The Jokbal Was No Joke at Jangchung-Dong Wong Jokbal

 

When it comes to planning where I'm going to take my dining group, Pleasure Palate, my bookmarks are chock full of links to dining possibilities.  Once or twice a week, I take a look and ask myself, "Which restaurant  is worth a visit in the next few weeks?"  When I make my decision, the meal pops up on the dining calendar.  After re-reading an LA Times article about a Koreantown restaurant called Jangchung-Dong Wong Jokbal, I knew this is where I wanted to go.

So what exactly is Jokbal? Basically, it's a braised pork foot and shank and apparently, one restaurant serves the best version.  Jangchung-Dong Wong Jokbal is a satellite of a renowned braised pork foot specialty restaurant in Seoul.  Several years ago, the owner of the Seoul restaurant came to Los Angeles, bringing with her a sample of the braising liquid she uses. She proceeded to train her nephew-in-law on how to make jokbal properly. With that knowledge, Jangchung-Dong Wong Jokbal came to be.

Now that you have a little background, let's talk about the food.  As is standard in many Korean restaurants, the meal starts with an array of panchan. The panchan was just okay, nothing to write home about.  Along with the panchan also came dipping sauces, lettuce, jalapeno and raw garlic for the jokbal itself.

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After noshing on the panchan for awhile, the jokbal arrived in all its glory.  Its presentation almost reminded me of flower petals because of the way the meat was sliced and fanned out.

The jokbal could be dipped in the sauces and eaten on their own.  Another alternative is for the jokbal to be wrapped in lettuce along with the raw garlic, a jalapeno with a dollop of the sauce.  I did it both ways and both ways were delicious.  The pork was tender and I loved how the ribbons of fat around the pork slices had a soft, gelatinous texture. There was a definite soy sauce flavor that I tasted as well as a bit of sweetness that may have come from some type of sugar. Other than that, I don't know what other braising ingredients were used, but it simply didn't matter because this jokbal was amazing.

Not so amazing and unfortunately, not very good were the other dishes we ordered along with the Jokbal, which included Pan Fried Squid and Pan Fried Spicy Pork Hock.  The squid was way too chewy and the pork fried pork hock was overcooked.  Also, not only did both dishes look alike, the sauces they were cooked in tasted the same.  Unfortunately, the Pan Fried Spicy Pork Hock wasn't spicy at all, which made it even more difficult to differentiate it from the Pan Fried Squid.

Another disappointment was their Seafood Pancake. It looked promising when it came out, thick and hearty. I liked that the pancake's surface was nicely browned, but I think the seafood must have been invisible, because there was little to none to be seen or eaten.  There was a little bit of shrimp, but not enough to really merit calling this dish a Seafood Pancake.

The only dish other than the jokbal that tasted really good was their Buckwheat Yam Noodles with vegetables and topped with a chili sauce.  The noodles had a nice chewy texture and the chili sauce brought the heat that the Pan Fried Spicy Pork Hock was missing.

Suffice to say, the jokbal is truly the star of this restaurant. While you certainly can order other things from the menu, if all you had was the jokbal, that would be enough to make this meal one of the best you've ever had.

Jangchung-Dong Wong Jokbal

425 S. Western Avenue

Suite E

Los Angeles, CA 90020

(213) 386-3535

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Korean BBQ Duck at Sun Ha Jang

 

When it comes to Korean BBQ, the usual suspects include beef, pork and occasionally seafood, but after I read about Sun Ha Jang's duck offerings on the Food GPS blog, I knew I had to pay this restaurant a visit. For those of you who wish to dine at Sun Ha Jang after reading my post, keep in my mind that the restaurant signage is strictly in Korean, which you can see at the picture above.

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After we sat down and placed our order, individual dipping sauces and chili paste were placed before us. We also took a look at the pan where our duck was going to be cooking in during the latter part of the meal. Notice how the pan isn't flat. There's a reason for that. Simply, what makes this restaurant unique is not just about the duck, but that the duck cooks in its own fat. I bet you duck lovers out there really want to book it to Sun Ha Jang about now.

However, I'm getting ahead of myself. The duck is the main headliner, but first, we ate our way through the opening acts, starting with the Black Pork Belly which were grilled with garlic. The duck pan which I mentioned earlier was temporarily on hiatus.

While the Black Pork Belly was cooking up, a variety of panchan hit our table.

As the Black Pork dwindled down, it was eventually joined by the Short Rib and a couple of other dishes.

So that the meal wasn't going to be a complete meat fest, an order was placed for the Fish Egg Stew. It came before us bubbling and brewing. I really enjoyed the spice level which was just spicy enough without being overwhelming and yet, it was able to cut into the ocean-y and briny flavors coming from the fish eggs.

