50 Meals: One blogger. One Year. 50 Meals

2.49 Nem Nuong Ninh Hoa

kevin — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 05:12:39 +0000

Yes, yes, we’re back in a big way this week. I’m very pleased to introduce my good friend and personal food guru, Mr. Michael Kwan, who will be guiding us through the menu at Nem Nuong, a Vietnamese eatery specializing in Khanh Hoa cuisine.

Just a real quick plug first, though. One of my favorite Taiwanese restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley is closing its doors on September 20th, so I wanted to re-recommend it and point everyone to my original entry here. This is one of those places that I just kept on going back to, because the food’s so good and wholesome. I’m disappointed that Uncle Chen’s is closing its doors, but I suppose it’s better to have eaten and lost than never eaten at all. Give them a try if you can, you just might catch me there.

Here’s this week’s entry by our guest writer, Michael Kwan:

As you enter the doors of Nem Nuong Ninh Hoa, you will be pleasantly surprised by the charming décor. This isn’t the kind of Vietnamese restaurant that serves the common dishes you’re accustomed to getting like Pho, spring rolls, or cheap sandwiches. No no — none of that — here you will be experiencing the unique food that is synonymous to the region of Khanh Hoa, Vietnam — A local specialty like the Philly Cheesesteak, the Chicago Deep Dish Pizza, Spain’s Paella, Chinese Dim Sum — you get the idea!

So what exactly should you expect? Swine Divine and Savory Shrimp, and simple, rustic elegance that is true to it’s region and explosive flavors!

Unless you get there right when it opens or after the lunch rush, you will be sure to find crowds of people and a waiting list. But as you know that’s a sign that this is a place that is worth waiting for!

Central Vietnamese Beef Soup Noodles - Beef Shank, Pig Feet, Pig Blood

Kevin asked, “Is this pork’s blood soup?” and when he heard the answer was yes he quickly exclaimed “SWEET!”

This dish turned out to be deviant, meaty, hard core and tasty — Kev’s must-haves!
Slurp up the noodles and enjoy the variety of meat, and if you’re daring, drink as much soup as you want — it’s more subtle than you’d expect — the reddish broth can be deceiving.

Special Rice Cake Steamed Right on Small Bowls

This is a signature dish here, so you’ll see everyone with these little bowls of goodness! Shrimp powder on a delightfully refreshing rice cake - what makes it fun to eat is trying to peel it out of the little bowl perfectly in one shot with a spoon - slap on some fish sauce and devour these perfect bites one after another.

House Special Charbroiled Pork Meatballs on Skewers of Ninh Hoa
Charbroiled Pork Meatballs on Skewers
Charbroiled Pork Patties wrapped w/ banana leaf
Charbroiled Sour Pork Patties
Shrimp Egg Rolls
Rice Paper and Fresh Herbs Lettuce

Here you can make several different variations - any way you like it!
The charbroiled flavor of the pork prepared three different ways, with a perfectly crunchy shrimp egg roll and wrap it all up in the rice paper - add your herbs (optional fresh garlic or hot peppers) and enjoy biting into your temporary creations of goodness!

Shrimp Cake Wrapped w/ Crispy Bean Curd with Tiny Rice Sticks
Shrimp cake is dense yet soft and perfectly pairs with the crispiness of the bean curd - add fish sauce and you got flavor extraveganza!

Iced Fresh Soy Milk - refreshing and tasty, great way to counterbalance the savory flavors.

Iced Coffee - no waiting for the drip, served to you already made and mixed with condensed milk - yummy!

This is a family run establishment that was started by 1st generation immigrants from a southern Vietnam district called Ninh Hoa. This place won’t break the bank either - no entree is over $15. There are other places in the area called Nem Nuong, so be careful which one you go to. For an extension of your Vietnamese flavor pallet by experiencing the authenticity of dishes from the region of Ninh Hoa - you’ll get it all here!

