Ramen is fantastic, right? I mean, we can all agree on that. But we can also agree that summer in Phoenix is not the time for ramen. So, although I knew Obon in Scottsdale had great ramen from carrying out a couple times, I made a different choice when I decided to stick around long enough to eat in the restaurant.

I began with something not Japanese at all. It was called Fuku Wings, which were coated in a spicy gochujang sauce. Gochujang, for those who may not know, is actually a Korean sauce and I have yet to eat a take on it that I haven’t liked. These were no different and they were nothing short of fantastic. It was a little sweeter than a typical gochujang sauce, but packed a spicy punch. There was a little crispiness to the outside and plenty of juiciness on the inside. With such a strong connection between Japan and Korea (albeit an often contentious one), I let the gochujang wings slide on account of being so delicious.

For my main dish I went with Street Noodles, which are spicy yakisoba noodles with peanuts, minced chicken and bean sprouts. I am an unabashed lover of yakisoba and calling them street noodles is pretty accurate because they are generally cheap comfort food. Obon dressed theirs up and I must say I had no complaints. They were mighty spicy and flavorful, with plenty of chicken mixed in there to keep a healthy balance with the noodles. They’re not your everyday yakisoba, but unless you’re living in Japan no yakisoba is and these certainly got the job done.

Between the noodles and the wings, Obon handed me some upscale Asian food in just the right way. Perhaps more important than anything else, Obon is ready and willing to show the people of Scottsdale that Japanese food is much more than sushi and teriyaki chicken. And when the weather drops to whatever passes for a low temperature a few months from now I know the ramen will be a welcome warmer in my belly.

I am a big fan of all you can eat Korean BBQ. After, what kind of a horrible person wouldn’t be a big fan of that? But, since moving to Phoenix I’m pretty much down for Korean in any way I can get it, even if I have to pay for individual dishes. Thus, when I had the chance to pay a visit to Gogi, a Korean spot in Chandler I jumped on it.

As is always my internal debate, it took me a while to decide that the Galbi lunch special sounded better than the Bulgogi lunch special. The special came with rice and all the banchan (side dishes and pickles and kimchi and stuff) one can be expected to eat, which is what the non-special comes with as well, but at a higher price with presumably more meat.

The meat was served on a bed of onions, which I am generally not a fan of, but can handle it if it means the delicious onion flavors steam their way into the meat without attaching their texture. Fortunately, that was the case. As for the meat, it was quite delicious, packed with the sweet and salty flavor I’ve come to know and love. It was also super tender, so you could say it was the full galbi package.

So, while Phoenix may not quite have the Korean options that LA does (and, frankly no place outside of Asia does), there’s definitely at least one place to go to when I get that craving for Korean meats.

In the past few years, airports have made some real attempts to up their food games. Some have brought in popular local restaurants, while others have commissioned celebrity chefs to bring new restaurants into the airports. Gone are the days of Chili’s 2 Go being the only option, which meant that with a whole lot of spare time at San Francisco International Airport, I was able to make my way to Union Street Gastropub to grab a beer and a sandwich.

That sandwich wasn’t just some pre-made cold cuts with limp lettuce, it was the Korean Chicken Sandwich. This sandwich was filled with deep fried chicken tossed in a sweet and spicy sauce and topped with garlic aioli. For my side I went with the garlic parmesan tots because regular fries and sweet potato fries just didn’t sound like they could compare.

As for the sandwich itself, I was pretty happy with it. I couldn’t figure out what was exactly Korean about it, but I like the combination of sweet and spicy, which the sauce did pretty well. The chicken was plenty juicy and had a decent crisp to the outside, but there just didn’t seem to be enough of it for me. Like, I get that it’s an airport and I’m going to pay a lot of money, but the dish was just begging for more chicken, and so was I.

Yet, Union Street Gastropub is a huge improvement on your typical airport food and for that I was pleased, even if it’s far from being the best sweet and spicy fried chicken sandwich I’ve ever had.

Ah, the fabled Rose Bowl. Host of UCLA football games, THE Rose Bowl, a monthly flea market and now the annual Masters of Taste. As a blogger extraordinaire, I was invited to cover the event, which took place on May 7th and I found it a much easier way to set foot on the Rose Bowl field than winning the Big Ten Championship (and some might say it was much harder than winning the Pac-12 Championship, huzzah!). Food and drink vendors appeared from all over LA to help bring in money for Union Station Homeless Services. It’s a good cause, and surely the now two-year old event is doing a much better job of drawing in money than the annual gala did before it. But enough, let’s talk food.

