Eat Drink Style Honey Pig, Koreatown - Porny the Pig

Sometimes, words are simply unnecessary. And sometimes, I wish these images were scratch n' sniff. Google and Apple, I'm waiting. There are three things that define Honey Pig: fire, shield-size grill and pig. Lots of pig. Go. Enjoy.

Honey Pig
3400 W. 8th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90005
(213) 380-0256

Eat Drink Style Shik Do Rak - Koreatown, LA - Home of the Rice Noodle Wrap

It's been almost nearly a year and a half that J & I have been in correspondence with a wonderful, funny and clever female blogger many of you know as Daily Gluttony. It was DG that influenced my decision to devote many nights of writing and waistline negligence to the popular trend of food blogging. For a while, I was interested in writing about food. I was never into politics, world events, sports etc., but food... I could do. How hard it could be to snap a few photos and describe what the hell you're ingesting. Let me tell you, I've been doing this since August of 2005 and it is hard work. It can take nearly 2 hours to produce a food posting. After you've uploaded your photos of the food, you have to edit them in Photoshop so that they look shiny and happy. Then you upload them into your food blog and engage in the sometimes aimless process of writing about food. Many times you'll hit a writer's block. And that's just the food you eat at a restaurant. Homecooking posts take MUCH longer. After prepping, cooking and plating... you have to set up your faux studio. Mine consists of a hideous 3-bulb lamp and a crappy Ikea table. My old roommate used to catch me shooting with the stupid lamp and laugh. I don't blame her - it is lame. Only fortunate people like Joycelyn of Kuiadore, Aun of Chubby Hubby and Heidi of 101 Cookbooks have the luxury of using fine equipment to produce their gorgeous photos. Check out their sites if you haven't already - it's serious eye candy. I'm not rich so I have to play with what I'm dealt. For the most part, I am quite slow on posting. This posting right here is already two months old and laden with cobwebs.

Anyway, since I first started, we've developed a friendship with Daily Gluttony and have hung out a few times. For our next meet up, DG and her husband were craving some korean bbq - particularly at Shik Do Rak, which is one of the firsts in Koreatown to serve their grilled delicacies with a thin, oily rice noodle sheet known as 'ddok bo ssam'. It is very similar to the steamed rice noodles (cheung fun) at dim sum restaurants and Chiu Chow (Trieu Chau) soup noodles, also known as 'huh fun' or 'guo tiao'.

J & I met up with DG & her husband on a friday night at Shik Do Rak, located on the corner of Hoover/Olympic. This place is tricky with parking as it's very easy to miss. I usually don't bother with the parking lot for 8 and resort to street parking. Plus after a meal here, you'd want to walk some of it off.

A good thing about eating with another food blogger is that they are typically open minded and are willing to order for people. It bugs me when someone says "I don't know" or "I don't care" when it comes to ordering food. Boring. And when you do suggest something like, tripe, they cringe and reject the thought. Very helpful people.

SDR is part indoors and part patio like many korean bbq restaurants, with exception to Soot Bull Jeep, which is a modified chimney with doors and windows. They should really consider upgrading their ventilation system because someone is bound to die in there. Even the employees there look a little sick. Given the option to choose seating, I'm gonna go with the outdoors. Air is good.

SDR is known as the home of the rice noodle wrap in LA according to many I've talked to. Now it's not hard to find this at restaurants like Manna, Tahoe Galbi and Gui Rim 2 - it's become a staple and part of the korean 'works'.


Shik Do Rak's Rice Noodle Sheet (Ddok Bo Ssam)
They resemble translucent napkins stacked on top of each other. Perfectly oiled and thin, there is definitely a difference between theirs and the forementioned korean restaurants. As of now, I'd have to say they are made the best. Any recs for places with good 'ddok bo ssam'?


Spicy Bean Paste and Salt/Pepper/Sesame Oil
Can someone please tell me the name of the oil dip? The waitresses never understand when I ask for the name. Anyway, I love SDR's bean paste b/c the flavor kick doesn't come from the jalapenos and bean paste (daen jang)... it's the Sriracha garlic chili sauce! Such a great combo. Those that have eaten here will know what I'm talking about.


Korean Salad
So far SDR, is 2 for 2 with their condiments... unfortunately this doesn't help at all. No dressing at all! Not the slightest taste of sesame oil or soy sauce/vinegar.


