minutes, there was a single long winding road that we had to take. Not one streetlight for about five miles, with deep ditches on either side of the road. And, most horrifyingly, no cell reception. At all.

I think this is where serial killers dump bodies.

I was never so happy to see a restaurant in my life, dilapidated or no.

Once we were settled in, away from the 40 degree temperature outside (that's COLD), I felt better. Then I saw the awesome grill that they use, and I felt even better still. After a glass of Syrah, all was right with the world.

The Hitching Post makes their own wines, and we ended up splitting two bottles between four people (I drank less than the boys). We had the Syrah first and then a Pinot Noir, and sadly, the Syrah was better. The Pinot wasn't bad, just not great.

When we were seated, there was a large basket of crackers (literally, like saltines and buttery Club crackers), a bowl full of butter, and a little platter of vegetables (olives, green onions, sliced pickles, carrot sticks, radishes, and pepperoncinis) on the table. The vegetables had ice cubes on them. I don't know why, and no one else could tell me.

Being in cow country, we expected local grass-fed beef. Nope, all their beef is from the Midwest. Strange, but whatever. We all ordered some form of steak (I had top sirloin) with grilled vegetables and salad.


It's down home country cooking, comforting and good and very unpretentious. I liked the grilled vegetables a lot- red onions, yellow and red bell peppers, zucchini, and mushrooms were skewered before grilling with their house seasoning, then unskewered before serving. They weren't overcooked and retained a great bite. Vegetables in California, even during winter (er, "winter") are generally quite good and don't merit overly long cooking times, particularly on the grill.


The steak, though. The steak was amazing. AMAZING.


Between the four of us, we had two top sirloins, one New York, and one rib-eye. Not a single complaint to be found anywhere. The oak, the grill, the seasonings, the cook ... some sort of alchemy made it an amazing steak, cooked very well. The only slight quibble I had was that it was a bit overcooked- I like a little more red and a little less pink- but it was still gorgeously yummy.


Dessert, very fitting of our surroundings, was ice cream. There were four options- vanilla, vanilla with chocolate sauce, rocky road, and orange sherbet. Simple, simple, simple. No fanfare, no fancy silver or china, but really good food.


It almost made the anxiety of the day melt away. Almost. I think it would have been more successful if I hadn't gone back to the hotel and worked afterward, with a rosy glow from too much food.


The only redeeming thing about Santa Maria, it seems, would be particular places made famous for their barbecued steaks. I'll have to find a few more places to go back to the Hitching Post to make my time here seem well spent. (One of the supervisors here with me said, "That rib-eye at Hitching Post kicked my ass. It was the best steak I ever had.")


Hopefully this post wasn't too incoherent. I don't have time for spell check or for proofreading right now.


Back when I'm back!

Read more...

Darya Restaurant

My cousin, the elder son (of two) of my eldest uncle, flew into town from Korea this past Monday. I didn't get to see him until last night, when my cousin, sister, sister's friend, and I all gathered in West L.A. for dinner.

This cousin is the only cousin out of my 22 first cousins (one of whom died as a child, so really 21) that is older than me (he's a year older), so I really love him. He takes the Korean pressure to get married and have babies right off me, at least on my mother's side of the family. I'm the oldest in my generation on my father's side of the family, so no reprieve from the nagging there. Sigh.

I haven't seen my cousin in fifteen (!) years, and I was a bit nervous about meeting him, a virtual stranger. But it wasn't awkward at all. We fell into a rapid-speed conversation right away and I realized that though we are older, we're still the same people. I am so glad he's here.

(Don't judge us by this photo, I don't have a lick of makeup on and we all just ate an enormous meal of Persian / Iranian goodness. Also, he's not that short- he's stooping to try to be at the same height as my sister and me.)

Since the cousin is so very new to America (he came in 1994, I think?), we decided to broaden his horizons. We decided, adventurously, to take him to eat Persian food, which he'd never had before. Ever. In his whole life. My sister is really the one that goes adventurous, I tend to stick with what's close, so she picked the restaurant.




Darya Restaurant
12130 Santa Monica Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90025
http://www.daryarestaurant.com/

Telephone: 310.442.9000

Call for hours.


There was soft mood lighting, which helped the strange ornamental plaster pieces stuck to the ceiling, walls, and random columns. There was also, and this was my favorite part, a gently rotund man with two electric keyboards that serenaded us. He was awesome, curly mullet (!) and all. He sang everything from "Just The Way You Look Tonight" to some Beatles all the way to what I would assume were traditional Persian or Iranian songs. And he also played and sang "Happy Birthday" for some woman that shrieked when the waiters emerged from the kitchen with a cake, ablaze with a large candle.

Such a kitschy place, this one! Their ... fresco? ... on the wall was one of the highlights, for sure.

(please excuse the crap iPhone photo)

Hai and I work next door to each other (literally), so he drove me there. This is considered "saving gas" in L.A., that we only had two cars among four people. My sister and my cousin got to Darya before we did, and my sister, the most impatient hungry person I've ever met in my life, decided to go ahead and order everything before we arrived. It was actually fun to not know what was coming and just sit down and start eating.

