- [Serena] Yeah, so where are you taking me today?
- [Matthew] So we're going to go to what I think
is one of the most popular noodle places in K-town.
It's called Hangari Bajirak Kalguksu.
They serve the best version of kalguksu,
or like, knife-cut noodles.
This is the Korean version of Ramen, right?
So they're these thick, kind of like rusticly cut noodles
and they're put in this variety of broths.
I think that they were written up
on like some Chinese food blog.
(laughter)
It's so, like, it's...
It's my people!
Yeah, every time you go in there,
there's like, oh this is not Korean,
this is Chinese being spoken, and
I think it's the largest concentration
of Chinese speakers in K-town.
But that's why it's also super packed.
You have to wait a long time.
I waited, like, an hour, just to eat there,
and I never wait for food.
You have to try it, let's go.
Let's do it.
What do we have here?
This is chicken and there's a whole
Cornish game hen in there.
Mmm.
One that's tinted with kimchi
so it's got this like nice red color
and then, you know, bajirak, which is clams.
And why do you think other people love this place?
I mean they have a couple of things on their menu
but pretty much what 90% of people order is this dish.
It's a really good gateway to Korean food, right?
I mean, we have the certain standards
like bulgogi, and kimbap.
And people, those are great, but in the way that
ramen is kind of like that quintessential Japanese dish,
I think that's what this place is.
This is our, like, ramen version, right?
It's filling, it's cheap, I mean the place is,
you can easily get out of here for under $15 a person.
But I don't see this that many places, where?
Because kalguksu is not really a dish
that shows up on Korean restaurants.
It's something your grandma makes.
It's like almost too simple to serve in a restaurant.
See, that's the thing about this place, is that
they've perfected something that you can eat at,
that everyone eats at home all the time,
but, like, you don't see it a lot at restaurants,
because it's almost like, really?
This place is like, you know what?
Everybody likes this thing but not a lot of restaurants
have perfected doing just this, so we're going to do it.
So the way that you start it out what
your grandma would give you which is a bowl of barley,
then you amp it up with this super delicious bean paste.
Then what do you do, this?
Yeah, and then you add the crunchy,
this is yeolmu kimchi, so it's sort of like
the shoots that basically come out of radish.
Okay, so this is my vegetable for the rice.
Yeah and this like really tangy and just gently spicy
and it gives you that fresh crunch.
Mmm.
It's crunchy.
Mmm.
This is their, like, namesake dish.
It's like this embarrassment of clams.
This also has clams in it, like a ton,
actually, which is really nice.
But, I mean, it's tinted red with kimchi.
I just love how just these noodles soak up all the flavor
of whatever broth they're sitting in.
Mm.
Oh, these noodles are phenomenal though.
Very, very chewy.
Right, and I love how like uneven they are, you know,
they're like, some of them are a little thinner,
and they're like shards and some of them
are more substantial and chewy.
When you actually make the dough,
it's really simple and it's knife cut,
it's not, you know you have to extrude
them in a certain way, like pasta.
What I think that they do better here than I could do
at home is the pliancy of this noodle, right?
The texture of it is similar to ho mien in Chinese cuisine
and that's something my mom is able to make.
This is kind of their little innovation, right?
This is samgyetang, and generally when you make this dish,
it doesn't have noodles in it.
Like kind of medicinal almost, right,
cause there's ginseng in there,
there's a little bit of the jujubes in there.
Yes.
Kind of gives that Chinese medicinal,
I mean, you could relate.
Yeah! (laughs)
Your mom made you drink that stuff. (laughs)
Yeah, yeah, very Eastern medicine.
I don't know, it's really good.
This kind of noodle texture is my favorite
noodle texture so this is totally up my alley.
It's delicious.
The fact that it's paired with these really homemade soups.
You invited me here, it's like you're
inviting me in your home, in a way.
Yeah.
It's special.
It's special to be in someone's home.
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