Grill Pan
This is what indoor korean bbq places will use instead of the standard charcoal grills. I guess it's a good way to save the juices from the meat. For those that don't care about their cholesterol, here's the third type of sauce you can use. Just dip your meat into the gutter of the pan and enjoy. This type of grill pan really supports the theory that Mongolians grilled their meat on shields over campfires. Very cool and so barbaric.


Mmm... the Beef Belt
The concept of 'fruit leathers', Trader Joe's answer to everyone's childhood favorite - Sunkist Fruit Rollups, is weird to me. But this is cool sh*t.... the meat is perfectly cut and then folded to look like a belt. Now that's manly. This thing could do some damage in a restaurant brawl. This was the easiest thing to grill. We simply cut it in half and laid out on the grill for a nice tan. The waitress quickly came by and cut it up into this...

Shik Do Rak Beef
This meat isn't marinated but still tastes pretty decent. I've noticed that many korean restaurants will offer meat with and without marinade, and I prefer the non-marinated b/c I want to taste the meat. The sauces provided here really make this a tasty component along with the oily and thin 'ddok bo ssam'.


Thin Sliced Beef (Cha Dol Peggi) & Beef Tongue
These two are my favorite types of meat because one they cook really quickly and two, are quite light. I think SDR cuts their tongue at the perfect width - too thick and you'll think you're chewing on taffy.


Pictured below is the jovial owner of SDR. He is quite the ladies man and will make sure he gets a drink of soju or beer with you at your table. He came by a few times to check upon us and really made us feel welcome. I think he was just interested in talking to J and DG though haha. Talk to him, he's a nice man.


Where Are Your Hands Mr. Shik Do Rak?! jk

Overall, SDR is a good restaurant but there are many better places in Koreatown. With exception to the rice noodle sheets, spicy daen jang bean paste and friendly owner, the meat quality here is above average. I don't remember the ban chan (side dishes) being that impressive as well. Also, this place is not all-you-can-eat for those looking for the $14.99 deals. But definitely give it a shot – Koreatown is fun to hang out in. Thanks for reading.

Next up: Park's BBQ, Sul Ra Bul and Sa Rit Gol.

Shik Do Rak
2501 W. Olympic Boulevard (c/o Hoover)
Los Angeles, CA 90006
(213) 384-4148

Eat Drink Style Soot Bull Jeep, Koreatown - Dinner In A Chimney

Driving through Koreatown, my eyes are constantly wandering around, looking around at potential places to eat. Most are in Korean, some are in Spanish. But there's one place that will blind you with it's large sans serif typeface - as bold as the Hollywood sign. Say hello to 'Soot Bull Jeep'. For some reason, I'm always interested in this simple yet eye-catching sign. Maybe it's the fact that the korean translation actually exists in the english language. And it's just fun to say. Oh the joy. (I'm easily amused.)

A few weeks later, our good friend Colleen Cuisine and her husband told us about Soot Bull Jeep. I stopped going to Manna Korean BBQ on Olympic/Western because the meat quality is lacking, plus that stupid techno birthday song makes you want to rip your veins out. My place for Korean BBQ is either Shik Do Rak (where square rice noodles, called dok bo sam, were first appearing in Koreatown) and Tahoe Galbi. Tahoe Galbi is pretty good for the $14.99 AYCE bracket. It's pretty nice inside. I've noticed that if you sit in the patio, you can get the charcoal-style bbq grills which I love. Indoors, you're stuck with the conventional gas grills. From that point on, I only like grilling over charcoal. But the problem with the AYCE places is that they rarely marinate their meat because they are too busy sending out brigades of meat. If they do marinate, the meat would have a very light taste. You really get what you pay for at these places.

For a change, J and I decided to not gluttonize ourselves at a korean AYCE restaurant, and headed over to Soot Bull Jeep. SBJ is located on 8th and Catalina, clothed in bricks and slightly tinted windows. The restaurant looks big on the outside because it's occupying two spaces, but isn't that deep. If you remove the windows and sign, you can see that the bricks and consistent billow of smoke make SBJ look like a chimney. As a pre-dinner ritual, I rubbed my hands together in delight and opened the door for J. And WHOOOMP!

