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Raw Crab Guts are Yummy

Nov15

Restaurant: Soban

Location: 4001 W Olympic Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90019. (323) 936-9106

Date: November 13, 2013

Cuisine: Korean

Rating: The crab is amazing

A new wine and food friend of mine who happens to be Korean wanted to introduce me to Soban and the wonderful world of Korean raw crab. This popular k-town joint looks much like many others.

The English menu. There is a separate Korean one with no pictures.

2011 Inama Soave Classico Vigneti di Foscarino. Parker 92. Creamy and rich, this is so beautifully expressive and profound. There’s nothing obvious about this remarkable wine. Its aromatic evolution spans from crushed mineral and pencil shaving to lemon curd, vanilla custard and sun-kissed apricot. This is a Soave Classico dressed in its Sunday best. It sees six months of oak, of which 20% is new. Those two-fold veins of acidity and minerality will help it age.

We had to sneak these in tea cups, as alcohol isn’t allowed at Soban.

Like all Korean restaurants they lay out a spread of sides.

Fresh kimchee.

Marinated garlic.

Eggplant.

Wonderful soft egg custard, much like a savory version of Tamago.

Broccoli.

Seaweed.

Some other kind of green.

Fried tofu with a slightly spicy sesame sauce.

Marinated sprouts.

Another green.

And a final green.

The usual white rice, which I normally wouldn’t picture, but it will become important later.

This is the crab. It’s a Korean species specially flown in, then marinated in a mixture of soy sauce, mirin, sugar, garlic and ginger for several days. Soban is apparently the only LA place that uses real Korean crab.

The meat is clear and gelatinous, and you suck it right not, almost like squeezing toothpaste from a tube. It has a wonderful subtle briny flavor with more than a hint of ginger. Really quite nice, if a little slimly by the average American textural sensibility.

Then, one can mix some rice in with the row and “crab brain” (guts). This is a wonderful treat. My host actually gave the idea to Yama-san at Yamakase (you can see it here). I happen to love crab guts. Not everyone does, but they have a delightful briny savory quality that blends perfectly with the starchy rice.

Grilled cod. This is a simple fish, but cooked to perfection and complete with a large delicately cooked roe. Yum! In some ways it was like the Korean version of your simple Mediterranean sea bass.

This is a fermented and soy paste stew. It smells rather… fermented (like Nato), but has a complex and interesting taste with more than a little heat.

You can see the Jalepenos.

Spicy mackerel, tofu, and mixed vegetables. This dish had a bit of heat, not overwhelming, but that red Korean kimchee style heat. The mackerel was very flavorful, and not particularly fishy.

Octopus in spicy sauce. The sauce is similar to the mackerel, but they use a Korean species of fresh octopus that is very tender. It was quite nice.

Overall, this was a great little meal, with the crab (and the crab guts on rice) being the real highlight. That’s a very unusual dish and well worth trying if you have the guts! (haha)

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: crab, Foodie Club, Korean cuisine, Korean food, raw crab, Sage Society, Soban, Wine

Tofu with a Seoul

Nov04

Restaurant: Seoul Tofu

Location: 2101 Sawtelle Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90025. 310.444.9988

Date: October 21, 2013

Cuisine: Korean

Rating: Solid

Seoul Tofu seems a relatively new offering on my favorite Westside Asian lunch street, Sawtelle. It features a newer, more attractive build out that some of the old mainstays.

It seems a formula that Korean restaurants offering the spicy tofu soup also serve up a variety of Korean BBQ dishes as well. Not the kind one cooks oneself, as Seoul Tofu doesn’t offer the table-side burners, but the sort served up on hot metal skillets.

Koreans always start off with a variety of little side dishes. My favorite here is the fried tofu or fish cake in the bottom left. It has a nice chewy texture and a pleasant smokey flavor.

The menu.

Soon Tofu with beef dumplings. This is why I come to these places, for the lovely silken tofu in an intensely hot (temperature wise) bubbling spicy broth. The tofu and the soup were both delicious, but the dumplings lacked a bit in flavor.

A nice presentation of white rice (hot!).

Bulgogi. Grilled thin slices of tender beef marinated in special sauce. This was tasty enough, but the onions were too raw and the meat perhaps a little fatty.

Seoul Tofu follows the exact same formula as the nearby (1 block) Tofu-Ya, and the decor is nicer and more up to date, but the older restaurant is a dollar or two cheaper — and more importantly, tastes a little bit better. Ain’t competition a good thing?