Belly Bombz – Spicy Garlic Parmesan Wing

If I had more time, I would have eaten all of their wings. As it was, all I could do was try out the Spicy Garlic Parmesan wing, which is Korean-inspired like the other wings they offered. It certainly inspired my belly to want more.

Nerano – La Polpetta

This is described as a “grass-fed meatball slider” but I will still refuse to call such a thing a slider. Yet, this meatball mini sandwich was delicious enough to make up for the misnomer. The cheese was all melty-like, the meatball was juicy and you can’t ask for much more.

The Raymond – Raclette

The Raymond decided to test the theory that everything is better with melted cheese. Uh, dude, yes. But while it seems obvious that their chorizo taco and Moroccan sausage would be better with melted cheese, the Fire Chicken (fried, topped with gochujang, and rice cakes) was just the right kind of experiment and proved well worth it.

Milk and Honey – Wellness Bowl

I know this isn’t what you expect, but I seriously love fruit and this Wellness Bowl was packed with it. The base was pureed dragonfruit (or pitaya if you’re being fancy) and the toppings were sliced fruit, a chunk of honeycomb, maybe chia seeds and some ridiculous edible flowers. No joke, this was incredibly refreshing with all the gluttony going on.

Cafe Dulce – Bacon Donut Hole

That’s more like it, right?

And that’s a wrap (at least of the food I thought worthy of highlighting)! Despite a brief period of torrential downpour and game delay due to lightning, the event was undoubtedly delicious and, more importantly, brought it more than 500k for Union Station. Good food and a good cause? Don’t mind if I do.

LA’s Koreatown is a place of legend, filled with all-you-can-eat BBQ, karaoke spots, and seedy places you’ll never know about unless you know about them. It also covers the area seemingly as big as Manhattan. New York’s Koreatown, on the other hand, covers just more than a city block and is built vertically like much of the rest of Manhattan. It is there that I went to dinner at Jongro BBQ.

Walking into Jongro is like what I imagine walking into a market in South Korea is like, as the design gives off the impression that you are outside. The surprise for me, however, was the long ventilation tubes hanging from the ceiling over every table. This ensured that the place was well-ventilated and did not have the musk of other Korean BBQ places I have been to. In another strong contrast to LA’s Koreatown, everything seemed shiny and new.

When we were seated, we ordered up some Marinated Kalbi and our waiter set to work. While there was a degree of DIY to this meal, the staff actually took care of almost everything – including retracting the ventilation tube when it was time to eat the meat off of the grate it was cooking on. As for the Kalbi, it was fantastic. Perfectly seasoned, super tender and cooked just right thanks to the waiter.

At the risk of over-comparing, I have to admit that I am spoiled by Korean food in LA. Jongro was great, no doubt, and probably some of the best Korean that New York has to offer. Plus, the meat was on par with some of the better spots I’ve been to. The trouble that it was not all-you-can-eat, which is almost a prerequisite for me and Korean BBQ. And I don’t mean this in terms of gluttony, but just in terms of being able to try more than one or two different things in a meal, because variety is the spice of life (along with gochujang). Regardless, Jongro succeeds in bringing great Korean food to the mean streets of New York, and for that it is to be commended.

Koreatown is so damn big that the only way you can possibly figure out which restaurants are good is by word of mouth. Thus, my buddy suggested Myung In Dumplings, which is essentially a Korean-ized Chinese dumpling spot right in the heart of Koreatown. I think he found it by watching some TV show, which generally means delicious food and I was hoping the TV would lead me right again.

The menu wasn’t too big, but there were plenty of dumplings to choose from. We ordered the King Steam Dumplings (the big old fluffy type), Spicy Steam Roll Dumplings (the shriveled up logs), Fried Dumplings (potstickers) and Dumpling Beef Soup (like in a bowl with liquid, not soup dumplings).

It was different from the dumpling experiences that I am used to with Chinese food because Chinese dumplings are always (at least in my experience) packed with spices with sauces more as an accompaniment. These, however, didn’t have a lot of built-in flavor in the fillings and seemed to rely more on differentiating on the different encasings. Each bite required a spoon or squeeze of sauce to provide flavor and while I loved the sauces, I found that I was doing the work that I was used to the restaurant doing. Even the Spicy Steam Roll Dumplings were just regular Steam Roll Dumplings with a chili sauce in the middle of the plate to qualify as spicy.

