Korean Grub

I've been living in Garden Grove, Ca for sometime now. To be perfectly honest, I'm kinda diggin' it. I know with that lead in, you might have expected me to say "It sucks" or something like that. The fact is, Garden Grove is a diverse little city. A real mixed bag. Little did I know, just a few miles from my home, is some of the best Korean food in Southern California.

Before I started this blog, I decided to check out some other blogs that are based in Orange County. After skimming through countless pages, I noticed that many of the blogs based around Asian food would review numerous restaurants located in Garden Grove.

When I did a search for Korean BBQ, all signs pointed to Garden Grove or Downtown Los Angeles. Could I really be this lucky? In a word: Yes.

There have been so many times I'll be watching a show like No Reservations and say to myself "Damn! I wish I lived close to that city so I could get that good eatin'!" Now, I do. I didn't know about this for years. All the times that I could have been dining on food that so many wish they could have access to. I felt like I had missed out when I first discovered this wonderful gem of information. Then, I quickly realized that these places aren't going anywhere, and neither was I.

So, with that said, lets get down to business!

On a recent day off from work, I laid out a simple game plan: Get up reasonably early, go get coffee and play sudoku (I love sudoku, by the way), and try a Korean dish called Bibimbap. Simple, right?

The first two parts of that plan went perfectly. The third part didn't quite go the same route.

Honestly, I had no idea where to begin in Korea town. I went on Yelp and searched for Bibimbap. A few places came up and I decided to try one that had a fairly good rating and decent reviews.

I found myself at the Gae Sung Restaurant on Garden Grove Blvd. I had never been here before, but it seemed like a good place to start.

As I walked in, I was greeted with a smile and told to sit wherever I like. I sat down and picked up the menu. Within a few seconds, I saw the dish that I came there to try. Then I noticed that they covered it up with a piece of tape. ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!?!?!?!?! I manage to find the one fucking place on this street that DOESN'T serve bibimbap?!?! MOTHERFUCKINGCOCKSUCKINGSHEEPSHAGGINGPIECEOFFUCKINGSHIT!!!!!!!!! FUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCKKKKKKK!!!!! 

Let's just say I was slightly perturbed upon learning that they didn't have what I set out to get. But, I was already there and was more than willing to try something new.

Some of the reviews said they had a dish called Gam Ja Tang, a pork and potato stew, which seemed to be one of their top sellers. It was on their lunch specials, so I went with that.

Here is what I got:

I wasn't expecting all the little side dishes with it. I don't even know what a few of them were! But, fuck it, I didn't think they were going to give me something nasty. So, the only thing left to do was dig in!

First off, it was served in an earthen ware pot, which was really fucking cool! I wanted to walk out with that thing! Because that pot was so heavy, it kept the stew hot the entire meal. Very nice!

Before I get too deep into this stew, I'm going to talk about the sides real quick.

The green goop is wasabi. No brainer there. The bottom is kimchi. The stuff on the right is...I don't know. It had pine nuts, and wasn't really spicy. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. The top is a mayo based potato salad.

The potato salad caught me off-guard. I wasn't expecting them to serve that, plus it had an ingredient that worked incredibly well in it: Apples. I've never put apples in my potato salad, but I may have to start doing it. It was delicious! It gave a slight crunch, yet soft enough to mix with everything else. The subtle sweetness was so pleasant against the richness of the mayo and onion and potato. My only wish is that they would have given a bit more. As it was, it worked great as an accompaniment.

Now for the stew.

It had a deep, red broth, which had me a little worried I might get burned twice by this stuff. But, there wasn't any heat to it. I guess that's what the wasabi is for. Heat or no heat, the broth was very good. You could taste the flavor from the pork, but there was also tons of other flavors from spices and herbs I couldn't pin point.

The pork was on the bone, and about as tender as I have ever seen. It took little to no effort to pull the meat from the bone. I probably could have yelled at the meat and it would have fallen off the bone. It was that tender.

For meat to be that tender calls for fat. While I had no problem with the fatty pork, it might be a bit much for others. If you prefer leaner cuts, this might not be for you.

Overall, this was an incredibly delicious, comforting stew that is perfect for those cold weather days. But, there was one big issue that could have been a problem if I was in a rush or wanted to eat quickly: Them bones!

I mentioned earlier that the meat was on the bone. Here is your proof. There were TONS of bones in this dish! TONS! At the time I took this pic, I thought I had gotten all of them. WRONG! WRONG! It seemed like every time I thought I had found the last of them, I found more! I had to be really gentle when biting down so I wouldn't bite hard into a bone. I didn't get all of them out until the very last few bites. No joke.

With all those bones, you really cannot rush eating this dish. If you are coming here on a work lunch break, this is not the meal to get.

Like I said, overall, it's a great dish if you have the time. Plus, it only cost $8. That's it! And I was stuffed after this one. I had to get more coffee to keep this one from putting me to sleep.

That's it for this one. Stay tuned to Food And Such Things in 2013. I have a lot of great things planned! Everything from movie reviews, product reviews, twists on those beloved classics, AND I complete a dish on my culinary bucket list!

Take Care!

J. Miller