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Korean BBQ, Korean cuisine, Restaurants and Bars, Seoul, Seoul Tofu, Soon Tofu, South Korea, Soy sauce, Tofu

Dumplings the size of Grapefruits!

Jun28

Restaurant: Myung In Dumplings

Location: 3109 W Olympic Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90006. (213) 381-3568

Date: May 17, 2013

Cuisine: Korean Dumpling House

Rating: Tasty and great value

I’m a big dumpling fan. I mean, what isn’t there to like with a pasta-esque dough ball filled with ground goodness?

Myung is a little hole-in-the-wall place right next door to Shin Beijing in the heart of K-Town.

The menu is short, and very pictorial.

Like every Korean place, just sitting down seems to earn you a collection of little “salads.” This one is cabbage with mayo, a dish that is very familiar from my many trips to Japan.

And the classic kimchee, some pickles, and a slightly spicy dumpling sauce.

King steamed dumplings with meat and vegetable. They aren’t kidding. These puppies are the size of grapefruits, or cannonballs.

Inside the thick covering is a hearty mixture of meat (probably beef), spices, onion, and scallions.

This “dumpling soup” is basically egg drop soup filled with soft beef dumplings. Tasty.

Spicy steamed dumplings with shrimp. While there was some mixture of spices in the dumplings themselves, most of the heat is in the red stuff.

Shu-mai. The Korean variant on this classic appears to be a little larger than the Chinese.

Overall a nice little “snack,” tasty and a great deal for the money. Not quite as good as Din Tai Fung, but a different thing (and country) and far closer.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

He’s everywhere!

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: beef, dumpling, dumplings, Korea-town, Korean, Korean cuisine, Myung In Dumplings

Where in the world is Yanbian?

May30

Restaurant: Yanbian Restaurant

Location: 4251 W 3rd St. Los Angeles, CA 90004. (213) 383-5959

Date: May 21, 2013

Cuisine: Yanbian Chinese

Rating: Great food, incredible deal!

Until a few weeks ago I hadn’t heard of Yanbian, an autonomous prefecture in the borderlands between China and Korea. But like any place, it has its own regional cuisine, and LA, being rich in Asian culture has at least one restaurant specializing in the area. My Hedonist group has been here several times, but this is my first visit.

This Koreatown hole-in-the-wall might not look like much, but the food is excellent and they did a great job handling our oversized party.

Champagne to start.

Twice cooked pork. I’ve had the meat part of this dish numerous times at Chinese, but never coupled with these “spring roll” like sides. It was all very tasty.

2010 Karthauserhof Eitelsbacher Karthauserhofberg Riesling. Parker 88. Honeysuckle, lime, and honeydew melon scent and generously inform the palate of Tyrell’s 2010 Eitelsbacher Karthauserhofberg Riesling Spatlese, which however suffers from some of the same sense of opacity and diffusion as the corresponding Kabinett. A surprisingly soothing, glycerin-rich, and honeyed palate impression leads to a finish that would benefit from a bit more sheer juiciness and less overt sweetness, though there is just enough citrus to serve for some refreshment. Perhaps time will bring further complexity and clarity. I am more inclined to credit this with some serious bottle potential – surely at least a dozen years – than I am most of the wines that preceded it in the present Karthauserhof line-up.

I also brought a bottle of:

2011 Joh Jos Prum Riesling Kabinett Wehlener Sonnenuhr. Parker 93. Prum’s 2011 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett is a tad higher in residual sugar and correspondingly lower in alcohol than its immediate stable mates, but as one would expect from this great site, if anything the taste impression is drier. A ravishing nose of heliotrope and honeysuckle, Normandy cider and wet stone establishes the common themes for a palate performance that unites delicacy, juiciness and creaminess to an uncanny degree that only a few of the best Mosel vineyards and their prime caretakers can capture. Mouthwateringly lingering and compelling of the next sip, this rarified illustration of Mosel Kabinett virtue will reward you over the next quarter century.

No restaurant with Korean influences would be without the Kimchee!

And this other spicy vegetable.

2011 Chateau Ste. Michelle & Dr. Loosen Riesling Eroica. IWC 88. Pale yellow-straw. Sexy aromas of nectarine, ginger and nutmeg. Moderately sweet but not at all cloying, with nectarine, apple, pear and brown spice flavors complicated by a saline quality and perked up by white flowers and CO2. Not particularly gripping and very easy to drink. Finishes just off-dry, with a menthol nuance and a suggestion of crab apple that brought my score down.

