A birthday celebration for my coworker Kue ended up being a great culinary trip for me - I only know the outer limits of Korean cuisine, and have barely begun to experience the full force of what Korean food has to offer to me. Initially, we were going to go to a more, ah, upscale looking place, but all of us felt like we were underdressed to eat there (It was more like being in a club and being watched while you eat in clubbing clothes). Kue took one look at the place, then went back down the stairs and headed to this place....Toe Bang.
Yes. Toe. Bang. Weird name. Good food. We all ordered a bunch of dishes to share with everyone at the table (like, 10 of us!) Here's how it all started...
Chopped cucumber and carrot wedges in little dishes, with a salty bean paste as dip. They had a few plates of these sitting out on the table as we were sitting down. Next to the cucumber and carrots were the radishes and salt that go with Korean fried chicken, which you will see later on...
The first dish of the night: Spicy rice cake with ramen noodle, cabbage, fish balls and green onion. The spice on this is much more spicy than I'm used to for dishes, so it got my tongue burning already. I made sure to only eat sparingly of this dish, as rice cakes expand in your stomach, and I knew we had a lot of courses to go, however, this dish was very tasty and a good start to the dinner.
Korean fried chicken, we meet again...still seems like Chinese fried chicken to me, but fried chicken, regardless of nationality, is always welcome in my book! This went along with the seasoned salt and radishes in the first picture. I had a small piece of this, and it was pretty solid.
This is one of the weirder dishes I've seen at a restaurant, something I would maybe make at home if I had nothing in the fridge. This is a ramen dish, with spam, hot dogs, spinach, tofu, green onions and enoki mushrooms. I guess this is a "wartime" treat, where there actually wouldn't be any access to regular meats or poultry. It was actually pretty good, as good as any spam/hot dog dish can be. It's just such a novelty to see it being served here!
Korean sausage up next. I was warned by the others that this sausage is an acquired taste, but I thought it would taste more like chinese sausage. It didn't. It was...odd. I don't think I have acquired that taste yet, but at least I tried it. I think it tasted like...dry organ meats with vermicelli noodles running through it as the thing keeping it together. That's what I remember it tasting like, anyways.
Sorry for the blurry picture, but I was in a rush to take this one - a Korean seafood pancake. I was excited to try this, as Korean pancakes are super delicious, but I think this one fell a bit flat. The seafood was ok, but the edges weren't crispy enough, just barely browned really. The pancake texture was just soft and yuck. I still ate it but...eh. Could have been better. Maybe if the pancake diameter hadn't been so big. The dipping sauce was okay, soy sauce and green onion and minced garlic and stuff.
A massive, impressive plate was placed in the middle of the table, containing an order of their skewer combination. From the salad, going clockwise - rice cakes with hot sauce drizzled on it, prawns, mini wieners, beef skewer, goji berries (I think), halved fishcake balls, mushroom and bell pepper, chicken hearts, chicken white meat with teriyaki sweet sauce on it, roasted garlic cloves, intestine of some sort, and scallops. Whew. That's a lot of skewers. Everything I tried (a little of this, a little of that) was pretty tasty. I did NOT try the intestine. Eh. I've had it, I only like the chinese version of it. Otherwise, everything was good.
Kalbi Ribs over onions on a skillet. Can't go wrong with that. A little chewy, which made it a bit harder to eat but decent marinade. Again, can't go wrong.
Here's a remnant of a spicy kimchi pancake that I had forgotten to take a picture of before it became a pale shadow if its' former self - you can see how it broke apart really easily (a shame), and how it is completely embedded with jalepeno slices, making this a minefield for your tongue. I thought I could take it, but I really couldn't - my eyes were watering with pain. This is a REALLY spicy pancake.
The last savory dish of the night - some sort of "Chinese inspired" beef stirfry thing - I'm kind of mystified as to why that they called it that, because I have never had anything like this in all my Chinese food filled life- they took slivers of beef, fried it in tempura, then stirfried it in a sweet savory sauce with mushrooms, zuccini and cabbage. Really random, not my favorite. The batter was just too much for the beef, the ratio of batter to beef was 2 to 1.
Yes. Toe. Bang. Weird name. Good food. We all ordered a bunch of dishes to share with everyone at the table (like, 10 of us!) Here's how it all started...
