The Bay Area and.. food.

Because articles like this one come out, 36 Hours in Silicon Valley. When is one ever published about LA?

Shame on Stanford University’s students for allowing such tame bars along their home turf, University Avenue.

True, but also sad that University Ave is a 40+ minute walk from the closest dorms. BUIs also to be avoided, so that's not an option. Dorm/house life certainly can't be beat. The writer should have stopped by good ol' Mayfield Ave.

And now, time for a veritable eye feast. Lots of delicious food pictures and explanations to post.

Kimpop time!

Kimpop is like Korean-style sushi. No raw fish, but sort of like California rolls, as all the items are cooked, and there are vegetables. But, Kimpop, in my opinion is a hundred times better than California rolls. The first picture on the left is the 'list' of ingredients that went into it: rice studded with beef and some sesame oil; seasoned and blanched spinach; pickled daikon, blanched carrots, egg. The middle picture is my halmoni (or Korean for grandmother) rolling a kimpop, which results in the final picture... How delicious! I could eat tons of those entire rolls... and on that day, oh how I did.

Now, here's my attempt at rolling! The leftmost picture is the start of my kimpop, how it looks when it's ready to be rolled. The middle picture is when I sliced, and then the third is what my slices looked like... Halmoni said it looks like Downtown L.A., with all the buildings. Which is to say that my slicing isn't so perfect.

Now moving on to my favorite Japanese sushi... Dashi ikura!!

Eggs that pop in your mouth. So fun and delicious... This is 'sashimi' style, as it's normally served on rice, surrounded by a strip of seaweed. I put sashimi in quotations, since I'm not sure if people actually order dashi ikura like this? I've got the hookup.

And finally.... Kal guk su!

I wrote about kal guk su in a previous post, about how awesome it is...

In other news, I love kal gooksu. (Kal guksu? Kal gooksoo?) It literally means 'knife noodle' and handmade noodles go in a delicious simple broth, whether chicken, clam, anchovy... I had the chicken one not too long ago, and it's almost creamy: so delicious and satisfying and comforting.

I visited Olympic Noodle in LA, an establishment recommended by Yelp and backed up by Andy. And, I'm happy to say that both of their reputations are intact. Olympic Noodle's performance was stellar. The noodles were incredibly chewy, the chicken was so tender, and the broth was thick and savory. It was such home-style cooking, I wish I knew how to make it. It's the kind of thing that I'm excited to come back to LA for, over winter break, when it's cold (or I have a cold)... Pure yum.

Moving on from food:

I'm currently preparing for my move back up to the Bay Area, more mentally than anything else. The Labor Day weekend will be spent... laboring, no doubt, packing up clothes bags and other essentials I may need (extra toothbrushes? 6 pillows for my non-existent bed?).

And, going back to food, it's breakfast time: waffles and sausage. Hooray!