Restaurant: Seoul Sausage Co.
Location: 11313 Mississippi Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90025. (310) 477-7739
Date: September 20, 2013
Cuisine: Korean… sorta
Rating: Tasty!
LA is a funny kind of foodie town, being divided into both wildly experimental cuisine, classic ethnic, and a not-so-in-the-closet love affair with fast food. And let’s not forget Asian fusion. One of the current trends seems to be updating classic American fast foods with crazy cross-cultural insertions. This is nowhere more obvious than in the rash of new gourmet food trucks that offer things like “kalbi tacos” and “Thai shrimp burgers.”
Seoul Sausage Co. has a storefront, but it’s very much in this vein, offering up a tiny menu of fat and flavor driven Korean/American hybrid dishes.
This is a tiny place affording only counter service.
The short little menu.
Some of the rice balls waiting to be re-heated.
The sandwich makes for easy take-away.
Kalbi Sausage. Handmade Korean BBQ beef sausage w/ garpic jalapeno aioli and kimchi relish. This was a pretty delicious “hot dog.” The sausage was succulent and flavorful and the aioli added a nice brightness.
A pair of balls and their sauce. These balls are like vaguely Asian Arincini (a similar Italian food consisting of deep fried rice balls — it may even date from the Roman Empire!).
On the left, the Lil’ Osaka Ball. Japanese curry rice ball w/ ground kalbi and potatoes served w/ shoga siracha mayo.
On the right, Flaming Ball. Cheesy kimchi fried rice w/ spicy pork served w/ DMZ sauce (garlic jalepeno kimchi siracha aioli).
Neither was actually hot (by my standards). Both were tasty, a bit mild, and I liked the Osaka Ball better (it tasted like Japanese brown curry).
Next door is Blockheads, a shaved ice joint.
I experimented with this classic sweet ice (shaved frozen sweetened condensed milk) and chocolate, almonds, and brownies. I should have gone with Mango or some other fruit version.
Sawtelle has morphed in recent years into a rather excellent lunch destination, offering up a bevy of yummy (and quick) eats. There is a lot of traditional Japanese and Korean, plus these newer more experimental places.
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