Dae Sung Oak--post reading dinner

fish in red pepper with radishes, potatoes, and tofu
the communal pot of vegetables and beef--this will eventually be made into a porridge when the broth is all cooked down
mung bean pancakes
the spread
pork belly that you wrap in cabbage with kimchi and an oyster

After the Out of Nothing reading I went out to dinner with my family with Nancy and Lan. Predictably we got Korean food. Saeyoung and I had this discussion afterwards about how Korean food is just not conducive to conversation. There is nothing leisurely about it. The server is constantly bringing food-small side dishes, checking on the meat, bringing rice. It feels something like an attack of food actually. Korean food is aggressive. Are we an aggressive people?

And the other problem is that the table gets so full with food that there isn't even room to put your elbows down (that's bad manners anyhow, but still). My brain kind of stops working when i'm overwhelmed with food in this way.

We went to Dae Sung Oak which specializes in a Korean shabu-shabu type dish. A boiling pot of broth is set in the middle of the table and vegetables are added (mushrooms, cabbage, seaweed, sweet potatoes, peppers, etc). When the broth looks like it's at a scalding level, thin raw almost carpaccio like slices of beef are added. When the meat is cooked through we dip it in a sweet soy sauce. When the broth is all cooked down an thickened, they add rice and make it into a porridge. It's quite gluttonous, also glutinous. haha.

Dae Sung Oak

2585 West Olympic Blvd

Los Angeles, Ca 90006

213.386.1600