(upbeat music)
Some customers, they complain
that Soondae has this weird like pig smell.
They don't like it, it turns them off.
Do you use cow's blood or pig's blood?
Uh, it's cow's blood.
I hear a lot of customers saying,
"Oh, this place, the Soondae doesn't smell here.
"That's why I like it."
(upbeat music)
A lot of great cuisines are about,
you know, utilizing parts of the animal
that nobody wants, right?
These are throw away things.
Right, (laughs) that's what I'm trying to say, yeah.
Right, and kidneys and hearts and everything.
I'm gonna try with a little bit of salt.
And you have some other like peppers
and stuff in here, right?
Any other seasonings other than salt and um...
It's (speaking foreign language).
(speaking foreign language)
I mean you can see a lot of other Soondaes
are not made with as much care,
so they kinda crumble when you're holding it.
But this one's really tightly packed.
(upbeat music)
First of all, it's quite chewy
in a really wonderful, lovely way right?
The dangmyeon and the rice together
gives it this kind of Tteok right?
It's basically like Tteok,
which is a Korean rice cake.
So Korean rice cake, they make it
with the sweet, sticky rice.
Right. Yeah.
Except this is savory, and threateningly dark.
(both laughing)
And made with blood.
It's funny cause in Korea, people eat this on the street.
This is very much a street snack,
it's something you grab and go.
I heard that you can even get like, a whole piece
that's uncut and you just-- Yeah, yeah.
You sit there and you're on the subway,
you're just like, you know
chomping on this-- It's like Kimbap,
but it's not. Right.
(both laughing)
You're like chomping on it.
This is kind of, one of the original Korean fast foods.
Yeah, the first time I tried it was
when my grandpa was coming home from work.
I was like seven or six, and then he would bring some home,
and then I would try it.
I fell in love with it, and then after we immigrated here
to the US my mom, she worked in a kitchen
but it wasn't her own restaurant,
she was working for somebody.
And she was like, "I need to do something on my own."
And she asked me, "What kind of restaurant should I open?"
And I was like, "I want Soondae."
Wait, wait, so this restaurant is your idea?
(both laughing) How old were you?
I was, I was 10.
(laughing) Oh my gosh!
So you guys have opened this restaurant,
you've had the restaurant now for 27 years?
27 years now yeah.
You guys are like OG up in K-town.
Thank you. This is great.
This is the Saeujeot?
Yeah, the Saeujeot.
So basically it's fermented like, little tiny shrimp.
Yeah.
And then you put some other aromatics
like green onion-- Sesame seed.
And sesame seed, but what, is it just like water
that loosens it up or, I mean...
We add water and then we add
all these other ingredients to it.
All these other ingredients, oh, secrets.
Soondae is, you know without a doubt, a black sausage
or a Boudin Noir, or like any classic blood sausage.
Very mild, iron, iron kind of like beefiness
that's not resembling the flesh of beef.
Yeah. Right?
It's not the meaty flavor-- Right.
Yeah, but it has this kind of savoriness,
I almost wanna say coffee, like coffee likeness,
and there is some element of that grit.
I think that anybody can get behind this,
it's really approachable.
So this one is beef heart?
- [Michael] Mhm.
This is good.
It's like meaty, right?
If you haven't had beef heart before,
it's very lean and it can be tender if it's like,
kinda gently cooked; but this boiled.
The fibers are very small so it has
almost a mealiness to it, and this is kinda gamey.
(laughing) Yeah. Yeah.
I can do it, I mean this is okay.
We haven't gone to liver yet so we'll see what happens.
- [Michael] Tripe.
Tripe, okay. Yeah.
A lot of people say, you know, it's pig ear but it's not,
it's uh-- It looks like it.
Mhm, it's the stomach.
So this is literal guts?
So the pig tripe, that is uh, it's very tender
for something that should not be tender.
I'm sure it's really chewy.
- [Michael] Yeah we boil it for a while.
- [Matthew] Like how long?
- [Michael] Uh, over an hour.
Okay, actually this flavor
is much more mild than the beef heart.
I think that people would be just be like,
mentally a little scared of this stuff, right?
But flavor-wise, it's fine.
Alright, so we're gonna get some cow tongue now.
Cause they serve cow tongue in like,
Korean barbecue places but it's much thinner,
and it's got (speaking foreign language), same thing.
You know it has an almost like charcuterie quality,
you know when you have uh,
some very nice Salumi, or like pate...
Mhm. Right?
Because it's quite tender and it dissipates in your mouth
as you're eating it.
Very strong beefiness.
I think the reason why it reminds me
of it is because it's just cold.
And actually it's not even cold, it's lukewarm,
so it's kind of strange to just have lukewarm awful cuts,
and then to me, my brain is telling me that it
reminds me of some sort of pate.
The flavor's great, it's very, I mean it's beefy but
not scary or gamey or off putting at all.
Right.
It's good.
Liver.
This one has a strong flavor.
That's undeniably liver, wooh.
I'm down with that.
That just coats my entire palette, it's slightly bitter
in a pleasant way.
It's a good contrast to the Soondae,
and I can see why you put these extra parts
because you're like, "Soondae, Soondae, Soondae, pork liver,
Soondae, Soondae, Soondae, beef tongue, you know?
And I think that's why you do this,
so that you don't get bored.
(upbeat music)
So the Soondaeguk is, the Soondae,
they're sort of spongy right?
They kinda actually soak in the broth that you're doing.
Yeah, if you leave the Soondae in the broth for too long,
it actually just consumes the broth.
(both laughing)
So you got the little nutty perilla seeds on the top,
tons of uh, green onion.
Yeah.
(slurping) Mm, oh man.
It's a deep flavor-- Woo.
We use a combination of dogani--
What is dogani?
I think it's beef knee bone.
Okay.
And then we use something else too,
some other type of bone.
Yeah I mean, this is definitely a bone broth.
Hangover cure status right here.
This is where I come for my hangover cure.
I just love that you guys are able to take
parts of the animal that are neglected,
you know that are not really beloved.
It's not steak, or short rib,
(speaking foreign language), or whatever.
Yeah you can't find a rib eye here.
You won't be finding any rib eye at this restaurant.
Thank you so much Michael, this is amazing.
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