katch4246 posted: "Cycle 4 - Item 139 24 (Fri) May 2013 Vancouver-Style Mushroom Sundubu Jjigae 1.0 at Vancouver House of Tofu Soup -Oksu, Seongdong, Seoul, Republic of Korea- with the Family Vancouver House of Tofu Soup is a Korean restaurant chain. Specializes in "
Vancouver House of Tofu Soup is a Korean restaurant chain. Specializes in LA/Bukchang-style sundubu jiigae.
Recently opened.
While I was living in Los Angeles during the early aughts, restaurants specializing in sundubu jjigae were, presumably still are, common around Koreatown. The service was distinguished by the rice that came in a sizzling hot stone pot, resulting in nurungji. To be clear, making burnt rice in a pot is a common practice, but doing it in combination with sundubu jjigae as a set meal was the gimmick. BCD Tofu House, a chain with several locations throughout the area, claimed that the tradition hailed from the neighborhood of Bukchang-dong in Seoul. Who knows, maybe some restaurant in the neighborhood, at some point in history, had done it, and someone took the idea to LA. But, in Korea, Bukchang is not known for sundubu jjigae and/or the nurungji thing, as far as I'm aware. These days, the combo can be found at restaurants with nonsensical names like "LA-style Bukchang-Dong Sundubu." Beyond such repatriated knockoff joints, sundubu jjigae is generally a dish prepared simply and sold cheaply in the humblest restaurants throughout the country.
The steamed rice is scooped out of the pot into a separate bowl and eaten as usual, leaving behind the burnt rice stuck to the inner surface of the pot.
Warm water is poured into the pot and left to sit. After several minutes, as the water loosens the burnt rice, it's scraped off and eaten, kinda like a secondary soup.
The sundubu jjigae at Vancouver House of Tofu Soup was meh. The soup itself had a slight chemical aftertaste, perhaps from some packaged sauce mix. Scant mushrooms. The nurungji was fine, though personally I'm not a fan. Claims to be "Vancouver-style," though clearly an LA/Bukchang knock-off. At 8,000 won, definitely not worth it.
The server began speaking to DJ in English when he pronounced "LA galbi" in an American accent. She said that she'd lived in Vancouver, making me think that she's probably affiliated with ownership. I should've asked her about Vancouver-style sundubu.
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