The Unvegan » Koreatown

Beer Belly for My Fearless Belly

The Unvegan — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:00:47 +0000

There are peas in my cheese!

Two of the things I love most in this world are beer and my belly. No, I don’t have a beer belly…much, but when a gastropub in Koreatown called Beer Belly opened up, I figured I had to try it out. I was meeting a group of people, and arrived to find the place packed. And this was not a big place. Like about 8 tables and a few bar stools big, and all of them were loaded. Plus, it was first come, first served, so we got to hang around the tables like vultures surrounded a wounded gazelle. It was the tail end of happy hour, though, so I ordered a beer and hoped a table would clear out soon. Fast forward thirty minutes and we’re still waiting when a woman working the place asks if we’re waiting for a table. Uh, no, lady, we’re just standing here awkwardly for the hell of it. She then proceeded to ask us if we wanted to be on the list. This “list” was new to us, and apparently also new to her, as she told us she had just started it. Well, at least we wouldn’t have to stand awkwardly any longer.

About 20 minutes later, we were finally seated and got right down to ordering food. The menu looked nothing short of spectacular, so we decided to order a bunch of things to ensure everyone could get a good taste for the place. By the time we were done, we felt like we had ordered the entire menu, then we waited for our food. But the waiting game wasn’t hard, for a few reasons. The first reason was that Beer Belly had set up a sweet jukebox for the 21st century. By that I mean you could download the Remote app for your iPhone, log into their wireless network and choose songs from their list to play over their speakers. It was genius in that customers set the tone of the restaurant, but the tone can’t be too terrible because Beer Belly chooses the songs to make available in the first place. Of course, this assumes Beer Belly chooses good songs in the first place, and they did.

The waiting game also wasn’t hard because just a few minutes after ordering, our first order came through – Buttermilk Fried Chicken. These were certainly a delight and came with a roasted fennel aioli for dipping. The combination was great, and the seasonings on the chicken were spot-on. The only minor gripe I had was that some of the chicken had been left frying a bit too long and were a bit burnt. Fortunately, though, the chicken remained moist and the seasonings outweighed the taste of burning.

Duck and cover me with these fries.

Next up were the Duck Fat Fries, which we upgraded to DeathbyDuck (Duck Confit) for an additional 2 bucks. These were an amazing choice and quite possibly some of the best fries I’ve ever had. I mean it. While they were doused in duck fat, they tasted light and were perfectly crispy on the outside. They came with a raspberry mustard sauce, which managed to meld perfectly with the fries. The confit was a nice addition, but a bit to minute to merit the $2 upgrade, especially because the fries alone were so unveganly awesome. Had I stopped at the fries, I would have left perfectly happy, but more goodness was yet to come.

Grilled Cheese? More like Grilled Heaven.

And by more goodness I mean the Beer Belly Grilled Cheese. Those of the lactose intolerance beware…this double-decker stack of grilled cheeses was loaded with cheddar, asiago, gruyere, goat cheese, applewood bacon and then lightly drizzled with maple syrup. I don’t know how they did it, but I’m pretty sure Beer Belly perfected the grilled cheese sandwich. Of course, white bread with Kraft singles will always have a place in my heart, but this grilled cheese will always have a place in my belly. It sounds like too much cheese, which I have actually experienced before, but Beer Belly managed to apply the most perfect balance of ingredients that a grilled cheese has ever seen. And just when you think it might be getting too salty, a smack of maple syrup brings you back up for air – and another bite!

Chip off the old pig.

The final major dish I experienced was the Pork Belly Chips. What were they? Exactly what they sound like: thin strips of pork belly that have been breaded and fried to a near-crisp. They were served with a forgettable dipping sauce, but fortunately someone had ordered the Grilled Broccoli, which was served with homemade Mondo Cream Ale cheese whiz. It was the first time in my life I’d ever been thankful for broccoli, because the pork belly chips tasted like little slices of pig heaven when dipped in that cheese whiz.

I also tried a bite of the Pub House Mac n’ Cheese, which was a pretty big disappointment. While the cheese and mac themselves were good, they paled in comparison to the grilled cheese. And even worse, the mac was loaded with carrots, onions and peas. These have no place in a mac and cheese, and certainly no place in my mouth. It tried to redeem itself with a slice of short rib on top, but failed.