Perhaps I just have a lack of understanding of Korean dumplings. There’s no question that Myung In did a great job with what I am simply calling the encasings. The King Steam Dumplings were super fluffy and a whole lot of fun to eat with chopsticks and the Fried Dumplings were cooked to a perfect crisp on the bottom with a soft top. Clearly, there wasn’t any mistake in the preparation, but I guess when it comes to dumplings Myung In just left me longing for something different.

All you can eat Korean BBQ is one of the greatest things (not just food things) ever created. It’s meaty, it’s flamey and it is interactive-y. Yet, not all KBBQ spots are created equally, with some charging a bit more than others. Oo Kook in Koreatown is one of those places that goes beyond the $20 mark, but I was hoping it would be worth it.

The menu was full of options ranging from tongue to baby octopus to three different kinds of pork belly. Three! Of course, the classics were there as well, like brisket, short rib and “marinated” thin sliced beef, also known as bulgogi. We did our best to try out every “normal” meat and even threw in tongue for good measure.

By far, the best of all the meats was the Black Angus Beef Marinated Short Rib. And this was not an easy battle to win. After all, Oo Kook’s bulgogi was made with wagyu beef and was probably the best I have ever had. Yet, the nice marbling, perfect marinating and almost melt-in-your-mouthness of the short ribs were too tough to beat. I was also a huge fan of the two types of flavored pork belly – one was miso and the other wine.

On the other end of the spectrum, the tongue was just whatever and the Black Angus Hanging Tender, which was some sort of beef was weirdly tough and just plain lacking in flavor compared to all the delicious possibilities.

While it is a noble thing to try out a number of different meats, if I were to return to Oo Kook I could easily eat four or five only and still leave a very happy man. Oh, and they did serve up a variety of pickles and other mini dishes like the rice wrapper and stuff, but as you might expect I really had no need to mess with them.

It was obvious that Oo Kook’s higher price tag translated to higher quality (plus, the servers are almost always there to help you flip the meat) and I wouldn’t hesitate to make a return visit the next time I’m looking to eat my weight in meat.

Once every 60 years the world is greeted with the Year of the Golden Pig. The last one was in 2007, yet if you live in Pittsburgh, every day can be a Golden Pig day, assuming you are willing to drive out to Cecil. That’s where Golden Pig, a Korean restaurant that pretty much operates as a small Korean household, is situated. The only difference is that you don’t have to take your shoes off when you enter.

With only about 9 places to sit and only 1 wok to prepare meals in, Golden Pig is about as close as you can get to eating at a Korean friend’s place. Only, your friend probably can’t cook as well as Yong Kwon, the wizard behind Golden Pig’s nonexistent curtain. We decided to load up on a few different dishes because this was not a drive we wanted to make again too soon. The first was a Korean Pancake appetizer, which came with kimchi or peppers mixed into it. We went with kimchi, which seemed to be the lesser of two evils and also I couldn’t really help but invoke travel rules in a situation like this.

The pancake was pretty tasty, well, except when the pieces of pickled cabbage got too big. Then it was kind of like eating breaded cabbage, which isn’t fun for anyone. Nonetheless, it was a solid start to the meal and left me wanting more. And don’t worry, more came in the form of Man-Du, a special Korean dumpling that is sort of reminiscent of gyoza without being anything at all like gyoza. Nonetheless, it was still incredibly delicious and something I’ll have to try again a my next Korean restaurant.

We opted to split three main courses and began with Jop-Chae a stir-fry with sweet potato noodles, a bunch of no good vegetables and choice of meats. We chose beef for this one and it turned out pretty well. The noodles were similar to other glass noodles I’ve had before, but seasoned differently either through the fact that they were from sweet potatoes or just from the general seasoning. The beef was good, but definitely was not the focal point of the dish, which is always a disappointment to me, of course.

Typically I am all about the bulgogi beef, but on this night we decided to get Daiji Bulgogi instead. This is a spicier bulgogi and made with pork instead of beef. Yet, it still has very thinly slice meat and that spice that makes the meat distinctly bulgogi. What it is I couldn’t tell you, but it was definitely delicious. In fact, it actually wasn’t too spicy, just more so than your average bulgogi flavoring. The pork was nice and tender, going perfectly with its sauce.