Nem Nuong Ninh Hoa
9016 Mission Dr
Rosemead, CA 91770
(626) 286-3370

2.48 Animal

kevin — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 06:18:52 +0000

Sorry for the lack of updates. Honestly, I’ve been gaining weight and have been trying to cook healthy food and eat at home. I miss hard core deviant food, but I’d also like to live (and keep eating) for a long time. My apologies, dear readers, but I gotta hang up the foodie hat for a while. The website will still be here for your reference, and I’ll probably reorganize this thing so it’s easier to find what you need. Hopefully I can still get a couple of last hurrahs in and finish year two.

My best friend Matt has recently turned into a huge foodie. I’m talking hard core crazy off the hook stuff. He came to town raving about Animal, which he has been to before, so of course we had to try it! Of course our good friend and fellow foodie Mikey K also joined in on the fun, so tonight we had three guys and one great restaurant.

Animal is a small, elegant place on Fairfax just North of the Grove. The whole place seats 45 people and it was full when we got there at 9pm on a tuesday night. Thankfully we got a table in about 10 minutes and it was on!!!

We start with the Crispy Hominy, which Jonathan Gold raved about. It was crispy, simple, and tasty. $5.

We turn to something a bit more hard core next. This is the poutine with oxtail gravy and cheddar. Poutine is essentially french fries with some sort of gravy or other stuff added on top. In this case the oxtail was the amazing catalyst of all kinds of flavors. Sure, fries are always good, but the oxtail is extremely tender, flavorful, with a rich buttery taste. This is comfort food at its very best. Amazing dish. $15.

We go all out deviant next with pork belly, kimchi, peanuts, chili soy, scallion. The pork is chunky and fatty but had a lighter than expected taste, with great flavor that was lightened and teased by the mountain of kimchi and all kinds of shredded veggies on top. Fantastic stuff. $12.

We finally arrive at our entrees. Here is the flatiron steak with potatoes, chanterelle, and truffle parmesan fondue. The sauce here is quite strong, the truffle aroma overwhelms you at the first bite but the flavors of the wonderful flatiron steak comes out gradually. buttery and flavorful, a satisfying finish. $26

We saw the next table order this and just had to get it ourselves. Balsamic pork ribs. Humongous. Ridiculously tender. The balsamic barbecue sauce is tangy and sweet. The meat is so tender it falls off the bone as you try to get it on to your plate. You can even bite through the bone and eat the marrow, which is surprisingly good too. A little pricy at $37.

We arrive at dessert. Pound cake with strawberry and cream. The cake was perfect with a little crispiness to it, and the strawberries and the fresh whipped cream were just delectable. $7.

Everything was so good here, it reminded me of Mario Batali’s Babbo. The flavors were bold, rich, and unexpected. It was a little pricey, but I think it was well worth it to experience something extraordinary. Indeed, I had forgotten how new food experiences can make you feel — the excitement of trying something new — makes you feel so alive, so unhindered in enjoying the basic stuff in life. Like, you know, an Animal, or something. Alright, back to the diet. See y’all soon.

Animal
435 N. Fairfax Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 782-9225

2.47 Wurstküche (Downtown sausage)

kevin — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 04:28:37 +0000

Our friend Carsten should get credit for this entry, he found this downtown spot for sausages and beer. I, of course, had no idea how cool the place was, nor did I have any idea that they had awesome exotic stuff like rattlesnake and rabbit sausages, and a ton of imported beers on tap. Thanks, Carsten. Sorry we went without you… buddy… So! Less chatter, more food!

So here’s the door painted in Belgian colors. It looks like a hole in the wall, quite literally.

So you walk in and there is a small counter and a big display case full of sausages. Note the line of taps on the wall. You order at the counter and you take your number to the back, where there’s an airy room with long tables and benches for you to sit down and eat. There’s a second bar in the back room as well.

Here’s my plate. There’s so many choices, I had to settle on two sausages from the exotics section and a large order of fries with two sauces.

The Belgian fries were great, crunchy and hearty. The dipping sauces were awesome. I had curry ketchup, which is surprisingly good, and also chipotle aioli, which wasn’t as new and exciting as the curry ketchup but also went well with the fries and was still solid.

