when i think of my blossoming love affair with korean food, i think of that fateful day at hill center registering for my first classes in grad school, where it all began.

three asians (one of them me) sat on the bench in the hallway outside of room 501, waiting in line to see the secretary. when one of them left to register for her classes, i was left with who i now know as sung hee, and that was the beginning of our friendship. but had i gotten there a bit earlier or a bit later, i could have befriended the chinese girl and would have been gushing about my love for chinese food. or the chinese girl could have befriended sung hee, and you would be reading a chinese girl's blog professing her love for korean cuisine. but alas, it was i who became entangled in the bibimbap mix (and brought cavin with me).

after leaving new brunswick and all the korean joints in nj, cavin and i explored the korean restaurant scene in dc and outlying areas. so when we moved back to philly, we had to start from scratch and see if we could unearth the holy korean bbq.

some research later, we discovered that philly does indeed "do" korean in the form of our own little koreatown. armed with this knowledge, and the fact that we basically drive near this part of town to get to hong kong supermarket, we ventured out to olney to reconnect with our inner mandu.

what did we find? one place was a small korean noodle house on cheltenham ave that hand draws their own noodles. nothing was written in english, but as we looked around, everyone seemed to be eating either a big bowl of the seafood noodle soup, or the black bean noodles - so of course, we got both. while it was tasty (and rather cheap, if i can recall correctly), we left still in search of good ol' fashioned korean bbq.

Cheltenham Seafood Noodle Shop
401 W. Cheltenham Ave.
215-635-3959

the next place we found was actually not in koreatown, but in north wales, of all places. koko restaurant is next to the assi plaza, an asian grocery store, reminicent of h-mart. koko restaurant opened up fairly recently and we decided to take our chances - plus, we knew where they were getting all of their ingredients...

they had electric grills at only some of the tables, and i recall the prices being fair. i remember that the panchan was a little lacking (maybe only 3-4 varieties), and the portion of kalbi was a little smaller than i expected. that said, it's still a good fix if you are out in the suburbs, jonesing for korean bbq.

korean bbq koko
1222 welsh road
north wales, pa 19454
(215) 412-4300

around the same time cavin and i started to really search for korean restaurants, the philly inquirer came out with a timely piece on koreatown. the day before the article came out though, we already had plans to try korean fried chicken we had heard so much about down in dc.

apparently there is a lounge on cheltenham ave, soho cafe, that serves only one food item on their menu: bon chon chicken. we went and picked up 2 boxes of mixed spicy/mild chicken wings and were completely blown away. one box had 20 pieces of large chicken wings, a container of cubed daikon radish, a can of soda, and a cute magnet for the fridge with their info on it. the coating is so amazing - it's light and airy and the technique used to fry the chicken allows the skin of the chicken to be super crispy. i remembered reading a nytimes article about the korean fried chicken, but i wasn't expecting it to actually be this addicting! [and now i understand sung hee's unwaivering devotion for fried chicken, like popeyes - if only we had found a bon chon in the area!]

be aware though, the frying technique takes time, so i'd advise you to call 30 minutes ahead of time to place an order, or be prepared to hang out in the soho cafe lounge and wait. oh, and while an order of 20 wings (with daikon radish and soda) is $20, it's totally worth it. trust me.

Cafe Soho
468 W. Cheltenham Ave.
215-224-6800

finally, i treated the fam out to our most recent korean outing at everyday good house. the service was great and they serve alcohol. there were 7-8 varieties of panchan, our kalbi and bulgogi were intensely flavored, and they were more than willing to keep refilling our requests for more of the japchae panchan (which my mom loved).

each diner received a small dish of seasoned sesame oil and fermented soybean paste for our bbq. this is something that i hadn't seen before in all of my korean restaurant experiences to date (except i think they did that at koko), but it was a welcomed custom, especially when eating the grilled, unmarinated pork belly.

another korean custom that i KNOW sung hee has recounted tales of is getting a room at a karaoke bar, drinking with friends and getting sloshed while singing neil diamond tunes. apparently the building that houses everyday good house also has these karaoke rooms of which i speak. cavin and i have yet to go, but maybe in the future we'll build up enough courage and take the plunge. i mean, it IS a private room, so why not?

Everyday Good House
5501 N. Front St.
Philadelphia, PA 19120
215-276-7942; New World Karaoke 215-549-7942

Labels: philly, restaurant