So Beer Belly was awesome. Yes, despite the wait and despite a couple of under-performing dishes, Beer Belly truly shined. But do I need to go back? Yes, I really do. If I’m in the area again, I will certainly return to Beer Belly, but I could also see myself making the trek on a random evening that calls for amazing fries and grilled cheese. Those alone are worth it, and the other dishes aren’t too shabby either.

Mmmmm is for M Grill

djacobs — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 16:00:28 +0000

M, please!

Thanks to @DanJacobs81 for the guest blog. Follow him today!

Meat is a religion, and M Grill in Koreatown is the reason I’m anti-Semitic against vegetarians.

A friend of mine had an e-mailed discount from Yelp.com, and with this firmly entrenched in his soon-to-smell-like-meat hands, I went with him and another friend to the aforementioned all-you-can-eat Brazilian churrascaria. Authentic Brazilian food in K-Town? This I had to see taste.

Meat me at M Grill at protein o'clock.

For those who’ve never been to meat heaven, a churrascaria is a Brazilian-style meat buffet where waiters bring out long skewers of meat to shave off and slap on your plate. Over the course of the night, about 15 different cuts of cow, pig and chicken, all cooked and deliciously seasoned, will be brought to your table. That’s right, a buffet that comes to you. God bless Amer…err…Brazil.

M Grill was quietly tucked away on the second floor of a tiny strip mall in Koreatown on Wilshire Blvd. and St. Andrews, behind a giant chocolate brown door with the letter M on it. We were seated immediately, thanks to our 7 p.m. reservation, and the U-shaped eating area was barely a quarter full. This would change very quickly throughout the night. Apparently we weren’t the only ones who knew about this hidden beacon of Brazilian meat in a sea of Hangul.

This meat is M worthy.

The waiter came over, and we gave him 3 fingers, the universal signal for “we don’t care about the specials, just keep the hot meat flowin’!” He must have liked our swagger, because the first cut came out a few minutes later.

In life, when intense events happen, it’s common to only remember what happened, not the order of events. When eating traumatic amounts of beautiful meat, I can’t tell you what we got first, second or even last. I can only tell you that each slice we got was a fork-full of deliciousness.

Picanha? But I hardly knowha.

Their house special is picanha, which is the cap piece of top sirloin. Please allow me to say “OMFG,” as it was so hearty and succulent that I’ve been reduced to the vernacular of a Gossip Girl. These tender slices required some intense tong use as the waiters sliced away thin slices of awesomeness.

The bone-in beef ribs, which are called costelao, were so moist and juicy that they practically fell off the bone…everything a well-made rib should do. These take 6 hours to roast, and I’ll happily spend a quarter of my day in a waiting room reading Highlights Magazine if it means I can have them again.

Filet Mignon and Garlic Beef are a match made in meat heaven.

Filet mignon, perhaps the highest quality cut on the cow, left little to be desired. It was so soft that these chunks of cow just melted in our mouths. We needed at least two more rounds of this because the filet was just so scrumptious.

The waiter must have really liked our swagger, because midway through our meat-fest he simply came over and asked us if we liked lamb chops. And lamb chops aren’t even on their regular buffet menu. These had the right amount of smoky char cooked into them, and because they were a little rough, they pleasantly reminded me that our dear Lord gave us our canine teeth for a reason.

Yes, I'd like a chop of lamb.

The chicken thigh was probably the weak link in terms of quality. Thighs tend to be the fattiest piece of the chicken, and while the skin was good, I have never really been a fan of this piece, Brazilian or otherwise. We turned down our waiter when he brought thighs out again.

What we didn’t turn down, however, was the garlic beef, which were circular cutlets that were marinated in the one ingredient you can never have enough of. I believe my compadres had two more rounds of this throughout the night.

It's not a meatfest without sausage.

M Grill also serves Brazilian sausage and smoked Polish sausage. Both were excellent, however, I would only recommend ordering them if you really like sausage – I didn’t taste any seasonings that would have made the Brazilian sausage truly unique, and to be honest, it was a little soft. The Polish, though, was perfectly cooked and way juicy.

The best seasoning for chicken? Bacon!

One surprise that I would highly recommend to the pork-guzzling unvegans was marinated chicken wrapped in bacon. Each piece was about the size of a racquetball, and if you like pork, and you like chicken, but have always complained about the lack of chicken that tastes like bacon, M Grill might be your new hangout.

Pineapple is a great alternative to meat.