First up from the exotic section of the menu is the duck and bacon with jalapenos sausage. The duck fat is incredible and then there’s the BACON, which you just can’t go wrong with. Very satisfying.

I think the rattlesnake and rabbit is the better of these two sausages. The snake meat is very fine and very flavorful, but not in a gamey way. There’s a tanginess to the sausage as well. I can’t really taste the rabbit in the sausage, and I wonder if they just let the snake eat the rabbit and then make the sausage…

There’s not much service but the staff is friendly, the atmosphere is laid back, the sausages are incredible, and there’s a ton of European beers on tap. I’ll be back for everything.

Wurstküche
800 E 3rd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013
(213) 687-4444

2.46 Boiling Crab

kevin — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 05:15:11 +0000

It was right after Chinese New Year that we came to Boiling Crab — we were definitely in the mood for some steamin’ cajun seafood. The slightly weird part of this, of course, is that we’re in Alhambra, where Chinese food dominates. Yet despite — or perhaps because — Boiling Crab stands out from the glut of Chinese restaurants, it has garnered over 300 overwhelmingly positive reviews on yelp. The people here are similarly savvy hybrids. The staff and clientele are nearly all Asian, but everyone spoke perfect English.

So the idea is simple, pick your seafood (crabs, crab legs, crawfish, clams, shrimp,) pick your sauce (Ragin’ Cajun, Lemon Pepper, garlic butter, or go crazy with all of the above) and your food will come to you in a plastic bag mixed with the sauce. The presentation is terrible and definitely not for the photographer in me, but the food is an entirely different story. There are also a smattering of sides and fried entrees if you don’t want to get your hands too dirty — but if that’s your main concern, you’re probably at the wrong place.

We start off with some oysters on the half shell. I will simply say that the oysters are fresh — they have a special sauce and also the standard tabasco and lime for dressing it up, but really, a squeeze of lime is all I need.

People kept recommending the fried catfish to us and so we ordered one — partly because it comes with cajun fries. The catfish is spectacular, lightly breaded and fried perfectly — crispy outside, hot, moist and incredibly tender on the inside. The cajun fries were also excellent, crunchy with great seasoning.

We got a pound of shrimp and tossed in some corn ($.75 each) and some sausage ($3 for 12 little pieces) You might think the sausage is a bit overpriced, but it’s got a great big taste and I couldn’t help but order more. The corn is also very good. The shrimp may be the best bang for the buck as far as seafood in a bag goes here. The powerful seasoning enhances the taste of the big, meaty shrimp. We quickly piled a small mountain of shells and shrimp heads on the table and devoured the corn and sausage.

We also ordered a dungeness crab with the whole shebang sauce. It wasn’t the best choice for a couple reasons: 1. The strong seasoning overwhelmed the crab’s natural flavors, 2. At $13 a pound it’s a little pricy, our crab was 2.5lb and it came out to be about $32.

Still a little unsatisfied, we ordered a pound of crawfish. Crawfish tastes good and plays well with the sauces, but the amount of meat you get per crawfish is vastly inferior to the shrimp. I think we concluded that the shrimp is the best bang for the buck in their lineup.

Service was decent, the young staff is friendly and on top of things. The atmosphere is relaxed and lively with quite a few large parties. I’d definitely be back when I feeling like having lots of shrimp and fried catfish… and fries… and corn, and sausages.

Boiling crab
742 W Valley Boulevard
Alhambra, CA 91803
(626) 576-9368
Theboilingcrab.com

2.45 Four Seas - Taiwanese breakfast

kevin — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 06:35:46 +0000

I’ve always wanted to do another Taiwanese breakfast entry, not that Yung Ho Tou Chiang is bad or anything, I just wanted to try more places. I found Four Seas on Yelp but have actually been there a long time ago, when I was working as a software intern in the City of Industry back in 2002. I remember that their rice balls (my favorite breakfast item) were very good. So, here we are, six years, two jobs, and a food blog later, back at Four Seas.

A good sign when you walk in to any restaurant is that there’s a line. This gave me a good amount of time to browse the menu, which is posted on the wall along with each item’s prices. Prices are very decent, breakfast items are typically $2-3 dollars, noodles and things are $5 or $6.