We started with dolemeh (is the plural dolemehs?), which are ground beef, rice, tarragon, split peas, green onions, basil, parsley, and other herbs wrapped and cooked in grape leaves. They are vinegary and delicious, especially good when smeared with yogurt sauce and wrapped in thin, flaky lavash. I think lavash is a type of naan (or nan), but much thinner and less yeasty, almost crisp.

The main dishes came out all together, family style. I loved our waiter, who came over after the dolemehs disappeared and started clearing the middle of the table, pushing our plates closer to the edges to make room for the enormous square platters that emerged, piled high with deliciousness.

We had baghali polo, Basmati rice mixed with dill and lima beans, giving the rice a green tinge. The beans were soft and wrinkly, very yielding and almost creamy. Next to the baghali polo was a pile of regular Basmati rice. I like mixing them so that the rice-to-lima-bean ratio is altered a bit.

We got a platter full of meat. Literally, platter o' meat. The unanimous favorite was the chicken koobideh, ground chicken that's been seasoned and charbroiled on skewers. It's really good and the only way that ground chicken is delicious and not throat-parchingly dry. The koobideh at Darya was just a tiny bit dry, but saved by the yogurt sauce and the seasoning.

There was also shish kabobs, which are mandatory because they're steak and very recognizable for someone who's never eaten Persian food before in his life. He needed something he felt comfortable with, after all. It was fine. Not seasoned or anything, and cooked to a passably good medium-rare. It wasn't the best cut of meat, so it was a bit chewy- again, saved by the yogurt sauce.

The last of the meat was lamb chops- very small chops that were marinated and charbroiled. I don't like lamb but I always try it, because I feel like maybe I'll like it someday. Nope, still don't like it. But the marinade was good, at least. I felt that it was just slightly undercooked- pink lamb weirds me out, for some reason.

Their charbroiled tomatoes, onions, and green bell peppers were charred in black stripes but still raw in the middle, perfectly smoky and so simple but so wonderful alongside the assortment of meat-a-palooza.

We ate really shockingly quickly, which explains the lack of food photos. It was about 8:30 or so by the time we ate, and we were all starved. Everything, we concurred at the end of the main course, was yummy.

Then came dessert, where things went slightly awry. We all shared, which was good, because we didn't finish what we ordered.

There was pistachio Persian ice cream, which had more of a texture of a strange sorbet- it seemed icy rather than creamy. The only thing that redeemed the ice cream was the fact that it had large chunks of pistachio in it. It tasted like soapy coconut more than anything else. Weird.

Since bakhlava is traditional, we ordered one. It was teeny-tiny and overly sweet and overly gingery. I couldn't taste the pistachios or almonds or walnuts at all, just the overwhelming taste of honey and maybe corn syrup. Something was off. Their pastry chef, perhaps?

My sister got a Turkish coffee, and that was good, as any strong drink full of caffeine is. The cup and saucer were adorable, and I wish that I had had the wherewithal to snap a photo- even a crappy iPhone photo. Regrettably, I was too full of koobideh to do anything but sigh by that point.

It was fun, the restaurant was fun, the conversation was great (a Korean man and a Vietnamese man make for funny dinner companions), and it was more amazing than I could say to see my cousin again (though I want to chop off his hair, which is longer than mine).

We went to my house at the end of the night. In the photo, my cousin and my sister are on the porch swing (porch rocker, really) that's on the front porch- they ran up the brick path and plopped down. Aren't they cute? None of us look alike, really, but that's okay. We all talk and laugh and eat alike, and that's what's important.

The sister, the cousin, and I are meeting up for a cousinly dinner tonight. We don't know where we're going yet, but I'm sure there will be a post about it soon.

Read more...

Han Bat Sul Lung Tang (한밭 설렁탕), Koreatown

There is a food that I love, love more than most other foods. I can eat it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and any other time in between, though it's traditionally a breakfast food. It's so good, in fact, that I crave it and must have it at least once every couple months, or I become ornery and whiny (okay, whinier than usual).

I had seollongtang (설렁탕, also spelled sul lung tang) for lunch today, and am so happy now. Mmm, mmm, good has never been as good as this!

(picture taken from Yelp)

I texted my sister this morning, having found out today that I will be out of town for work on Monday and Tuesday. We were supposed to pick up my cousin (flying in from Korea!) from LAX on Monday evening and take him to the parents' house, but I obviously will not be able to make it.

She called me and we chatted for a while, and she mentions seollongtang (설렁탕), the perfect dreary-day fare. I've been at work for a couple hours by this time, and haven't had much to eat, since I'm weaning myself off the master cleanse right now. Though seollongtang largely subsists of a broth made of ox bones, and meat is a bad idea right now, the idea of steaming hot, perfectly seasoned soup with specks of green onions floating on top was too good to resist.