And these greens.

And marinated bean sprouts.

2010 Patrick Piuze Chablis Fourchaume. Parker 90. Layers of dried pears, crushed flowers and licorice, all supported by fine, nuanced veins of minerality, emerge from the 2010 Chablis Fourchaume. This is a relatively approachable 2010 to drink over the next few years.

Fried duck. Really fried duck — but delicious, with a light “beer batter” style fry.

From my cellar: 1996 Domaine Joseph Drouhin Charmes Chambertin. Parker 92. This medium-to-dark ruby-colored wine has a fine nose of deeply ripe blackberry and cassis. On the palate, this well-concentrated, thick, complex, and harmonious wine is replete with loads of black cherries and spices. It has extremely ripe and supple tannins in its long finish.

Potstickers. These are typical Chinese dumplings, but with a particularly thick doughy shell. Maybe a little doughy for my taste.

The tasty spicy sauce for the dumplings.

And competing (not entirely successfully) with the grandeur of Burgundy is:

2009 Beaulieu Pinot Noir Reserve. Parker 89. The 2009 Pinot Noir Reserve Carneros is a bold, juicy wine bursting with candied red berries, flowers and mint. It comes across as fairly forward and quite fat. The 2009 is best suited to near-term drinking.

Walnut shrimp. With their light fluffy fry and a nice hint of mustard in the sauce these were some great walnut shrimp.

1988 D’Issan. Parker doesn’t like this wine, but it was a pleasant older Bordeaux.

Pork with quail egg. It doesn’t look like much but this was a great dish with soft pork and a nice flavor. The white balls are hard boiled quail eggs.

2007 Château Trocard. 88 points.

Spicy fried chicken. This is one of those dry Hunan/Szechuan style dishes.

2009 Jarvis Tomei Syrah Coloma “Meatgrinder”. 92 points. Cherry, cedar and floral notes on the nose. Very smooth and easy to drink, mouth-watering blackberry, violets, vanilla with a coffee finish.

Rice with eggplant and mushrooms. The consistency of the rice was very sticky, with a mellow comfort food vibe going on. Very pleasant.

2005 Mollydooker Enchanted Path. 93 points. Very surprised with how rich and pleasant this was, especially compared with my experience with Carnival of Love from the same vintage which runs toward heat and alcohol. In contrast, the enchanted path last night was showing a seamless combination of blue and red fruit and the creamy texturethat others have mentioned. Lovely stuff that could be appreciated by anyone who likes good wine.

Mountain potatoes and eggplant.

2000 Greenock Creek Shiraz Alices. Parker 90. Fashioned from low yields of 1.27 tons of fruit per acre, the 2000 Shiraz Alice’s is 100% Shiraz aged in American oak for 28 months prior to being bottled unfiltered. A strong effort for the vintage, it exhibits a deep ruby/purple color in addition to a sweet nose of blackberries, pepper, and licorice, medium body, and a fine finish.

Spicy pork. See those peppers? They are real Szechuan peppers and they left the mouth and face numb!

The pork was hiding underneath but was great — when the numbness allowed tasting it!

2003 Pax Cellars Syrah Lauterbach Hill. Parker 94. The 2003 Syrah Lauderbach Hill, from a vineyard farmed by Lee Martinelli, was cropped at two tons of fruit per acre, and spent time in 100% French oak, of which 40% was new. No shy Syrah at 15.9% alcohol, it exhibits great intensity as well as a tremendously sweet bouquet of crushed rocks, creme de cassis, blackberries, and flowers. A full-bodied, opulent, exotic effort, it should drink well for a decade or more.

Egg with tomatoes. Slightly sweet, a kind of Chinese omelet.

Overall, Yanbian was great fun, great food, and all of the above was $20 a person! Including tax and a 35% tip! Wow!

More crazy Hedonist adventures or
LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
Comments (4)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: China, Chinese cui, hedonists, Korean cuisine, Mosel, Rice, Riesling, Wine, Yanbian, Yanbian Restaurant

Birthday Party, Hedonist Style

Apr09

Restaurant: Shin Beijing

Location: 3101 W Olympic Blvd – Los Angeles, CA 90006. 213-381-3003

Date: April 1, 2013

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: very solid electric Chinese

Hedonist regular, Penny, wanted to go out for her birthday, so 15-18 of us descended on Korea Town Chinese restaurant Shin Beijing. As far as I can tell, except for the Kimchi, Korean Chinese is pretty much Chinese (food wise).