 

The yin to the yang of the Fish Egg Stew was the Spicy Cold Noodle dish. I liked the slight chew and pull of the buckwheat noodles and how the cucumbers added a nice juicy bite of freshness to this dish.  The Cold Noodles were a refreshing counterpoint to the hot fish egg stew.

Finally, it was duck time, which means that the duck pan made its way back to our table. At Sun Ha Jang, there are 3 different types of duck on the menu: roasted duck, fresh duck and spicy seasoned duck. We went for the roasted duck and spicy seasoned duck, but I will also show you a picture of the fresh duck that was cooking at a neighboring table.

The Roasted Duck was interesting in the sense that they were formed into flat, cylindrical shapes. Our server had mentioned that there was a special process for the formation of the roasted duck pieces, but I can't remember what it was. When it came to the cooking, our server frowned on us doing it on our own, so first she started with browning it with garlic in that special pan.

Then she tilted the pan so that the duck oil would collect on one side of the pan and then the duck and garlic were moved to where the oil was cooking; hence, a duck confit-style of preparation. The little drainage hole in the pan was also blocked with kimchi to limit the loss of the duck oil.

Other than just eating the duck pieces on their own, another way is to enjoy your duck on some lettuce with the addition of pickled onions, chili paste or whatever else suits your fancy.

The Fresh Duck was basically just duck cut up into pieces, but was cooked in the same way as the Roasted Duck as you can see below.

After we had devoured the Roast Duck, it was time to take a taste of the Spicy Seasoned Duck. That spicy seasoned duck definitely had some chili lovin' because the meat was a scorching red.

It barely sat a second before it was placed into the pan where there was still left over oil from the previous duck dish we just had.

This is one dish that takes a lot of patience because the tendency was to move the duck around, but again, we were scolded by our server.  Apparently, it's difficult to determine the doneness of the duck due to the chili coating. Only the servers really have the experience, so it was hands-off.

Finally, the duck was ready to eat. Looking at it, I felt my arteries hardening and yet, that wasn't going to stop me.  By the way, our server knew what she was doing. The duck was cooked just right and I really liked the spiciness coming from the chili it was marinated in.

We ended the meal with fried rice that came with kimchi, scallions, radish and sesame seeds and yes, the fried rice was cooked in the duck oil.

However, with all that duck oil, I was worried that the fried rice was going to be too greasy. To help with that, I asked for another helping of rice to be added and they were kind enough to accommodate my request.  With the extra rice and the fact they drained the rest of the oil out of the pan, that fried rice was pretty darn tasty.

To end, I enjoyed my meal at Sun Ha Jang. I was concerned that the duck would be too oily or greasy, but that wasn't the case. The caramelization of the Roasted Duck added a subtle sweetness and the combination of duck oil and chili marinade added a slight smoky crust to the surface of Spicy Seasoned Duck as it was cooking, which made it even better.  So if duck is your thing, be sure to give Sun Ha Jang a try, but also know that some of their non-duck dishes are pretty good, too.

Sun Ha Jang
4032 W Olympic Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90019
(323) 634-9292
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Korean Clay Roasted Duck at Dha Rae Oak

When I read about a Korean Clay Roasted Duck dish on the The Glutster blog written by blogger, Javier Cabral, I knew I had to check it out. Along for the ride came some of the members of my dining group. One thing to note about this restaurant is their front entrance below is generally locked. To enter Dha Rae Oak, park and/or enter through the back parking lot where you'll see the sign that is the first picture on this post.

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When it comes to ordering the duck, you need to call the restaurant a minimum of 4 hours before your arrival.  That's about how long it will take for its preparation.  Also, one whole duck feeds 3 to 4 people. As for the preparation of the duck itself, it's first "stuffed with things like chewy Ogokbap (Five-Grain/beans/ “purple” Rice), whole meaty walnuts, chopped chestnuts, nutty pumpkin seeds, cooked sweet potatoes, Chinese herbs, dried fruit and probably crack", as quoted by Javier.

Then the duck is wrapped in a cheesecloth and roasted for 4 hours inside a vertical clay pot inside a 450 degree specialized Korean ceramic oven that the owner of Dha Rae Oak imported to the US. To see the clay pot and oven, please visit Javier's blog post here.

Now on to our meal that started with a crunchy fresh salad and an array of panchan. The salad was nice and I liked the dressing; however, the panchan wasn't anything out of the ordinary.

Everyone was also given a little plate with a sauce and salt/pepper mixture for duck dipping and with the arrival of the duck came a soup.  I honestly can't tell you what's in the soup.  It definitely had some greens, but a couple of spoonfuls was enough to tell me that it wasn't for me.