We start it off with our usual sweet and salty (goodies added) soy milk. I think the soy milk here is a little richer tasting than Yung Ho Tou Chiang, but then I didn’t feel the salty version was particularly flavorful, maybe they don’t have all the ingredients figured out right. In any case, there should be some fried cruller, dried shrimp, green onions, chili oil, etc. in the salty soy milk. The sweet soy milk actually comes to your table unsweetened, you add your own sugar as you see fit. There’s also cold sweet soy milk (that should come pre-sweetened) and rice milk. $1.50 - $1.80
(Salty Soy Milk: xian dou jiang. Sweet Soy Milk: tian dou jiang)

Turnip cake. This is very much like the fried turnip cakes at Dim Sum places, very solid, but I got a hint of almonds in the finish. Weird, but pleasing. $2.80 (luo bo gao)

Here’s a classic breakfast item, fried cruller. It’s basically two thin strands of dough fried in a giant wok, it’s spectacularly crispy and tasty. (you tiao)

Here we have the egg pancake in front, it’s actually eggs fried and layered with a pancake, you can mix your own flour and fry with beaten eggs, or, I’ve seen people make it with a large flour tortilla. The different textures are very pleasing, soft eggs and a chewier pancake rolled together, along with the nice fragrance of the green onions. (dan bing)

On the same plate is a salty rice ball. It’s basically sweet / sticky rice wrapped around a small piece of fried cruller and some dried pork. I love the simply sweet taste of sticky rice, and the mixture of different textures knocks it out of the park for me. You can order a fancier version with pieces of braised egg and also sour cabbage, which makes it ever better, but at $4 it’s also a little pricy. (xian fan tuan)

Yup, if it’s on the menu, I gotta order it. Here is another example of the green onion pancake, this didn’t stand out very much, it’s decent but the #1 and #2 spots are still filled by Mon Land and Mama’s Lu. (cong you bing)

Overall I think this is a good find, the tastes are authentic and it feels more homemade than Yung Ho Tou Chiang. There’s not much service but then neither does the breakfast places in Taiwan. Unfortunately there’s no English menu, so I’ve added the pronunciation of each item in parenthesis in case any non-Chinese speakers are hoping to go. When in doubt, bring your iPhone and show them the pictures here.

Four Sea
2020 S Hacienda Blvd
Hacienda Heights, CA 91745
(626) 330-3088

2.44 Mama’s Lu Dumpling House

kevin — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 02:37:07 +0000

Yes, yes, I know, it’s already way past new years, I’m running way behind. Well, I’ve seen this blog try to meet deadlines before and believe me, it’s in no one’s best interest that I rush out 6 more restaurants. I’m going to take time to find really good places that I feel passionate about — I know you know when I’m not excited about a place, and who wants to read about mediocre restaurants anyway?

Bottom line, some really great restaurants are coming your way.

Today we’re back in LA, visiting a nice little hole in the wall dumpling place. Mama’s Lu is on Garvey just a bit East of Garfield. A lot of their dishes reminds me of the famous Din Tai Fung, but unlike Din Tai Fung, there’s no hour wait nor does everything cost 20% more than it should. In fact, this is one of the cheapest meals I’ve ever featured.

It was a little chilly, so we ordered a house beef soup. This is done Chinese herb soup style, ingredients are placed in a small bowl and the contents steamed, which is supposed to help preserve and seal in the savory flavors and nutrients. The soup is savory and we did notice an enhancement to the beef flavors. The meat is tender and it’s a nice way to start a meal. $3.

I didn’t consciously plan to do this, but after I had the great green onion pancakes at Mon Land, I set out to order green onion pancakes every chance I get. Nothing has beat the awesome pancakes at Mon Land yet, but the one here at Mama’s Lu is running a pretty close second place. It’s not as chewy or crispy as Mon Land’s, but the flavor is perfect and the textures are dead on. A great deal at $2.