Birthday girl Penny on the right next to Hedonist leader, Yarom, who’s sporting his best Myspace pout.

In Chinese style, the staff brought us out some of our victims alive before cooking them up.

You can’t really see it, but we had a nice private room, one of several.

From my cellar, Parker 90, “With respect to Saint-Cosme’s white wine offerings, readers should check out the 2007 Cotes du Rhone blanc, a blend of Roussanne, Marsanne, Picpoul, and Viognier. Flamboyant scents of melon, tropical fruit, and honeysuckle jump from the glass of this beauty. It offers amazing richness, a dry, medium-bodied mouthfeel, superb freshness, and far more quality and complexity than one would expect from a white Cotes du Rhone. Luckily, there are over 1,000 cases of this cuvee.”

Kimchi. No self respecting Koreans would do without.

Kimchi spiced daikon?

Parker 91, “The Monchof 2007 Erdener Treppchen Riesling Spatlese Mosel Slate is scented with fresh tangerine, heliotrope, wisteria, and mint. Lush and brimming with ripe pineapple, musk melon, and tangerine, it spreads a creamy fruit concentrate over the palate yet remains infectiously refreshing in its long, sappy finish. Once again, this high-volume Eymael calling card represents an exceptional value and should go right on pleasing for a decade or more, provided anyone both thinks to cellar it and can resist temptation in the interim.”

Cold jelly fish (right) with wasabi sauce. Shrimp with mustard sauce (left) and aromatic braised beef (top) in black bean jelly.

In the upper right, Chinese pork sausages.

Some very unusual artisanal “sour” beers. Stawberry flavors and very… unique.

A stir friend chicken dish.

2008 Domaine Macle Cotes du Jura. This old fashioned wine is made in a manner a little like Sherry where a layer of bacteria is used to prevent oxidation. It was very dry and hot with sherry fino like notes.

Ma po tofu (a.k.a Pockmarked-Face Old Lady’s Tofu).

2003 Fritz Haag Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel. Very nice with strong notes of pear.

Bamboo shoot w/ black mushroom.

1978 Joseph Phelps Zinfandel. Not something you’d expect to still be good, but it was. Tasted like an old Bordeaux, very nice.

Crab w/ ginger and onion sauce. This sauce was delicious. Some wonderful crabs. Almost as good as the ones I had in Singapore.

2010 Domaine Gauby Côtes du Roussillon Villages Les Calcinaires. A little funky, with a distinct barnyard taste that someone described as “dirty piggy.” I liked it quite a bit though, as did many others.

Fried shrimp w/ hot sauce (traditionally twice cooked spicy shrimp). Damn tasty shrimp!

A Turley Howell Mountain Zin.

Lobster hunan style. Good stuff, some really great lobster. Lightly fried with hunan chillies (but actually pretty mild).

w

Fried whole fish w/ chili sauce. Yummy!

It’s not pretty, but great with white rice.

2007 Chin Chin Syrah.

Beef w/ black mushroom, bamboo shoots. Classic Chinese (American) dish.

Noodle with black bean jelly.

The noodles are hiding underneath. Looked cool, but the black bean jelly was a little mild flavored. I would have preferred pork ragu 🙂

Assorted fried rice (shrimp, chicken, pork). Great fried rice.

Parker 95, “Peter Michael’s Bordeaux program is built around their flagship Cabernet Sauvignon-based wine, Les Pavots. The 2008 Les Pavots, a blend of 67% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Cabernet Franc and 11% Merlot, offers up notes of roasted coffee, cocoa, chocolate fudge, black currants, licorice and a hint of truffles. This full-bodied, beautifully rich red boasts an opulent texture, impressive purity and a long finish. Impressively made with impeccable attention to detail (it is sorted berry by berry rather than grape bunch by grape bunch), this 3,500-case cuvee should drink well for two decades or more.”

The condiments for Peking duck.

Both pancakes and buns! I’ve never seen both at the same restaurant.

Peking duck. Looking good!

For the uninitiated, you put some duck skin, duck meat, onions, and hoison sauce in the pancake and roll.

1980 Château Nairac. Yarom always manages to find these ancient Sauternes. Tons of buttered popcorn and apricots. Not as syrupy as many desert wines. Still has a bit of acidity.

Apple pie (brought in).