Finally, we had ourselves some Kalbi, which is grilled short ribs. Short ribs aren’t exactly the finest cut of steak, but with the marinade that these were cooked in they might as well have been a fine filet. The sauce was sweet and savory, while the meat was cooked to a perfect medium-rare without a need to even ask for it that way. Kwon just knows how to do steak. The ribs were perfectly tender with a texture that just kept begging me to eat more.

So, in case you can’t tell, Golden Pig was definitely a good choice. I’m typically pretty partial to Korean BBQ places with all-you-can-eat meat, but if I’m going to allow someone else to cook for me and accept that I can’t just eat until the end of time, Golden Pig is the right place to do it in Pittsburgh.

EDIT: Grit & Grace is now a noodle bar, but I’m guessing it is just as delicious as before.

While some parts of the country might have Asian fusion around every corner, Pittsburgh has (most likely for the better) avoided much of this. There is, however, a spot downtown called Grit & Grace that has welcomed that sort of cuisine. It starts with a little something they call American Dim Sum. It’s nothing at all like actual dim sum aside from the fact that it is in small servings, but it is quite delicious. We had some of the Pork Belly Bites (with orange, chili, garlic and ginger) and Kimchi Balls (with rice and cheese). They were both incredible, and the balls surprisingly so because I have a rational hatred of kimchi and these tasted nothing like it.

We also had ourselves two orders of their Short Ribs, which came on cream cheese biscuits topped with aged white cheddar cheese and bearnaise sauce. These were simply incredible. Like far too good for their own good. Each order only came with two, but I wished they would have come with 30 because I could have eaten them forever.

For the main course, I split a couple dishes. The first was their Chicken Meatball Ramen, which came with a one hour egg (whatever that means), confit chicken thigh, more kimchi, schmaltz roasted carrots, coriander noodle and of course the meatballs. I, of course, wanted nothing to do with the carrots and kimchi, but after all I was splitting the dish. It was the best ramen I have had in Pittsburgh, and while I usually prefer my ramen simpler, somehow this complexity made it great. Not to mention, the chicken was so tender it should be illegal.

I also split the Braised Goat, which came with appams, garlic/ginger smashed potatoes, curry, creme fraiche and lime. It was a unique mixture of ingredients, but one that worked well. It was put together in a way that you could basically build your own wrap and mine was quite tasty. I didn’t like it as much as the ramen, but it was still welcome.

Grit & Grace turned out to be far better than I expected. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it was still great. Each level of my meal seemed to be well thought-out and unique enough to not leave me wanting something different. Asian fusion isn’t dead, at least not in Pittsburgh.

After the ill-fated sojourn to Koji BBQ Buffet, I was in need of some good Korean BBQ to wash the bad taste out of my mouth. Fortunately, my friends were more than willing to join me and we ended up at Star BBQ in Koreatown, partly because we had heard great things, but also because it was the easiest place to pronounce. Upon arrival the place was empty, which meant we got personal service that meant not only faster meat, but a waitress to help us with the cooking of it.

Due to some KBBQ rookies with us, we made the common mistake of ordering brisket. Now, before you say anything about how great brisket is, you must realize that Korean BBQ brisket is simply frozen, flavorless beef and a total waste of stomach space at an all-you-can-eat BBQ. It is one level above rice at such a place and is only saved by the fact that it is still meat.

As we switched from brisket to other food items, I have to say I was impressed by Star BBQ’s attention to us and to the detail of our food. We rotated between a meshy grill topper and more of a cast-iron topper and each were different from anything I had ever seen at KBBQ before. The variety was nice and complemented the variety of meats we ordered.

The top two meats were the Beef Short Rib and the Beef Bulgogi, the latter of which should come as no surprise since it is almost always awesome. For some reason we avoided things like the intestine and tongue, although to be honest if there had been someone there willing to eat those with me I would have gone for them.

One thing I found especially fantastic about the place was that they actually had steak on their menu. And no I don’t mean sliced up, marinated steak, I mean big old steakhouse-sized steaks. They were of the ribeye variety and although they couldn’t really compete with the marinated deliciousness of the short rib and bulgogi, they were certainly appreciated.

After eating just about as much as possible, memories of that other KBBQ experience faded from my mind. Once again, Koreatown served me well and I was perfectly content with the impending meat sweats knowing they were well worth it.