vickichowder

HWA SUN JI, LA KTOWN

After a I-did-not-know-my-stomach-could-stomach-that-much-food kind of meal, you wonder what the next logical thing to do is. And that is, of course, to take a walk to make enough room for part two of your late, late, lunch, in order to enjoy afternoon tea.

So we took a walk (for a good half hour maybe), where, under the hot LA sunshine, our feelings of itis was elevated even more so than before, and stopped by this tea house in hopes of resting to prepare ourselves for the 36 hour hackathon to come.

When you need something thirst quenching (and this is for the kind of thirst that resides in your throat), this Korean sauna/bathhouse staple drink is pretty damn refreshing. And because you're at a tea house and not a jimjilbang, it's served with slivers of ice in a bowl, and a wooden spoon. It's made with fermented rice, and reminds me of the barley/rice/soy sweet drinks back in Malaysia. Slightly to sweet for my liking. Good

Never understood how people could ever have shaved ice with syrup and find it so delicious now - though back as a child (who am I kidding, I'm still a child) I'd shave my own ice and drizzle of cherry red and berry blue syrups and be all happy in my own little summer bubble - because after bingsoo, you'll want to always have ten thousand toppings on your shaved ice. Including, but not limited to: condensed milk, endless fruits, red bean, kinako, ice cream, mochi, crisps, whipped cream, brown sugar syrup... Good

I thought, okay, green tea can't be that different - I know there's matcha and the leafy green tea and so all the other types of green tea that isn't powder must fall under the latter flavour profile, right? How foolish of me to think that way. This was so good I even went to David's Tea to order it when I came back to Canada. The cup houses a tea filter, and a mini kettle of hot water is kept with you so you can continuously enjoy a cup of steeped tea.

You also get a never-ending serving of seaweed crackers. And a cup of roasted rice tea to bid us farewell

So extremely relaxing, we almost ended up taking a nap here. We had the whole place to ourselves, save the ahjumma who took good care of us, and there was a mini waterfall. She told us that this place isn't as popular during afternoons as it is after dinnertime.

Rose tea

So I came here again on a weekday night (after a different kbbq), and it was extremely busy, as ahjumma had said. Young and old people come here, but mainly only Koreans. I've been blessed with living with a Korean family for 4 months that I can get by as a Korean, but there is also an english menu, and when language fails, you just need to point to what you want.

Science Museum

The night we came here, we took a bus, and the driver was the best. At every stop, he'd declare, not the stop names, but:

Everyone! Mucho good night

Have a mucho good dreams!
Have a mucho good sleep!

Mucho!... (and other mucho - prefixed things)

All the bus patrons were smiling and so were we.

, by vickichowder

KANG HO DONG

KANG HO DONG, LA KTOWN

LA Kbbq is really something else. I mean Kbbq itself is already damn satisfying but having the LA style in LA is:

I've been to so many kbbqs in the Bay and Toronto, but this one beat them all in many ways..

We got the beef set (~$60) and it started us off with the brisket. The first time I had this cut at a Korean bbq place was at Gen (San Jose location), and I fell in love with the thin marbled slices of meat that were very meaty in flavour (because it's brisket). Even if its left on the grill too long you won't not want to eat it because it might turn dry, because it actually stays moist (because the fat omg), and caramelizes too. So good

Then was the prime rib cut. This one has to be eaten right after they cut it up and so you see that it is still a very nice medium rare (why can't any other restaurant not over cook a medium rare order and turn it into a medium?!). But it was just the two of us devouring this meal so the last few pieces of the prime rib were no longer medium rare, but medium. The flame was a nice presentation and very picture worthy. If you're looking for a melt in your mouth experience, this is not the cut for you. If you want a beefy taste and substantial bite of beef, this is the cut for you. Okay

Last of the three plates was marinated boneless beef short rib. This is the melt in your mouth beef cut that you were waiting for. The one were the marbling of fat was apparent before and after cooking. The one where it glistens on the grill because the fats are melting above the embers. The one where you go for that end cut of meat that has a chunk of fat on it that you left it on the grill until you ate every other piece because you want to savour that piece of 9:1 ratio of fat to meat because that 90% would have crisped up so nicely on the hot grill. The one where you then wrap it in a thin slice of pickled radish because the lettuce salad can not handle the umptuous-ness of that 9:1 ratio.Very good.