One of my favorites, Chive fried pancake. (I’d call this the chive box or chive pocket.) It’s very much like a green onion pancake, but the emphasis is on the chives and the fillings of the pocket. Hot and soft on the inside, crispy on the outside. I love these. Relatively pricy at $4.50.

Chive and pork dumplings. This is totally solid. It’s a little bit wetter than I like, the dumplings are boiled and some of the soup got scooped onto the plate as well. But the pork and chives work beautifully together in this classic Chinese dumpling. $4.

Here’s where the resemblance to Din Tai Fung is more apparent. The juicy pork dumplings. Din Tai Fung does have thinner skin and maybe a bit more juice in their dumplings, but these are superb in their own right and at $4.50, it’s an excellent deal.

Our total tonight for two came out to be under $20. Which means an average of $4 per item. Once you factor in the easy parking and no waiting for a table, I think I just might pick this place over Din Tai Fung on most days. I’ll be back to try their top end dumplings, the juicy pork and crab dumplings ($8.50) next time.

Mama’s Lu Dumpling House
153 E Garvey Ave
Monterey Park, CA 91755
(626) 307-5700
Closed wednesdays

2.43 Hot Doug’s

kevin — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 22:58:23 +0000

Today’s meal features the famous Chicago hot dogs turned up to 11 at Hot Doug’s, which bills itself as “The Sausage Superstore and encased meat emporium.” During our research phase, we found that Hot Doug’s not only have the classic chicago style hot dog, it also had a great variety of sausages, even better, the daily menu posted on their website had listed antelope and rattlesnake as featured sausages. I was giddy walking in to this place. This is exactly what 50meals is all about: Hard core, deviant food.

We got in on the monday after thanksgiving, which means the line was not particularly long, thankfully. It was contained in the store and did not snake… or, sausage… out the door as I heard it would on the weekends. It took us a while to size up the menu and approach THE Doug to place our order. So here’s Doug taking our order.

One thing I wanted to mention right off is that Doug and his entire crew were extremely courteous and helpful, they even helped get us a large table for our big party in the extremely crowded dining room.

First up is the Cranberry and apple wild boar sausage. It’s not as wild as it sounds, but it did have a good flavor and a bit of sweetness from the cranberry and apple.

Corn dog. Back to normal for just a little while, this is just a perfectly normal corndog, which is to say, ordinary but still a classic.

Unfortunately they only have duck-fat fries on weekends, and they were closed over thanksgiving weekend. I hear the duck fat fries are out of this world and will certainly return to try it my next time in town. In the mean time here’s some very cheesy cheese fries. The fries are natural cut like In-n-out but it’s also well-done for that nice extra crunchiness. They drowned it in cheese and even though it must be so bad, it is SO good.

Chardonnay and Jalapeno rattlesnake sausage with ancho-lime mayo and smoked gouda cheese.
Amazing, I was a little scared but the texture of the meat is so fine and the flavor quite mellow but satisfying. It’s actually probably the best tasting sausage of the day.

The Elvis — Polish sausage, served Chicago style. Totally solid, and if it weren’t for all the other crazy stuff, this is what I’d order along with a Chicago style hot dog.

The Antelope. For some reason they ran out of the usual toppings and had to substitute something else on top, which overwhelmed the antelope sausage’s flavor. By itself, the antelope sausage was very good, but the weird toppings ruined it for me.

Onion-pork sausage with bacon-garlic mayo, duck pate and truffle-basalmic cream. This one was off the hook with its simple sausage and extravagant toppings, it tasted great but I preferred the simplicity of the snake sausage a bit more. so I’d call this my second favorite out of the lineup.

And finally, the original. This is the Chicago style hotdog, served with big chunks of tomatoes, onions, relish, mustard and a pickle. It’s surprisingly tangy and light for a hotdog, the overall texture is crisp and it tasted so clean, what with the tomatoes and pickles. The dog itself is delicious as well, but the combination is sublime.

This is probably my favorite meal in Chicago, having all these new and exotic stuff to eat was just so exciting. The snake was awesome and the Chicago style dog certainly did not disappoint, along with the corn dog and the cheese fries as comfort foods, this meal was both challenging, exciting, and pleasing.

