Midtown Lunch

When bragging that Los Angeles is one of the best food cities in the country, bringing up all of our ethnic enclaves is my go-to argument.  The Thai food in Thai Town, Chinese in the San Gabriel Valley, Mexican food in Boyle Heights, and Vietnamese and Japanese food in the South Bay are unrivaled in San Fran, Chicago, hell, even New York.  Sorry America.  L.A. has the best, most diverse, ethnic food neighborhoods in the country, possibly even the world.  But as great as each area of this city is for its own specialty, for those of us who live here there is something exciting about discovering something regional removed from its region.  Whether it’s ramen in the valley (hello Jinya!) or dim sum on the westside (still waiting!), we seem to be willing to sacrifice a bit of “authenticity” for a bit less driving.

So when Lunch’er Dylan recommended Yang Ban, a Korean soup place in the garment district of Downtown L.A., that tinge of excitement came up again.  Surely it wouldn’t be as good as the places in Koreatown, but even a decent Korean option for people who work in DTLA would be welcome- especially as the days start to get shorter and the air starts to get colder.

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If there was an award for most improved L.A. lunch scene in the past few years, it has got to be Miracle Mile.  The area of Wilshire Blvd. between La Brea and La Cienega has been completely transformed since I worked at 5700 Wilshire in 2005.   Back then it was Baja Fresh or Baja Fresh… unless of course you liked Marie Callender’s (I do not.)  Now there’s The Counter, a couple of decent looking sushi places, Five Guys is on its way, and of course the food trucks- which still line up en masse across the street from the LACMA.  But my new favorite place in the area has got to be Genki Grill, a 6 month old Asian rice bowl place on Wilshire between San Vicente and Crescent Heights.

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Midtown Lunch has a long, storied history with ridiculously cheap sushi (sushi from a 99 cent store?  It happened.) One could easily argue that cheap sushi is the scariest thing I’ll eat in the name of this site.  After all, nowhere is the “you get what you pay for” adage more obviously on display than with raw, practically untouched, seafood.  So with a $10 ceiling on lunches, good sushi is usually a complete oxymoron.  But “good enough” sushi is something this cheap bastard is constantly on the hunt for.

In New York finding a Japanese restaurant that would give you three sushi rolls for $10 was the holy grail.  But here in Los Angeles, cheap sushi devotees will find that hwe dup bap might be the way to go… essentially, a Korean salad topped with cubes of raw fish. There’s an ok $9 version at Ssing Ssing in Koreatown, and Wow Bento & Roll Downtown has an even better version for $8 (masquerading as a “sashimi salad”.)  That’s gotta be as cheap as it gets right?  Any cheaper than that, and we’re likely swimming in completely unchartered waters.  And then last week, while driving up Western in Koreatown, I spotted a sign that would possibly change my life. A lunch special hwe dup bap for… wait for it… wait for it… $6.

How could I not?

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If you love pork you were undoubtedly excited by Jonathan Gold’s (aka “The Guru” on this site) review of Palsaik Samgyeopsal, the Koreatown pork belly specialist whose signature dish features 8 thick slices of fatty goodness, each drenched in its own special marinade.  Somewhat surprisingly, they do offer a lunch menu featuring galbi tang (beef stew), naengmyeon (cold noodles), and $9 orders of pork belly.  But clearly the 8 slices of pork belly dinner is the draw of this place.  For lunch you’re better off stepping a few doors down to Jang Tou Bossam, a 2 year old semi-hidden gem  (it’s literally hidden behind the building that houses Ma Dang Gook Soo and BCD Tofu House) of a restaurant that specializes in that other Korean pork fat dish- bossam.

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Considering how hot it has been, a lunchtime post about Chil Bo Myun Ok is pretty predictable.  When summertime hits, so do the obligatory posts about naengmyun- a Korean cold noodle dish that it’s safe to say is only really craved by Koreans who grew up eating the stuff.  And the version at Chil Bo Myun Ok is considered one of the best you can get in K-Town, so of course that’s where I ended up on Friday.  But if I’m being completely honest, I wasn’t there for the naengmyeon.  I had read somewhere that Chil Bo Myun Ok served spicy galbi jim (stewed short ribs) sauteed with rice cakes, and had hoped that by some miracle of all miracles they sold a lunchtime version of the dish for under $10.  I say “miracle of all miracles” because not only is galbi jim one of the more expensive dishes you’ll find in Koreatown, but Chil Bo Myun Ok is one of the more expensive places in K-Town- even for naengmyeon.

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If you’re in K-Town and craving a Korean burger chances are you’re going to hit up Kalbi Burger. Need a Korean burrito fix? Hop on twitter and see where Kogi is. Both would be perfect choices if you’re looking for well made, interesting and in many ways refined Korean food, masquerading as a fast food staple. But what if you want something a bit dirtier. A bit greasier. A place that reminds you what burgers and burritos were before they were elevated to something “better”. For a return to burger as diner food grease-bomb land (with a slight Asian twist), you have to check out Olympic Hamburger.

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My quest to find Koreatown’s best bowl of jjajangmyeon (noodles w/ black bean sauce) will likely never end.  For one thing I don’t think I would ever want to declare a best version of the Korean/Chinese specialty.  After all, as much as I love it it’s so ubiquitous, so cheap, so one note in a lot of ways, that I can’t even imagine sending anybody across the city with expectations that they will finally find a bowl of these noodles that is worthy of getting super excited about.  After all, it’s just jjanjangmyeon.

But sometimes that craving hits, and there are plenty of places ready to step up to the plate.  If I want to spend $5, but still get house made hand pulled noodles, I’ll hit up Mandarin House.  If I want a small bowl of it, paired with some cheap Chinese food as a lunch combo all for just $10, Dragon Restaurant is the spot.  Substitute the noodles with fried rice?  Al Ba Nae it is.   But if seafood jjajangmyeon is what I crave, I’m heading for Zzamong.

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