Asanebo and Its One Michelin Star - Feh!

A preview of coming attractions – Salmon with Caviar with a little surprise in the middle:


A rare opportunity came my way: Stubborn Gourmet T invited me out to dinner and told me that I could pick the restaurant. Alas, said bequest had a contingency clause, i.e., it had “to be close.” I correctly took this to mean close to her, not me. Still, this worked in my favor, or so I thought, because I could finally go to Asanebo.

If you do nominal research on this most beloved Studio City sushi joint, you will discover that it has the top food rating in the city according to that certain “exceedingly” “annoying” restaurant guide. Also, many have claimed that Asanebo has the FRESHEST fish in town. And let us not forget about the shiny Michelin Star (which they did not have yet when I went there).

Question: Was I going to have the greatest sushi experience of my life or was I being set up to be very disappointed?

Answer: The latter. Overall the food was pretty good but it just wasn’t worth the $100 per person tab (I’ve had much FRESHER fish at Sushi Nishi-ya for less money.) I don’t know if the sushi chef thought that we were a bunch of rubes and gave us mostly crappy fish or if they knew Les Critiques Michelin were coming and went all out but my meal was not worthy of any type of award.

Our quasi-Omakase begins...

Spinach Salad:


Excellent! One of three best dishes that night.

Snapper with shaved yuzu skin:


This dish had a very nice flavor combination but the fish had a slightly watery texture.

Kampachi with a miso-sesame sauce:


Again, the fish had a slightly watery texture but I though that it the fish went well with the sliced jalapeno and the sauce.

Halibut with black truffle (note that it’s preserved truffle):


A totally pointless dish. The truffle completely overwhelmed the halibut and was very unpleasant to eat.

The aforementioned salmon:



This was actually pretty good even though it had competing components, the caviar and the ponzu sauce, but the radish salad encased in the salmon brought everything together. Only problem was that the salmon had a watery texture (are you starting to see a pattern here?)

Spanish mackerel two ways:





Fabulous! The raw mackerel was great with the minimalist ponzu sauce and a dash of ginger, horseradish, and green onion. We asked for the deep fried mackerel bones and they were the best thing that night.

Ankimo with sweet goop:


Worst ankimo that I’ve ever had (actually, I’ve never had bad ankimo before this!)

Ono with ponzu (again) and fried garlic chips:


The fish had such a watery texture it ruined the whole dish.

Toro with more sweet goop:


The toro was pretty good. And the sauce was pretty good. But the two just did not go together very well. The sauce was too rich for the fatty toro; the toro was drowned in it and I had to scrape it off but it was still a bit overpowering.

The steamed uni:

Now this was an interesting dish: the uni had been steamed over salt water for 15 minutes. Why they didn't give us raw uni I will never know. Fanatics of raw uni would have missed the buttery ocean flavor that completely disappeard with steaming (it just tasted really salty afterwards). The only thing that saved this uni was the great Korean seaweed served with it.

Don’t even get me started on the extremely gross (re-frozen, many times based on the texture, ice cream and sour fruit) dessert that they served us.

Les Critiques Michelin need to get their tongues over to Sushi Nishi-ya tres vites. But since it’s not a scene they probably never will.

Asanebo
11941 Ventura Blvd.
Studio City, CA 91604
(818) 760-3348

The Old School Korean Trio: Dong Il Jang, Ham Hung, and Jeonju

I walked into Dong Il Jang and thought to myself, “Holy crap! This looks like a place that my grandparents used to go to.” I looked around, and sure enough, other people’s grandparents were there. It was nice to see a retro place that hasn’t yet been colonized by trendoids.

Dong Il Jang has a fairly well rounded menu with all of the Korean classics, but the specialty of the house is the “Roast Gui”:

While many covet the Roast Gui, I felt that it was dullsville compared to what you can get at other Korean barbeque places. While the fatty pieces were just ok, the leaner pieces had a very dry and unpleasant texture to them. Instead of getting nice and brown most of the meat cooked up watery and grey.

But this insipid foreplay had to be endured before my happy ending: Kimchee Fried Rice. The fried rice was as great as the Roast Gui was bad. Kimchee, rib-eye trimmings, and whatever was leftover of our daikon radish panchan was cooked with rice in the Roast Gui scraps:

Ham Hung is another old school Korean with many classics on the menu but they specialize in Naeng Myun, or cold buckwheat noodles in very cold broth. This has been the only Korean restaurant in which I have felt like yanki-nom (the Korean version of gwailo) since we were heavily induced to order the noodle/kabli combo; yes, we probably could have ordered something else but I have a feeling that we would have ended up with the combo anyway, and I noticed that we hardly got any panchan compared to the other tables.

I ordered the Bibim Naeng Myun which is dry cold noodles in a sweet spicy chili sauce. It was good as was the Kalbi. Raven ordered the Mul Neng Myun, and though she says that it was very good, it looked very pallid: the noodles seemed to be more grey than the nice rich deep brown that I am used to.

Jeonju is one of the best mom ‘n’ pop dives in Koreatown. You’ll never find this place unless you already know where it is (or can read Korean); it’s located in the same mini-mall as Sokongdong.