We were hit by the Korean BBQ Train. *Cough Cough* Damn, that was some garlicky, tasty meat in the air. And jesus, this place was freaking smoky. You would think there is a fire burning ablaze in here. I think I just got a preview of my lungs! The place was so smoky, that even the people looked gray.

The Interior of a Chimney/Tailpipe/Berkeley Student's Dorm/My Lungs
Notice the haze by the lights. Notice all the people coughing. Yes, good eats. *Cough Cough*

Within minutes, we were seated and the waitress slapped some menus down for us. Few minutes later, she was back with all of the korean fixings, banchan. I love banchan - I can just eat this straight as a meal. SBJ's banchan is very mediocre though, but I think it's made this way so that the main dish, beef, isn't overpowered.

SBJ has a nice selection of meats and seafood to choose from. Since this was our first time, we had to give SBJ the simple kalbi benchmark test. If they can make a nice kalbi, it's likely that the rest of their food is edible. In the case of a pho restaurant, if the pho doesn't taste good, it says a lot about the rest of things on their menu. We chose the marinated kalbi and beef tongue. My trip to Japan and frequent dining at Musha made beef tongue a hot commodity. Almost every table had the grilled squid and some sort of stew in a metal pot (chi-gae/tang). I'll try that next time. *Cough Cough*

Beef Getting A Tan
The kalbi steak was marinated beautifully and tasted delicious. I like to grill my meat on the rare side because I like tasting the beef more than the marinade. Over-marinating of meat is a common technique in restaurants used to cover up lower grade meat which makes it edible, therefore keeping food costs low. After we finished the meat, we grilled the kalbi bone for a few minutes, and the waitress came over with a pair of scissors to cut the tendon off the bone. It was chewy, but very good. As for the tongue, they were sliced a little too thick but that didn't stop me from finishing the whole plate myself. Because beef tongue is a chewier piece of meat, it's critical that you get carpaccio-thin slices to ensure that you don't dislocate your jaw from chewing. *Cough Cough*

A Beautiful Shot of Beef Beach
When eating with others, it's better to use tongs to flip the meat - not your own chopsticks. *Cough Cough*

Garlic Goodness
SBJ has no regard for the way you're going to smell after eating there, only that you're having an optimal bbq experience. So they offer garlic in a foil cup with sesame oil. It goes well very well with the beef. SBJ also does not serve the square rice noodles like Tahoe, Manna and Shik Do Rak, but instead give you romaine lettuce. I actually prefer this over the rice noodles which you fill you up faster. A tip in eating korean bbq with lettuce wraps. Dip your grilled meat in the soy/vinegar sauce, salt/pepper oil, bean paste (den jang), add some of the spiced, scallion salad and wrap all of that in your romaine lettuce for a korean-style taco. For spice, add a piece of kimchi. So good.

The minimum at SBJ is a plate per person. The meat dishes range from $15.99 to $21.99 and the portions are smaller. So you'll have to eat your beef with the romaine and devour up the soup and banchan to get your money's worth. SBJ is definitely one of our favorites. For their kalbi, it's worth the smokiness and lingering odor in your hair and clothing. We came back here a 2nd time within a month because we loved the charcoal smokiness to the meat. It's a total dark, hole-in-the-wall and that's another plus for us. Places like Chosun Galbee, although nice, rely more on atmosphere to satisfy the customers. And with korean bbq, I'd like it as rustic and authentic as possible. The employees of SBJ are really working hard for their money putting up with all that smoke. I seriously think they should a) get new vents or at least turn them on b) wear paint masks with SBJ written on it. At SBJ, the service is good. If you can tolerate a smoky place and do not plan on going to a party afterwards, check them out. I guarantee you will reek the next day if you don't take a quick shower. *Cough Cough*


Soot Bull Jeep At Primetime
Here's a photo the waitress took of J and I after we finished our meal. Thanks to the constant flow of smoke emanating from other grills - my usual task of censoring faces was taken care of. Don't we look happy? *Cough Cough*

For anyone that knows about any other korean bbq places that use charcoal, we'd love to check them out. I know SBJ isn't the only one out there that uses charcoal. *Cough Cough* Thanks for reading.

Soot Bull Jeep
3136 W 8th St
Los Angeles, CA 90005-1903
(213) 387-3865

Smoke/Carcinogenic Health Clinic
4621 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90045-1987
(213) 387-9964