The cheesy corn on the side of the grill, which usually only makes an appearance in Korean pubs. But cheese could have been creamier. I didn't like how the cheese didn't stay very melty and gooey - once it's off the grill (when you pick it up), the cheese starts to harden. Bad.

The egg that is cooked on the side of the grill so it catches all the meat juices and fat. Very custardy and flavourful. I suspect some sort of MSG or broth was mixed into the egg. Good

The salad for which LA style bbq is famous is not the kind that I had eaten or that I had expected to be served here. There was a bed of marinated bean sprouts underneath the green onions (which were good though!) But what happened to the leaf lettuce? Did they run out of leaf lettuce so that they were forced to put romaine as a stand in? SMH.

Pickled radish and a fatty piece of short rib

Kimchi pancake was meh, kimchi stew was also meh. But who will actually fill up on that stuff when you have incredible meats in front of you? But I admit to finishing the tofu and two servings of sliced pickled radish.

Cue orgasmic reaction to food

Oh yes, there was also water cabbage and radish

And someone (not me) doesn't know how to pour beer wow

We took a stroll around ktown after the extremely heavy lunch meal:

I'm not even Korean but having been in Ktowns so often it feels comfortable whenever I'm in one

, by vickichowder

BASS

REEL IN, LA MALIBU

, by vickichowder

BEACH

GUISADOS, LA WEHO

There's this youtube channel I watch consistently (there are ones that I don't frequent because the content is not the most interesting --> really all channels except for this one I am going to disclose), called Munchies.

The series, Chef's Night Out, is the one I watch to decide where I want to eat next (Night and Market was one of them), and Guisado's is another. Basically a bunch of chefs plus their friends going out for drinks and food for a night, and Guisado's was one of the restaurants where the chefs went out.

I only started liking Mexican food ever since I worked in Bay Area for a bit (but to be honest, I don't think I've had any Mexican food besides a quesadilla at Taco Bell, which cannot even be deemed as Mexican food, I'm afraid). And so since the start of my love for Mexican food, I've been very open to saucy meats on soft corn tortillas:

I love the chili verde here, it's not too spicy and would be nice if it was spicier. It's heavy cause it's meat but fresh because, chili verde, and if anything, it's the verde part of the chili verde (I'm assuming verde = green here, correct me if I'm wrong. I could easily Google up the actual translation here as I'm typing this too, but I'm not) that makes it so fresh and pleasant to eat.

The seafood one here is grilled fish, and topped with dressed salad (cabbage, onions - too much and too raw. I should have had the seafood one first so that the meat could somehow overpower the raw onion taste in my mouth).

Cousin got the steak as well, and a chicken one I think. I added a beer to start my morning which I immediately regretted like 15 minutes into the meal and realized I should have just stuck with my routine morning coffee, which I ended up having later (I think).

We sat on the outside seats. A man came by during our meal and asked for a smoke. And to light it for him too

Then we went to Santa Monica Seafood, where cousin previously bought some really good candied salmon (I had a version of that from Waterloo, but it wasn't as good as this one, which is less hard/dry and jerky-like). I didn't end up taking a picture. We snacked on it at home in the morning or night or both times of the day.

From here we went to Santa Monica Beverley Centre, where I almost bought a rimowa luggage but cousin stopped me and I ended up buying two other suitcases at a price still much less than that light pink rimowa one I ~~slightly~~ do not regret not getting.

We went to santa monica beach that night:

, by vickichowder

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HWA SUN JI, LA KTOWN

KANG HO DONG, LA KTOWN

REEL IN, LA MALIBU

GUISADOS, LA WEHO

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HWA SUN JI, LA KTOWN

KANG HO DONG, LA KTOWN

REEL IN, LA MALIBU

GUISADOS, LA WEHO

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