Another surprise was grilled pineapple covered in cinnamon and sugar. Much like the other carnivorous options presented by our waiter, the pineapple is sliced off and put on your plate. One detail I noticed was that the juices stayed inside the pineapple slice, so when the slices were cut off, and even when it was put on the plate, juices didn’t drip everywhere. The result was uh-MAZING juicy pineapple . It was so sweet, it almost could have passed for dessert, and the cinnamon/sugar/citrus combination was a welcomed palate cleanser based on what we’d devoured thus far.

While engorging in meat, there is a fine line between “too much meat” and “waaaay too much meat.” Thanks to the great service and attentiveness of the wait staff, we fell in the latter category. At Fogo de Chao (the gold standard of Los Angeles churrascarias), the staff was equally attentive, but due to how busy and large that place is, they always seemed in a rush to answer questions we had about the food. M Grill was probably about a quarter of the size, so with a more intimate setting, the waiters were primed to talk meat.

Cheese and yucca: meat's sloppy seconds.

Because one cannot live on meat alone – though this unvegan has certainly tried – we paid some credence to the salad bar, if only a little. The most foolish diner at the table got an actual salad with lettuce, carrots, crumbled blue cheese and grown up adult vegetables like beets. The rest of us got local Brazilian cuisine for our sides. Mashed yucca was like the illegitimate love child of mashed potatoes and grits – creamy in texture but with ground -up chunks of yucca. The fried plantains were about the size of a pinky finger – Kirstie Alley’s pinky, not yours or mine – and sweet enough to be a dessert, especially if you added some ice cream. Perhaps a new dessert would be fried plantains a la mode?

Oh yeah they also had cheesy blaster rolls.

Ultimately, M Grill is a great value based on the price. At $39.99, the buffet includes an awkward amount of succulent meat, and the salad bar. By comparison, Fogo de Chao is $65 for the same deal. Full disclosure – my one experience at Fogo was during Dine L.A., so I paid $45 for the buffet, salad bar and dessert. M Grill was paid for partially on a Yelp discount, so with tip, the meal cost $32. But sticking to the true value, based on retail pricing, while Fogo has a wider variety of buffet meats, a bigger salad bar and a trendier ambience, the extra 25 bucks just isn’t worth it. Next time I’m choosing between the two, M Grill in K-Town, is my choice for a protein overdose.

Going Greek at Papa Cristo’s

The Unvegan — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:57:49 +0000

Octobabies!

I had wanted to go to Papa Cristo’s for a long time, but I just didn’t realize it. You see, the outside of the restaurant/market really makes no major reference to the name of the place. Instead, it just says “Greek Food.” When my friend suggested trying it, I complied without realizing it was the place I had driven by so many times.

Inside, the place has a miniature Greek market, a counter to order food at and a big room that can double as a dining room or banquet room. My first stop was the counter to place my order. We ordered some of the Octapodakia appetizer, which is grilled baby octopus. I also ordered the Kreatopita, deliciously described on the menu as a meat pie. For my main course, I decided to get back to the Greek basics and ordered the Gyros sandwich. This came with lettuce and tomatoes, so I ordered it without.

The Kreatopita...not to be confused with grilled cheese.

The meat pie and octopus were ready pretty quickly, and both were delicious. The octopus had a strong lemon and oil taste. This was good, but the oil eventually made it too difficult to continue eating, despite the taste. The meat pie was surprisingly good, and not like your average everyday American pie. Instead, it was some flaky crust wrapped around nicely seasoned ground beef.

Gyros and more Gyros!

When I finally finished those, it was time for my main course. The gyro sandwich that was brought out to me was the biggest I had ever seen. Typically when I order a sandwich without vegetables, I am given the same amount of meat and other toppings, resulting in a sad-looking sandwich. At Papa Cristo’s, however, they aimed to please me. The sandwich was so loaded with gyros that no vegetables could have possibly fit. It was almost as though they were proud of me for making the smart unvegan choice. The gyros were a bit on the salty side, but the sauce and drinking a lot of water was able to make up for it.

As I struggled to consume all that meat, the lights dimmed and we were treated to a bit of a Greek belly dance. Or at least that’s what I think it was. Either way, watching it definitely slowed my eating.

For a night filled with fine dining, oil, octopus babies and entertainment, Papa Cristo’s was definitely worth a visit.

Korean BBQ Festival and Cook-Off

The Unvegan — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:27:15 +0000

The lines were long, but not endless.

On Saturday, my friends and I headed down to Koreatown for the Korean BBQ Festival and Cook-Off. Korean BBQ is known to be heavy in meat, so I felt this would be a great opportunity to tackle my daily meat intake.