Soon the duck arrived and it came already unwrapped from its cheese cloth. When the duck hit the table, it didn't even seem like it had any skin intact. Apparently, in the cooking process a lot of the duck fat renders to the bottom of the pot.

When I turned the plate for a side view, you can actually take a first glimpse of that sticky purple rice that is one of the ingredients the duck is stuffed with.

Finally, our server splits open the duck and you could see all the glory inside. Amazing!

Then we all started eating into it.  The duck was tender and I enjoyed its lean flavors. Part of the appeal of duck meat is its fattiness, but I didn't really miss it in this particular duck preparation. I think it had to do with the filling that included quite a lot of nuts and seeds like the walnuts, pumpkin seeds and chestnuts. They added some fat back. The addition of the sweet potatoes and dried fruit brought in some sweetness, but the Chinese herbs rounded all the flavors.

Overall, it was a pretty tasty dish and not much went to waste. However, even though I liked this dish, I did miss having crispy duck skin.  Other than that, if you're a duck lover, the Korean Clay Roasted Duck at Dha Rae Oak is definitely a new experience worth trying.

Dha Rae Oak
1106 Western Ave.
Los Angeles CA. 90006
(323) 733-2474

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Tableside Korean Black Goat at Chin Go Gae

Awhile back, I came upon a blog post from Food GPS about Chin Go Gae, a restaurant that is known for its black goat. With my love for Korean restaurants that prepare and/or serve their food tableside like the spicy chicken at Ma Po Dak Gal Bi or the spicy crab soup at Ondal 2, I knew I was going to make my way there some day, I just didn't realize it was going to take a couple of years. It wasn't until I recently came upon another post about this restaurant by the Right Way to Eat that I decided that it was finally time to check Chin Go Gae out.

One thing that had me really grateful to both blog posts was seeing their photos of the restaurant sign.  The sign itself was in Korean characters with the words "Korean Restaurant" in English.  Even though the street number was next to the door, I may not have noticed it and have gotten myself in a tizzy looking for a "Chin Go Gae" restaurant sign. Thankfully, I knew what I was looking for.

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Even before the rest of my party arrived, the panchan already hit our table. I didn't find anything really special about any of them, but regardless, I'm always a big fan of kimchi and seaweed.

For the table, I ordered both the Yeum So Moo Chim and Yeum So Tang, which are two different preparations of the Korean black goat, which is a goat that is indigenous to Korea.  Before either dish arrived, our server poured a toasted sesame seed mixture into each of our bowls of chili paste, which by the way, wasn't very spicy.

When the Yeum So Moo Chim arrived, we were instructed to use this sesame seed and chili paste mix as a dipping sauce for this dish.   The Yeum So Moo Chim is basically the Korean Black Goat stir-fried with Korean sesame leaves (kkaennip), a dash of chili, garlic, red pepper and sesame seeds.

When it came to the goat, it had a slight gamey taste to it, but I enjoyed it plus it was quite tender to boot.  What threw me off was that I kept on tasting anise and I don't like anise or licorice. Everyone at our table was trying to figure out where that anise flavoring was coming from and finally, someone exclaimed, "It's that hairy leaf."  After a giggle, it turned out that those hairy leaves were the sesame leaves in the dish. Suffice to say, once I started picking off those "hairy leaves", I enjoyed the dish a bit more.

After finishing off the Yeum Soo Moo Chim, the Yeum So Tang arrived.  The Yeum So Tang is basically the Yeum Soo Moo Chim in a soup form, which meant that the dreaded sesame leaves were again making an appearance.  Somehow the broth diluted the anise flavoring of those sesame leaves and yet, it still retained some of the rich flavoring of the goat.  However, I would have liked a spicier broth and unfortunately, they didn't have any spicy chili paste so that I could doctor the soup more.  Having said that, I still like this dish better than the stir-fried black goat dish we had earlier.

To end our meal, we were served Fried Rice with greens that also utilized the left over goat infused broth from the Yeum So Tang.  Unfortunately, they prepared it in the kitchen when I would have loved to see them prepare it tableside, but I'm sure they had their reasons.  As for the rice, I liked it, but like the Yeum So Tang, I would have liked more of a spicy kick to it.

In the end, Chin Go Gae is not a return destination for me.  The food was well prepared and our server was both helpful and attentive, but those sesame leaves just aren't for me and in general, I like my Korean food with much more heat than what I experienced at Chin Go Gae.

Chin Go Gae
3063 W 8th St
Los Angeles, CA 90005
(213) 480-8071


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