What an awesome meal! A big special thanks to everyone who braved the cold and the scary sausages with me. Rich, Shi-Fong, Susie, Mama Lee and Shu-Wei. We’re back to LA for our final stretch of meals. Until next time, Chicago!

Hot Doug’s
3324 N California Ave
(between Henderson St & Roscoe St)
Chicago, IL 60618

2.42 Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria

kevin — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 04:59:27 +0000

It was a cold day in Chicago, and before we headed out for the day’s sightseeing, we stopped by the legendary Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria in Lincolnwood. Lou Malnati’s specializes in Chicago style deep dish pizza and is a local chain with 28 locations in and around Chicago. The Lincolnwood location where we visited is where it all started back in 1971.

There is actually quite a few items on the menu, salads, sandwiches, pasta, and of course, deep dish and thin crust pizza. We are here for the pizza. Pizza pizza.

Chilis, oregano, and cheese on the table.

Finally! It takes about half an hour to bake, so be sure to get there early and give yourself sometime to starve. With a quick stab and swing of the knife, the pizza falls onto your plate, piping hot and screaming for me to take a bite.

We ordered a small “Lou” - Spinach, mushrooms, sliced Roma tomatoes, along with a blend of mozzarella, romano and cheddar cheese. This was a bit bland on the first bite, it’s certainly not greasy and salty like I’m used to. The difference isn’t immediately noticeable, but when I got back to LA and had my usual local pizza, I realized how fresh, wholesome Lou Malnati’s pizza was, and I really missed the homemade taste that it had.

We also ordered a larger sausage and mushrooms pizza. The sausage is phenomenal, and the crust is thin, buttery, crunchy. I have to confess that I liked this one even better than the Lou, mostly because of the sausage.

The layers of the pizza is something that’s worth a special mention. The cheese is laid on top of the dough, and then other ingredients are layered on, with the tomato sauce going on second last, finished off with some more cheese and spices. It tasted like there were distinct layers of toppings. In other words, each topping had its own layer. Suffice it to say, there was sausage in nearly every bite of pizza and that made me very, very happy.

It feels very homey in the restaurant. Service was attentive and our waitress was very experienced. There are some very loyal employees at Lou Malnati’s, with quite a few that have been with the restaurant for well over two decades. I’m sure I’ll be a loyal customer for a long time to come. I can’t wait to come back and have more of their incredible deep dish pizza. Until then, Santa knows Lou Malnati’s ships pizzas all over the US. (hint hint)

Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria
6649 North Lincoln Avenue
Lincolnwood, IL 60712
847.673.0800

2.41 Al’s Beef

kevin — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 07:12:08 +0000

Hello from Chicago! I visited Chicago over the Thanksgiving holidays and of course hit some good places in town, so you can expect 3 or 4 entries from Chicago coming up. For today, though, we’re eating Italian Beef.

I was very curious when people started talking about Italian Beef. It just sounded so vague, I mean, if I told you I had Korean beef or French beef, what image comes in to your mind? It really could have been anything! So, here we are, at Al’s Beef, to find out what exactly is Italian beef.

There’s a ton of stuff on the menu, from hot dogs to burgers to… Gourmet Salads? Dude, whatever, I’m here for the MEAT from the section titled: LEGENDARY ITALIAN BEEF & SAUSAGE. So bring it on!

Our sandwiches and fries arrive. I ordered an Italian Beef sandwich and also an Italian Sausage sandwich to try.

The fries turns out to be fresh and not frozen. Yes, my good folks at home in California, it IS kind of like In-n-out fries, but it then it looks like it’s lightly battered and then fried to give it more crunch and body. I really like these, they’re even better than In-n-out fries.

It turns out the beef is spiced, oven roasted, then sliced thin and then piled onto a piece of Italian bread resembling a baguette, which crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside. Honestly, it tastes a LOT better than it looks, partially because it’s soaked with gravy (I’d say it’s more like au jus) on the inside. I originally thought the beef would be fatty and the whole thing would be very heavy, but it turns out they’ve meticulously trimmed the beef and it’s amazingly lean, tender and light. You can choose spicy or sweet peppers, I went with the sweet this time but you can bet I’m going after the spicy the next time I’m in town. Excellent.

