- [Rochelle] I have a question.
- Okay.
- [Rochelle] I'm trying to make Doenjang-jjigae,
- Okay.
- [Matt] What kind of protein should I put in it,
to flavor it?
- [Matt] You get dried anchovies, yeah you get dried
anchovies and that's what you, that's what you put in.
- [Rochelle] What are you doing?
- I'm actually driving right now, I'm in Atlanta.
And driving down, I guess what is most commonly considered
K-Town here, Buford Highway.
- [Rochelle] Alright, well have fun, I found the dried
anchovies, so.
- [Matt] Okay, so you're gonna make Doenjang-jjigae tonite?
- [Rochelle] I'm gonna attempt to.
- [Matt] How come you only make it when I'm gone?
- [Rochelle] 'cause I want to perfect
it before you get back.
- Hmm, okay that's, that's a smart move.
(laughing)
well this place is supposedly the best, but it's kind of
impossible to find, ha ha.
I'm super excited to try one of the city's most
celebrated restaurants called Yet Tuh.
The decidedly old school, traditional restaurant is
tucked away behind an office building along Buford Highway,
which is often the entry point and the main drag along
the Korean community here in ATL, which spreads out from
this section of the highway all the way out to Duluth.
Atlanta's home to the third largest Korean community
in the country.
(laughing)
Oh my gosh.
Wow.
- [Woman] Here's your fish.
- [Matt] Ha ha, this pancake!
Wow.
I'm like overwhelmed.
Anchovies are kind of the bedrock of Korean cuisine,
in a lot of ways because, you, Koreans use dried anchovies
to basically make their broths.
When I was a kid, I'd wolf these down all day.
Mmm, mmm.
This is nice.
Mmm, my mom made these, nice and salty.
And I like how it's kinda cold.
Alright we got the dangash here.
Mmm, this is advanced makchang.
It's got a light crunch on it, like nice depth that's
kinda been sitting around for a while, and almost
tastes like you're having a root.
Mmm, this Banchan is exemplary.
So this is Gajami and this, he insisted was their best
fried fish.
You know, I don't know, like I don't necessarily love
this, but a lot of restaurants always push it on me,
'cause they think it's the best.
I mean, just hear that crunch, I mean whoo.
The meat itself has a good amount of flakiness,
but it holds together well, try it.
Mmm, I mean it's not super flavorful, but because
it's flat, it just, it's naturally made to be fried, right?
It's got the geometry for it.
We're gonna go for some of the fish eggs here,
sorry mama.
I've heard that their seafood pancake is the most
impressive thing here and as soon as it comes out,
I mean just the, the smell of the bottom of this pancake,
just browning is intoxicating, I mean look at it,
it's a pizza (laughing) it's a Korean pizza.
A dipping sauce of soy, just a tad little bit of vinegar,
you've got green onions in here, mmm.
That is some of the like, deepest, most well constructed
seafood pancakes, onions with green onions, with seafood.
You got, I just had a chunk of shrimp fall out, you got
octopus, and the batter itself has like a slight chewiness
to it, Atlanta, you got some good Korean food, mm mm.
You know I haven't had Yukgaejang on the show yet,
and it's kind of a, slightly more obscure dish, I think
it's, definitely easily like, because it's just this
big, spicy beef noodle stew, you can see kinda the
striations of the, the brisket, they almost always use
brisket, 'cause it just has a nice stringy texture
that gets really tender in here.
They use a vermicelli noodles in here.
If I were to pick any Korean dish, this is it.
This bowl right here, and just a little bit of rice,
is all I need.
I think what it really captures is a sense of longing,
like Korean culture is, I think just inherently one that's
just a little battered and beaten down.
I mean the country's been invaded.
Korean people have, there's this word called han,
it's a sense of like remorse, or this regret that,
you just, is just part of every Korean,
and I don't know, for some reason, this thing,
it doesn't really capture han, but it really exudes this
longing or this nostalgia, it's like primarily kind of
a noodle soup, see that beef come out.
That's a good thing about using these stone pots,
they just stay hot.
It's getting spicy, it's a very strong version of
Yukgaejang, and I'm not really, because I love this dish
so much, I'm not really picky about it, you know I'm
not like, oh this is the better one.
I would say that the broth on this is much more intense,
it's almost just, it's the beefiest Yukgaejang I might
have ever had.
The meat just melts in your mouth, mmm.
This is Godeungeo Jorim, so this is one of my favorite
just formats of Korean dishes.
It is a kind of a dark soy, chili, braising of a fish,
and they're using mackerel, like you can see the whole
chunk of mackerel here.
There's a strip right here, of the dark flesh.
It's almost like chicken, you know you got white meat
and dark meat, and that stuff on the edge,
this is what I want.
Mmm, the part that really just gets me going is this,
kinda wheel of Korean daikon radish, it's unrecognizable
almost, but it's super tender 'cause it just soaks
up that flavor in the braise.
That was seriously on point.
This one is deep, it's got a lot of Yukgaejang in it so,
it's just super intense.
This dish has convinced me 100% that, Yet Tuh is
a legitimately great Korean restaurant.
As this community grows and as the generation's
you know kinda pass on, you need a restaurant like
this to help you put things in context, be like,
this is a fantastic version of Jorim, or Pajeon,
and the Banchan here is gonna be, it's just gonna
have that extra love and care put into it.
If you guys like this K-Town show and you want to
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Miso sesame slab bacon and even a Bimbimpap egg scramble,
all of this is spurred on by a Bloody Mary that combines
Soju and Kimchee.