Along with a couple boys, we trekked down to Koreatown to Han Bat, which is ghetto. It's in a strip mall that doesn't even have a parking lot. It's across the street from a Carl's Jr. It's on 5th and Western. But it is also delectable.


Han Bat Sul Lung Tang (한밭 설렁탕)
4163 W. 5th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90020

Telephone: 213.388.9499

Open daily:
7:00 am - 10:00 pm


(I have a quibble with spelling it 'sul lung tang.' I want to say that it's Han Bat Seollongtang, but the actual restaurant spells it Hat Bat Sul Lung Tang. Sigh.)

It's a tiny restaurant, with two rows of tables that extends from the front door all the way to the back of the place, with the kitchen off to the side. The dining area is long and narrow and you can't help but mock the people around you because you're practically sitting on them. Community fun, perhaps?

The Hat Bat Sul Lung Tang menu is sparse- you can get seollongtang, and you can choose what kind of meat goes in it. That's it. I think there are four choices:

Mixed (everything)
Brisket (lean, thin slices of beef)
Flank (flank steak, obviously)
Innards (they don't call it innards, but that's what it is! Tripe, intestine, tongue, and liver, I think. Shudder.)

You receive a bowl of rice, two types of kimchi (cabbage and radish), a giant vat of finely sliced scallion with an accompanying ladle, a small container of fluffy fine sea salt with a small spoon, black pepper, and a little jar of chili sauce. Very simple fare.

Seollongtang is usually served in stone or clay bowls, which retain heat very well and keep the soup scorching, just as it's meant to be. You taste the soup, which has your choice of meat and a handful of boiled cellophane noodles (the same noodles used for japchae). Add as much salt as you think you need. Add pepper. Scallions, if you like them. You can add chili sauce or the dregs of the two types of kimchi if you like it spicy, which I don't. I enjoy my seollontang with salt, pepper, a little scoop of scallion, and take my rice and kimchi on the side.

My sister and I had a legend that we've created between us- if you put a bowl of rice into a bowl of seollongtang, the rice mysteriously disappears! That's not true, of course, but the rice separates into individual grains in the hot soup and you don't get the same mouthfeel. A spoonful of sticky rice dipped into the soup and eaten is very different than a spoonful of soup with rice floating around in it. We both prefer the scoop and spoon method- scoop some rice onto the spoon, then dip the spoon into the soup. I generally like to fish a couple strands of noodles onto the rice, as well.

Today, since I'm trying not to binge, I didn't eat any meat and I ate maybe three or four spoonfuls of rice. I also limited myself to just a few pieces of kimchi, since my stomach probably isn't ready for anything fermented. I did have a couple scoops of scallions and the noodles, because really, I love noodles.

It was perfect for this rainy Saturday, though now I'm back at work and wishing I was still in Koreatown.

Read more...

Surfas, Culver City

Surfas
8777 W. Washington Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232
http://www.cafesurfas.com
http://www.surfasonline.com

Telephone: 310.558.1458

Monday - Saturday:
8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Sunday:
10:00 am - 4:30 pm

Surfas is a wonderful place. I think it might be the L.A. version of a lower-end Dean & Deluca- not as expensive, not as fancy, but still pretty pricey and full of awesome things to waste money on.

The cafe is fine, nothing really special. I do not like their salads, and their pastries and paninis are just middle-of-the-road. Better than Starbucks, which the prices reflect. They do have canneles and homemade mini-tarts and baby cheesecakes, plus stuffed croissants and all kinds of other baked goodies that entice me.

But the real draw? CHEESE. Oh, the cheese. I love cheese so! They have this kooky cheesekeeper who prattles on about the notes in cheese (did you know that sharp Irish cheddar has tender grassy notes in it?) and gives me translucent slivers of the wonderful stuff. I love him, dorky glasses and all. I spent $25 on cheese there today. All these hours that I'm working need to be balanced out with something delicious and wonderful, after all.

They also have a very good selection of baking supplies. I bought about five pounds of chocolate last year (some Callebaut squares and some Surfas-brand chips) for Christmas baking. Though the prices may be steep, the quality is stellar. I also bought my bombe molds at Surfas- again, not cheap.

I went to Surfas today to detox and re-align my chi, which is done best in the presence of cheeses, sopressata, copious amounts of handmade pastas, and uni-tasking baking utensils. It worked really well, except for the part where I bought all this stuff I don't need:

- A tube of tomato paste.
- A box of Botan rice candy.
- 2 pounds of mini semi-sweet chocolate chips.
- 12 ounces of Swedish pearl sugar.
- 1/2 pound of Old Quebec Vintage Cheddar.
- 1/2 pound of Cowgirl Creamery Mt. Tam Triple Cream.
- A tin of El Velero whole salted anchovies.

I have plans for all this stuff, I swear. But mostly, it was just fun to buy. And I admit that I may have come up with some genius plans in my own head after I saw each item. But I'll get around to using it all, even the anchovies!

I am still at work. It's past 10:00 on a Friday night. Making a movie? So glamorous!

Read more...