& more kfooding
january 16, 2005
you know...for a brief moment i thought about turning this place into a food journal. i mean, i talk about food here so often that most people think this *is* a food journal until they stumble across one of my moody entries and realize that they stepped into the twilight zone. but then the more i thought about it, the less restrictive i wanted to be. i like my aiyah site to be able to talk about everything - not just food. it's a place for me to air out my thoughts, feelings, anxieties, good times & bad, hobbies, interests etc. and i didn't want to make it into a place where i couldn't be myself any longer and only talk about edibles - although i'm sure no one would really complain if i only talked about food.
anyway - this is a warning that if you're hungry, you shouldn't read this entry until you've had food in your stomach. don't say i didn't warn you.
if you live in the east los angeles area - the best place to grab korean food (aside from heading to korea town) would be to rowland heights. in los angeles, there are several cities where there are plenty of korean shops, restaurants, markets such as cerritos, garden grove, fullerton, etc. but if you live in the san gabriel valley - rowland heights would be the most convenient to get to. i decided to head east in recent days to source out some food places to satiate my hunger for korean food.
i figured that since there are so many korean cafes in korea town, there MUST be one in rowland heights. on several occasions, i've passed by this one place called wow restaurant & cafe and saw quite a crowd in there (especially at night). so i recently stopped in to grab a meal to see if my hunch was correct. afterall, korean food isn't ALL about korean bbq (yakiniku to you hawaii folks *cough*) and there surely must be something else. to my surprise this placed turned out to be a great find. they serve cafe-like foods not unsimilar to chinese cafes & japanese cafes. they have noodle, curry, cutlet, hamburger steak, teriyaki chicken, appetizers, beer and other drinks.
i didn't know what to expect really so i went in with an open mind and was surprised to see a good selection of food. one of the things that caught my eye was the pork cutlet kim bap - korean style sushi (first photo at top) so i was really intrigued to see how it would taste. when it came out, it blew my mind because it looked SO good. and the taste was just like how you would expect kim bap and lightly battered pork cutlet to taste together. just the right amount of fried crunchiness without the oil. $6.99 approx.
i also ordered the whole roasted chicken which came out cripsy brown on the outside but tender and juicy inside. the chicken was split into two halves and served on a bed of lettuce along with a plate of salt & pepper for you to season your chicken with. $8.99 approx.
i also noticed something called the wow special cutlet which is a pork cutlet with vegetables & mozzerella cheese. not really sure how this would taste or look, i waited until it came out. when it came presented me on the plate, a large piece of pork cutlet was laid out with a scoop of white rice, preserved jalapeno peppers, takuan (preserved daikon radish) and cabbage salad. $8.99 approx.
when i cut open the wow special cutlet, i was surprised to see the vegetables and mozzerella cheese oozing inside in layers nestled on top of the pork chop. everything was breaded on the outside and fried to a golden brown. it was so amazingly juicy, tender and perfect in seasoning. and of course you need to drizzle some of the tonkatsu sauce on top to give it that sweet tangy zing to anything cutlet.
i would definitely recommend going back there. in fact, they open till midnight on the weekends and till 11pm on the weekdays. it's quite small and the decor isn't all that 'wow' but the food overall is very good and i think it would be a great place to chat with friends over a beer or two. or an iced green tea. or an iced cafe latte. they have more things on the menu in korean and so i need to look into that next time. and they also have regular korean dishes such as kimchi chigae, daenjang chigae etc.
wow restaurant & cafe
1722 desire ave
rowland heights, ca 91748
626.810.3001
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i recently found out that san restaurant opened another location in rowland heights. this means, no more traversing to LA for 24 hour korean goodies. yay. the new location is really airy with stark white walls against dark woods of the floor and tables. the bright fluorescent lights helps to keep everyone awake for the 24 hour shift i think. :p
i decided to try out a few more items on their menu that i haven't had before. the galbee ugeoji tang (prime short ribs and cabbage in hearty bean paste soup) sounded really good on a cold night so that's what i got. of course the photo in the menu showed more galbee than the real thing when it came out and the product is the photo above this panchan pic. although it looks spicy, it's not really but then again my spicy meter is set pretty high. the broth was very tasty, full flavored and had lots of napa cabbage, green onions and bean sprouts in it. and of course the occassional piece of short rib or two. i like this better than kimchi chigae actually - which is usually bit too tangy for me.
i also ordered the mulmandu (boiled dumplings filled with meat and vegetables). this isn't too unfamiliar with any asian culture as dumplings are such a common dish. this particular dish didn't impress me very much but was like many other places i've had mandu. the filling was just very atypical of what you would expect with meat and vegetables and it came with a rather boring dipping sauce on the side.
i wanted to try a different congee this time as i usually get the seafood one. i went with the ya chae jook (vegetable porridge/congee) since i heard they put plenty of vegetables in the jook and is rather tasty. they weren't kidding about the vegetable part and it sure was tasty. i'm not sure which one i like more but perhaps next time i'll try the abalone one.
i noticed this place already has quite a bit of patrons and plenty of people came in to order take out. and of course it never hurts to have a 24 hour korean place ready and waiting at all hours of the day & night.
san restaurant
19255 e. colima road
rowland heights, ca 91748
626.839.7044
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soot bull jeep also opened a branch over in the eastside in the city of walnut. that's a little bit farther down from rowland heights but only a few more miles where things get more residential. soot bull jeep korean bbq is known for their charcoal & wood grills instead of the gas ones used at most every other place. they say that this makes the meat much tastier with a natural flavor. i snapped a photo of the charcoal and wood as the waitress loaded it onto my grill for me. and then she slapped on the traditional grill for the meat.
i ordered a set dinner for $29.99 which included the beef brisket and the thick sliced bacon. along with that, you get a choice of a kim chi chigae or the daen jang chigae - i chose the latter. unlike the other places that provide you with the ttuku/duk noodle wrapping - they only give you leaves of the romaine lettuce to wrap your meat in along with a couple dipping sauces. the lady who runs the place seems to be chinese from korea - so she tried to speak to me in chinese when i didn't respond much in korean. when i ordered my dishes in korean, she looked at me and said "chinese or korean??" :p
it was quiet the night i went and i wondered how come that is so when they are supposedly to be quite famous. but after trying out their food and such, i wasn't very impressed with the quality or quantity. it wasn't that it was BAD but it wasn't stellar and it didn't raise the bar. it was a decent meal nonetheless, edible in every way but nothing that i would sit home and dream about eating.
i actually enjoyed their daen jang chigae which was just peppered with jalapeno peppers. it wasn't spicy at first but the more i drank the soup, the hotter i got and the redder my face got. of course it could be due to the beer but i don't think so. :x perhaps i ought to re-visit the one in koreatown again one day and see how it compares to the one on the eastside.
soot bull jeep
20627 golden springs drive #a/b
walnut, ca 91789
909.594.7755