The festival ran from 12:00-5:00 and although we arrived around 1:00, the lines were already getting pretty long. I wasn’t too surprised by the long lines since the event was free, plus $10 per plate.

Assuming the longest lines had the best food, I jumped into one of the lines without

Tubs of meat roll by.

even knowing what it was. This was one of the areas in which the festival could have improved. If they had put the signs above the booths rather than on the table, I would have really been able to decided where to go. Instead, I (and likely a lot of other people) just jumped in a random line. Eventually a friend joined me and held my place so I could find out. I went to the front and saw that it was called the Beverly Tofu House. The name scared me a bit, considering tofu is typically the unvegan enemy, but the food I saw being unloaded was plenty meaty. I went back to my spot in line and devised a plan: My friend would hold my spot in line while I went to a different booth with a shorter line and brought the food back for us to eat in line. The plan was genius, and I set off.

So Hyang? More like so hungry.

One key component to my plan, which I neglected to tell my friend, was that I was also looking for a place without kimchee. I know it is almost sacrilegious to like Korean food without liking kimchee, so I was afraid to announce my disdain for the strangely pickled cabbage out loud for fear that I would have been kicked out of the event. But now that I am far removed from Koreatown, I feel comfortable announcing that kimchee might be one of the worst foods I’ve ever accidentally tasted. Luckily, I quickly found a place called So Hyang with a short line and no kimchee.

After five minutes, I returned to my place in the other line again, but this time with a plate full of meat and salad. Luckily my friend was not of the unvegan persuasion and ate the salad while I ate most of the meat. The meat was from a cow, but damned if I could say which part. I had watched as one of the workers cut little slices of beef with meat scissors, but I still had no idea what to call the cuts . There was also a massive bone on the plate, probably meant to say where the beef came from, but I’m no cow scientist. The beef slices were really tasty and although I could see the fat glistening in the sun, the fat didn’t distract from the tastiness.

While waiting in line, we got to watch an eating contest that was put on by the event organizers. Apparently people had signed up without knowing what they would have to eat. I secretly hoped it would be dog or some sort of organ meat, but instead it was a dry Korean snack called Choco Pie. This was a little disappointing, but still somewhat entertaining.

Koreans dishing out at Bevery Tofu House.

About 30 minutes later, we finally arrived at the front of the line at the Tofu House. There we were given a plate full of short ribs, pickled vegetables, rice and potatoes. Once again, I allowed my buddy to have his way with the vegetables while I concentrated on the short ribs. These were definitely worth waiting in line for, but probably not for as long as we just had. The meat was deliciously seasoned and perfectly cooked.

Finally, my meat from Beverly Tofu House

When I was done, I still wanted to try more Korean food. Unfortunately, the lines had grown too long to be worth it. Even the previously short So Hyang had gained a huge following.

For the first year of an event, I was pretty impressed by the outcome, but they definitely have some kinks they need to work out. Better sign placement and preparing meat ahead of time would have gone a long way in making the Korean BBQ Festival and Cook-Off an even more memorable event.

Old Timey Mexican at El Cholo

The Unvegan — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:09:53 +0000

The biggest burrito in the world.

El Cholo has been part of LA since Prohibition, which is no small feat in a city that flocks to trends like they cure cancer.

It took me a while, but I finally made it to the original El Cholo in Koreatown.

I had a difficult time deciding what to get from the menu. The prices were a bit steep, but I figured it was worth it to try an LA classic. In a cool little nod to their history, on each menu item they list the year that it became part of their menu, I finally decided on the great barometer for Mexican food, the burrito. At El Cholo, they call it the Burrito Dorado, which they began serving in 1977, making it seven years older than me. According to the menu, it’s composed of chili con carne, beans, rice, cheddar cheese, tomato sauce, sour cream and guacamole. I hoped none of these ingredients would be older than me.

When it came, it was unbelievably huge. Easily the biggest burrito I had ever seen, and if it tasted any good, it would be well worth the price. Looking tiny next to it was a small salad that thankfully made no real contact with the burrito.

Assuming I could never finish the beastly burrito, I began eating. I must have blacked out at some point because all of a sudden the friend I was eating with pointed out to me that I was eating the last bite of the burrito. I guess it was pretty good. Typically this burrito would have constituted two meals, and at the price of a little more than 10 bucks, it was definitely worth it.