Bibim-YUM!

I love Korean food.  I grew up with Korean food as our neighbors were Korean.  And it saddens me that Korean food is not nearly as popular or as accessible as it should be.  But there are oftentimes when I just crave it.  So I used Yelp to try and find the closest quality Korean restaurant near my home one Saturday and found myself at the Greenland Market Shopping Center in Van Nuys.  There are many restaurants there, but the one stuck in the corner with the sign with two Korean letters and the word Evergreen is the one to choose.  In Korean the restaurant is called Cho Eun 조은, but it also goes by its English name, Evergreen.

You know how you can tell if you picked the right ethnic restaurant?  Look at the customers and if they are of the same ethnicity, then you picked correctly.  The restaurant isn't fancy, but I enjoy that aspect as it minimizes the "stranger in a strange land" experience since the restaurant is a true Korean restaurant owned by Koreans and serving food to Koreans, and not a franchise operated by someone whose family came over on the Mayflower.

As is traditional in any Korean restaurant, once you are seated and order food the servers immediately come out with a tray full of side dishes to nosh on while you wait for your meal, or to complement your meal.  In Korean its called banchan.  Banchan varies from restaurant to restaurant and probably even from day to day, but it almost always includes at least one form of kimchi (traditionally fermented cabbage in chilis).  It also often includes some form of bland soup, which I sometimes appreciate depending mostly on the weather outside.

Banchan (side dishes, including kimchi, bean sprouts, among others)

On this particular day I was craving glass noodles, or transparent noodles, also known as jap chae.  Jap chae is a Korean dish made from sweet potato noodles, stir fried in sesame oil with various vegetables, sometimes served with beef, and flavored with soy sauce, and sweetened with sugar.  I found Cho Eun's glass noodles a little on the sweet side, but it was still delicious and hit the spot.

Transparent noodles with vegetables

It might seem odd that I'm making a point of discussing the rice and even showing a picture of it, but because it wasn't the traditional white or brown, it deserves mentioning.  I'm not sure what gave the rice its purplish hue, but it certainly was tasty.

Rice

BBQ spicy pork is one of my favorite Korean dishes.  At Cho Eun its served sizzling hot like Korean fajitas on top of onions on a hot iron pan shaped like a cow.  Shaped like a cow?  Yup, shaped like a cow.  Well, its definitely a statement to serve hot pork "inside" a cow.  When we ordered two servings for lunch (one for each of us) our server made a point to state that they are large servings as if to change our minds, but to me it just meant "Yay!  More leftovers!"  And so I got to satisfy my Korean cravings for a few more days.

BBQ Pork in Spicy Sauce (marinated in special soy sauce and served in a sizzling hot pan)

If you want traditional Korean food that actual Koreans eat, then I highly recommend Cho Eun.  Its a friendly simple atmosphere with an easy to decipher menu.  Be careful not to be lured in by the fancy signage of the all you can eat Korean barbecue in the same shopping center and find the simple sign in the corner.  You'll be glad you did.