Showing posts with label modern korean. Show all posts
Showing posts with label modern korean. Show all posts

Monday, September 9, 2019

Dandi Pop-Up Brings Modern Korean Dining to LA

Los Angeles may be home to a lot of great Korean food, but they're mostly "old school" restaurants and we don't have too much by way of modern Korean cuisine. That is changing with Dandi, a Korean-Southern Californian pop-up from Joshua Pressman and Jihee Kim, which is popping up for dinner at Hotel Normandie (and other future locations). The two chefs met while working at Rustic Canyon.

Dandi offers two tasting menus, an abbreviated and an extended one. I recently tried the extended tasting and started with this trio of appetizers:

Corn silken tofu, dungeness crab, brown butter.
Squash wafer, chicken liver mousse, apple cider jam
Jokbal (pig trotter) croquette, hot peanut sauce, perilla
Dandi
The corn silken tofu with dungeness crab was our favorite, not just of the plate but of the entire meal! Needless to say, the meal started off strong. The silken tofu was a little sweet thanks to the corn but it worked wonderfully with the brown butter and the sweet crab meat.

Pressman pairs the tasting with mostly natural wines (as much as he can), like this Hasta la Vizsla, a pet nat (petillant naturel) wine from the Loire Valley.
Dandi
There are also some beer and wine available a la carte if a pairing seems like too much for you.

Next course: Cold soup of peaches, pork belly, flowering coriander
Dandi
Yes, there are pork belly bits under those peach slices!

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

MoKo (Culver City, CA)

When Gyenari wasn't going in the direction they envisioned, the owners decided to shutter the restaurants and re-open as MoKo (Modern Korean), which takes the food in a whole new direction.

Duck and Foie Gras Dumplings
Pan fried duck and foie gras dumplings w/ sour cherry sauce ($12)

IMG_1296I was pleasantly surprised by the cocktails here. My favorite was the Thai Basil Cooler ($11): Thai basil, Damrak gin, St. Germain, lemon, and agave. The thai basil gave it a stronger aroma than your usual basil and blends well with the herbal notes of the gin. (PS. they have $5 drinks during "social hour" from 5-7 pm every day).

I also liked the MoKo Punch ($18 carafe, $40 bowl): soju, vodka, persimmon cinnamon tea, watermelon, pineapple. Perfect for a big party.
IMG_1291
Yes, they charge for "banchan" here ($7.50 for 3) but they're not your regular banchan. If you want your money's worth then skip the kimchi and radish, instead go with the Chiogga beets (sauteed with jujubes and apple smoked bacon), asparagus namul (barley, pea shoots, and crisped garlic), asian pear and kholrabi salad, lotus roots braised in honey, or purple eggplant namul (gochujang, green onions, and sesame).
Banchan
True, I wouldn't pay $2.50 for a bowl of kimchi, but $2.50 for a bowl of beets, asparagus, or lotus root is pretty cheap if you ask me. I know you've all paid your share of $8-12 beet salads.

While MoKo is not cheap, it wouldn't be fair to compare them to Koreatown places, as they do not serve traditional Korean food. As is the case with many restaurants, some dishes are better value than others. People keep complaining about the $9 for 3 shrimp dumplings here, but seems like I was the only one complaining about the $12 for 3 chicken wontons at Lukshon. In both places, the answer is simple: order wisely. Here are some of the dishes I enjoyed:
Raw scallops, crispy leeks, red chili jang ($11)
Scallop Crudo
From the series of crudo we tried, the scallop was perhaps my favorite (the hamachi was also very good). I loved the chewy texture and the red chili jang, while not that spicy, was flavorful.

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