Italian Sausage sandwich. Oh, man, Chicago dogs and sausages are SO good! The textures were very pleasing and the flavors were jump out at you, it’s excellent, with a very home made taste. I love Chicago hot dogs and sausages (more of that to come) but this is my first glimpse at it.

So, it’s a quick meal here and then we moved on to see the Sears Tower. A few more meals here in Chicago to come, including pizza and of course, the famous Chicago hot dogs. It’s so cool to be in Chicago, the building styles are really diverse. I’m gonna try to focus on the food here, but if you do get a chance to visit Chicago, a tour of downtown is definitely recommended, the architecture here is really quite something.

Al’s Beef
169 W Ontario St
(between La Salle Dr & Wells St)
Chicago, IL 60610
(312) 943-3222

2.40 Gu Jip

kevin — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 06:38:24 +0000

Gu Jip is a hidden gem of sorts. It’s not tucked away in a dark alley somewhere, but I sure had enough trouble finding it — there’s no English signage at all except a blue lit sign that says “Tofu House.” Not. Helpful. Good thing the suite number is also on top of the door and that matched up with the Gardena address we had in hand.

We timidly shuffle in, hoping that the staff will be friendly to a party of three that speaks absolutely no Korean other than “Hello.” We’re seated immediately, there’s a pictured menu on the wall for the larger items and a menu on the table for more low key home style items.

We order two of their more famous dishes — a pork neck and potato soup (#2 on the small menu) and the pork and oyster wrap (#10 on the wall.)

Within minutes our table is stocked with 5 dishes of panchan — small plates of appetizers that is standard with every korean meal. There is kimchi, soy bean sprouts, marinaded turnip, a seaweed and squid “salad” with a sweet and spicy sauce, and lastly, a plate of soy bean paste and whole jalapeno peppers. I must mention that the kimchi here tastes a bit different from kimchi from other Korean restaurants — and even the larger plate of kimchi that is served later with the pork and oyster wrap — the small plate of kimchi has a hint of papaya that is quite unexpected, sweet, and pleasant.

The pork neck and potato soup comes first, bubbling fiercely in a stone pot. The pork neck contains large pieces of bone and some extremely flavorful and tender pieces of meat that you must coax out from between the bones.

The potatoes serve to mellow out the hot and spicy soup, which is red not just from the spicy chilies and oils, but also from the tomato that it contains. The soup is hot, spicy, incredibly flavorful and hearty.

Served with rice, this is exactly what you would need on a cold day to warm you up and get the blood pumping.

The star of our show is the lavish pork and oyster wraps. The oysters were extremely fresh and they do give you quite a hefty serving of them. There is also sliced braised pork, kimchi, spicy marinaded radish, sliced garlic and jalapenos, along with the sauce and salted napa cabbage to wrap it all up with.

So I build my wrap. Big leaf of cabbage, two oysters, one slice of fatty pork, a spoonful of radish, a leaf of kimchi, a couple slices of garlic and a dash of the sauce. It all comes out to be a thick messy pile. A carefully calculated big bite is required and the results are mesmerizing. The extravagant variety of textures in this wrap is overwhelming. The salty crisp cabbage, the soft and slippery oyster with their sweet and metallic taste, the tender, fatty and smooth pork, the slightly crunchy kimchi and radish, and finally the slow burn of the garlic and jalapeno. It’s so complex, so layered, that every bite and chew is a journey taken by mouth, and you are forced to take one over and over to really understand and appreciate everything that’s in this wrap.

Service is quick and efficient, not overly friendly because of the language barrier, but our waitress was very helpful when we fumbled ordering the dishes. The restaurant has a family-owned feel that is comfortable if a little sparse. I’d love to come back — I would love to get the pork neck and potato soup again, it’s fantastic, and maybe try something else from the large item menu. The stuffed Korean pork sausage casserole is calling my name.

Gu Jip (Tofu house)
15435 S Western Ave #112
Gardena, CA 90249