Eating My Way Through Koreatown.

So, before I write anything, here's a picture I took of something I ate:


It may not be obvious from looking at this enchantress, but what we have here is a genuine squid stuffed with pork. It's kind of hard for me to come up with a caption for this picture, because the concept is an apex in and of itself. Clearly breeding squids with pigs was the greatest act of animal husbandry ever.

Anyway, this is from Pocha 32 in Koreatown. It's one of those hole-in-the-wall places where you and your white friends aren't really welcomed. In fact, when I was there, our table was the only one with Caucasians. However, the food is fantastic and I wish instead of going to work tomorrow I was just going to Pocha 32 to eat. All day. Stopping only to write about it on the internet. What's that, you want some ambiance?


I've never been to a dive bar in Korea, and chances are I never will, but something tells me this might be what one is like. The ceiling is covered with dorm-room chic Christmas lights nestled between a wealth of fungible soju caps. In my extensive research for this blog post, I learned of a Korean toast, mashi-go chuk-ja, which translates to "let's drink and die."


Well, if it isn't a blurry photo of budae jjigae! This stew really is apparently a fantastic result of American military occupation. Its contents rest in a thin, yet forcefully flavorful and spicy broth. Pretty much everything is included: ramen noodles, rotelli, spam, hot dogs, pork, rice cakes, kimchi. Heck, it's even topped off with cheese. If that doesn't appeal to you in some way, chances are we can't be friends.