Originally published in Hemispheres magazine, January 2005.
LA's Korean Barbecue
The hottest places for barbecue in Southern California are the grills in LA's Koreatown
by Will Kern
Somewhere around 100,000 South
Koreans call the City of Angels home.
When these hungry expats want a
taste of the old country, they head to
LA’s sprawling Koreatown district for
Chosun galbi, or Korean barbecue.
The concept is simple: your native
Korean waitress who can’t speak a
word of English takes your order from
the Korean/English menu, cranks up
your table grill with a butane flame and
within minutes brings out platefuls of
fresh veggies and spiced or seasoned
meat that she slaps down on the now
sizzling steel. Seconds later she
comes back and clanks down eight or
ten little bowls of colorful and exotic
side dishes, most of which you would
be hard pressed to identify. The sweet
cooked meat smoke gets sucked up
into an overhead vent while you suck
down shots of soju, Korean rice wine,
and stuff yourself until your buttons
pop off.
That, in so many words, is the idea.
Lots of fresh food that just keeps
coming.
Two dishes to consider are the galbi,
a boneless beef short rib, and the
pulgogi, a tender, thinly sliced rib eye
steak. Both are marinated in a special
sauce, and every restaurant has its
own secret recipe. Pork, chicken, and
seafood are also available. You can
eat straight off the grill, but to prevent
tongue angst it is better to dip in the
delicious sesame oil sauce before
passing it over your gums. Or dip the
meat, slide it in a bed of accompanying
iceberg lettuce, add a dash of
shredded onions, a smidge of the red
garlic paste, wrap it all up and chow
down.
Three of Koreatown’s best
restaurants are Tahoe Galbi, known
for its exemplary food and wonderful
ambiance, complete with outdoor
Korean garden and chuckling
manmade waterfall; Ma Dang Sae, a
blue collar joint with an all-you-can-eat
special for $14.50 that is hard to beat;
and Chung Kiwa, with its Black Angus
beef and its twenty-odd different side
dishes, including squid and octopus
salads.
Most Korean people think Ma Dang Sae is kind
of a joke because it takes its name from a
servant in Korean folklore.
Here are the ABCs of Korean BBQ:
galbi / boneless marinated beef short rib
sang galbi / unseasoned beef short rib
pulgogi / marinated, tender, thinly sliced rib
eye steak
hyeomit gui / beef tongue
chadol gui / beef brisket
sam kyup sal / pork, sliced bacon style
daeji pulgogi / spicy pork
dak pulgogi / chicken in soy sauce
saewoo gui / prawns
garibi gui / sea scallops
bosot gui / shitake mushrooms
Where:
Chung Kiwa Restaurant
3545 W. Olympic Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90019
323/737-0809
Ma Dang Sae B.B.Q. Restaurant
901 S. Vermont Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90006
213/381-9292
Tahoe Galbi Restaurant
3986 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90010
213/365-9000
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