YOUNG DONG TOFU

It's been a while since I last posted, but school has been a little crazy. I apologize and will try to balance my school, the blog, stuffing my face and Myspace! I actually wandered out the South Bay for this one and left my mark in Arcadia. This area is known for their Chinese food, but this Korean spot, located in a plaza, was full of hungry people. Seating took a couple of minutes and as soon as we sat down a bowl of salad was instantly brought to our table. Soon after, the lady came to take our order. I told the her that I wasn't ready, so instead of coming back in a couple of minutes she decided to start with my other dining companions. All this within 5 minutes of sitting down.

Like every Korean restaurant we were given a lot of little dishes. These were more spicy than what I am used to, but still really good. The best was the cucumber kimchi, I love the crunch when you bite down on it (bottom left). There were more side dishes that came later that I didn't take a picture of, but were just as good.

I love me some Korean rice! This was a little well done though. It didn't have the gloss and softness that I am accustomed to when eating Korean rice. This rice was cooked in a stone pot. I love it when it's made like this because underneath all that fluffy rice, there hides the burnt rice that you can scrape off the bottom, like hidden treasure.

It was another chilly night in Los Angeles, so I ordered the mushroom soon tofu and bbq spicy pork combination for aroung $12. The soup came out boiling hot. Pretty scary stuff. The tofu stew hit the spot. It was filled with enoki mushrooms and super soft tofu. It was spicy and had my nose running. I forgot all about the cold weather that was waiting for us outside.

This was the marinated bbq beef and the spicy pork. This was a lot of damn food! The meat was piled up high and I was already almost full when all this shit came out. Me being the fat ass that I am, still tried my best to demolish it all. Both meats were mushy, like sukiyaki. I belived that it was cooked from a big pot in mass quanity to ease the cooks in the back. It had really good flavor, but lacked the charred burnt taste. The beef was sweet and the pork was really spicy, but I couldn't stop eating it. We left this place feeling stuffed and warm. ~ Bootsi

Young Dong Garden

19 W. Huntington Drive

Arcadia, CA 91007