Jeonju is known for their Dol Sot Bimbibap. You can get three kinds: beef, kimchee and beef, or seafood. It’s great when everyone at the table orders the bibimbap so that you can hear a chorus of the sizzling rice.

The Bibimbap is pretty good but I go crazy for their Jo Gee Gui (whole fried Yellow Corvina fish). The fish is simplicity at it’s best. While eating it, I was singing The Cat’s song from Red Dwarf:

I’m gonna eat you little fishie
I’m gonna eat you little fishie
I’m gonna eat you little fishie
‘Cause I like eating fish!

I got my comeuppance a few days later when a big mean raccoon ate my fish out of the pond in the backyard.

Although I haven’t had them, the jigae look really good. Next time it’s more Jo Gee Gui and some kimchee jigae for me.


Dong Il Jang
3455 W. 8th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90005

Ham Hung
809 S. Ardmore Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90005

Jeonju
2716 W. Olympic Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90006

Park's BBQ

I know that these are fightin’ words but I’m going to say them anyway: move over Soot Bull Jeep! There is a new King of Korean BBQ in town!

Ok, maybe I’m being a bit premature. I recently went to Park’s BBQ and it was love at first site and bite. I declared it my new fave. But a few of my dining companions stated that the still liked Soot Bull Jeep better. Hmmmm. I don’t often go to Soot Bull Jeep, I think that it is good, but it’s not my favorite (Sa Rit Gol has held that spot for a while). So, let the Korean BBQ challenge begin! I will be revisiting Sa Rit Gol and Soot Bull Jeep in the near future and we’ll see how they stack up to Park’s.

But in the meantime, delight your visual sense in the world that is Park’s BBQ…

Our three dippies: coarse salt with toasted sesame seed; a soy based sauce with chiles; and fermented soybean sauce.

Panchan! I had such a case of Stendhal’s Syndrome that I didn’t get a solo picture of the potato salad (it’s at the 3 o’clock position) but it was fabulous. It was oil based (slightly, and no vinegar) with a hint of garlic.

The wonderful spinach with ground tofu and roasted sesame seed:

The Gae Jang (this stuff has a cult following):

The seafood pancake (this did not have a lot of seafood in it – I think that Sa Rit Gol will win this part of the competition):

Foreplay:

And the piece de resistance – the de rigueur #2 – prime kalbi (thanks, ipsedixit!):

A luscious piece of sizzling kobe beef:

One thing that I like about Park’s is that they let you keep the bone from the short rib which they don’t do at Sa Rit Gol (I think at Soot Bull Jeep they have an order of bones!)

Raven stated that she likes the tongue better at Soot Bul Gui Rim since it’s cut thicker; I’ll have to try tongue at the other places.

Not as expensive as I thought it would be. It came out to $25 per person with a hefty tip (the service here is excellent!)

And for dessert, some Pot Bing Soo at Ice Kiss. Woof!

Park’s BBQ
955 S. Vermont Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90006

Ice Kiss
3407 W. 6^th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90020

Vietnamese Soycafe - A Hidden Gem in Silver Lake

If you race up and down Hyperion in order to hit the green light at Lyric (or Fountain, as the case may be) you might miss the lilliputian Vietnamese Soycafe. If you are a true foodie, you’ll see a glimpse of it out of the corner of your eye. The first thing that you’ll notice is that it is not open on Fridays and Saturdays. This piques your interest.

You finally go there one Sunday morning after being intrigued by the limited but unique menu that you happen to look at through the window one Saturday when the pet food store was not yet open and you needed to kill some time, so you walked up the block to check this quirky place out.

Below, a cup of cinnamon soymilk:

If you usually buy your soymilk at Trader Joe’s you have not had soymilk until you’ve had it at the Vietnamese Soycafe. Viet, the warm and personable owner, makes the organic soymilk in house. Other flavors include black sesame, mint, and yerba mate. It’s a better deal to buy a quart and share it with someone – you’ll end up with twice as much for about the same price.

Below, a double Vietnamese coffee – you are in heaven.

Below, the jicama fresh rolls:

These are wonderful. You cannot eat the peanut sauce with which they are served (or you’ll take a trip to migraineville) but it doesn’t matter; the texture is perfect and the minimalist flavors blend so well together.

Below, the overwhelmingly popular lemongrass chicken banh mi:

You pledge that next time you’ll order the green onion and sardine banh mi. There is also a vegetarian option: the shitake mushroom and tofu.

Below, two views of the Sunday special bun with tumeric whitefish:




You’ve heard about this dish through the foodie grapevine, and you purposely came here on a Sunday just to get it. It surpasses all of your expectations; it’s so simple and lovely. You’ve declared this the best dish in LA County since the late Kuala Lumpur’s wonton laksa.

Below, the soyskin mushroom bun and the soynugs:




On a health kick? You’ll have to try the “C Shot” – Viet’s upscale version of the uber-cleansing detox libation of lemon juice and cayenne pepper.


Vietnamese Soycafe
1997 Hyperion Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90027