2002 Domaine Weinbach Tokay Pinot Gris Altenbourg Cuvée Laurence. Parker 95, “Among the few slightly older wines from Weinbach that I tasted recently, the 2002 Pinot Gris Altenbourg Selection de Grains Nobles was especially notable. Black tea, citrus zest, musk, white truffle and honey aromas lead intoxicatingly to a plate the combine delicacy with density and richness, Like mandarins marinated in honey, tea, and grapefruit juice on the palate, on which 166 grams of residual sugar are tossed off and practically forgotten. This finishes with unquenchable refreshment rare for an S.G.N., and the sort of complexity and clarity that accrue to the best wines of this under-rated vintage.”

Glazed sweet potato. Basically sweet potato fries coated in sugar. Carby yum.

Overall, this was a great evening. Shin Beijing turned out to be a great find with a nice ambiance (as far as Chinese restaurants go) and terrific food. They really treated us well too. It’s not so easy to handle a boisterous group of this size and they managed perfectly. The price was very reasonable too, $60 a person all inclusive of tip and tax, considering the number of dishes and the fact that we had several lobsters, several crabs, and two peking ducks.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

The crab is making a break for it — unfortunately for him, he didn’t make it.

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Beijing, Chinese Food, Côtes du Rhône AOC, crab, duck, hedonists, Kimchi, Korean cuisine, Lobster, Marsanne, Roussanne, Shin Beijing, Viognier, Wine

Moko

Aug04

Restaurant: Moko

Location: 9540 Culver Blvd. Culver City, Ca. (310) 838-3131

Date: July 9, 2011

Cuisine: Modernized Korean

Rating: Very tasty — Spicy!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Moko is a newly opened Korean bar/restaurant serving very modernized variants using a Korean palette of flavors. This is to Korean as Red Medicine is to Vietnamese.

The pleasant but industrial space in the heart of Culver City’s bustling downtown.

The have the BBQ in the table, and there is an extensive section of the menu for ordering meats and vegetables to cook here — we didn’t do that on this visit.

An amuse of three “salads.” Left to right: “Watermelon Namul with tasted almonds chile, shiso and ginger,” followed by “Kong Maul, mixed sporuts with spring onions sesame and soy,” and on the right “Market Radish Namul, sweet ginger and pineapple mint.”

“Spicy Smash, Tequila Silver, lime juice, agave & cucumber, Thai basil, serrano.” This is one of those spicy specialty cocktails that has popped up all over the place lately. It was good, with a long serrano burn.

“Tai Snapper, asian pear jus and pickled ginger.” Sweet and lovely.

“Big Eye Tuna, yuzu, soy, and blood orange.” Also a really good presentation of the fish with complex flavor profiles.

“Sesame Duck Confit, sweet lettuces and mango with ginger aioli and chipotle jang wrapped in jjin bahng.” This was amazingly tasty. The smokey duck, the sweet fruit, and the tang of some pickles paired perfectly — and there was all sorts of texture going on.

“Green Chili Pork Sausage, pineapple and butter lettuces with ssam jang wrapped in jjin bahang.” Also great. The sausage thing tasted amazing.

“Asian Pear and Kholrabi Salad, pea shoots and perilla with mustard vinaigrette.” Pretty spicy!

“Heirloom tomatos, green beans, soy ginger vinaigrette.”

“Silken Tofu, ginger dashi broth.” Wasabi in the sauce was incredibly hot. Hotter even than atomic horseradish. My nose hurt for an hour. Each bite made me sneeze. I finished it all.

“Kimchi eggplat dumplings, mushrooms and silken tofu with pine-nut mustard dipping sauce.” Very tasty too, and not too spicy.

“Wagyu Beef Roseu Pyeonchae, truffle scented seared beef carpaccio with asian pear and arugula salad.” This was one of the blander dishes. The meat was succulent, but I felt the dish could use a little more zing.

“Pan Friend Duck and Foie Gras dumplings with sour cherry dipping sauce.” Incredible potstickers. Some of the best I’ve even had — foie gras! The sauce was really good too.

“Soju Cured Salmon, crisp potato pancakes with pickled onions and ginger cream.” Sort of a giant potato latke with salmon and creme fraiche. Pretty tasty.

Moko certainly had strong flavors, and I for the most part loved them. A lot of dishes were quite spicy, more than I would have expected (and I have a pretty high tolerance). So several hours later I’m still feeling the burn.

Check out some other modernized Asians like Red Medicine or Xino.