Chopped cucumber and carrot wedges in little dishes, with a salty bean paste as dip. They had a few plates of these sitting out on the table as we were sitting down. Next to the cucumber and carrots were the radishes and salt that go with Korean fried chicken, which you will see later on...
The first dish of the night: Spicy rice cake with ramen noodle, cabbage, fish balls and green onion. The spice on this is much more spicy than I'm used to for dishes, so it got my tongue burning already. I made sure to only eat sparingly of this dish, as rice cakes expand in your stomach, and I knew we had a lot of courses to go, however, this dish was very tasty and a good start to the dinner.
Korean fried chicken, we meet again...still seems like Chinese fried chicken to me, but fried chicken, regardless of nationality, is always welcome in my book! This went along with the seasoned salt and radishes in the first picture. I had a small piece of this, and it was pretty solid.
This is one of the weirder dishes I've seen at a restaurant, something I would maybe make at home if I had nothing in the fridge. This is a ramen dish, with spam, hot dogs, spinach, tofu, green onions and enoki mushrooms. I guess this is a "wartime" treat, where there actually wouldn't be any access to regular meats or poultry. It was actually pretty good, as good as any spam/hot dog dish can be. It's just such a novelty to see it being served here!
Korean sausage up next. I was warned by the others that this sausage is an acquired taste, but I thought it would taste more like chinese sausage. It didn't. It was...odd. I don't think I have acquired that taste yet, but at least I tried it. I think it tasted like...dry organ meats with vermicelli noodles running through it as the thing keeping it together. That's what I remember it tasting like, anyways.
Sorry for the blurry picture, but I was in a rush to take this one - a Korean seafood pancake. I was excited to try this, as Korean pancakes are super delicious, but I think this one fell a bit flat. The seafood was ok, but the edges weren't crispy enough, just barely browned really. The pancake texture was just soft and yuck. I still ate it but...eh. Could have been better. Maybe if the pancake diameter hadn't been so big. The dipping sauce was okay, soy sauce and green onion and minced garlic and stuff.
A massive, impressive plate was placed in the middle of the table, containing an order of their skewer combination. From the salad, going clockwise - rice cakes with hot sauce drizzled on it, prawns, mini wieners, beef skewer, goji berries (I think), halved fishcake balls, mushroom and bell pepper, chicken hearts, chicken white meat with teriyaki sweet sauce on it, roasted garlic cloves, intestine of some sort, and scallops. Whew. That's a lot of skewers. Everything I tried (a little of this, a little of that) was pretty tasty. I did NOT try the intestine. Eh. I've had it, I only like the chinese version of it. Otherwise, everything was good.
Kalbi Ribs over onions on a skillet. Can't go wrong with that. A little chewy, which made it a bit harder to eat but decent marinade. Again, can't go wrong.
Here's a remnant of a spicy kimchi pancake that I had forgotten to take a picture of before it became a pale shadow if its' former self - you can see how it broke apart really easily (a shame), and how it is completely embedded with jalepeno slices, making this a minefield for your tongue. I thought I could take it, but I really couldn't - my eyes were watering with pain. This is a REALLY spicy pancake.
The last savory dish of the night - some sort of "Chinese inspired" beef stirfry thing - I'm kind of mystified as to why that they called it that, because I have never had anything like this in all my Chinese food filled life- they took slivers of beef, fried it in tempura, then stirfried it in a sweet savory sauce with mushrooms, zuccini and cabbage. Really random, not my favorite. The batter was just too much for the beef, the ratio of batter to beef was 2 to 1.
This was our dessert of the night, fresh lychee and maraschino cherries over ice, which was treated to us by the manager, along with a bottle of soju. The ice kept the fruit really refreshingly cold, and every piece of lychee I had was really good. This is a great way to end quite a marathon of eating (and drinking, but since I'm allergic to the alcohol, I'm resigned to being the designated driver, not that I mind too much). Thanks to everyone who went and picked out the food to eat, and happy birthday again, Kue!
Toe Bang
3465 W Sixth Street
(inside Chapman Plaza)
Los Angeles, CA 90020
Toe Bang
3465 W Sixth Street
(inside Chapman Plaza)
Los Angeles, CA 90020
No comments:
Post a Comment