BCD Tofu (Koreatown)

As any of my regular readers knows, I’m very big on trying things again, even if, or maybe especially if, I once hated it.  Such as oysters – I did not like them cooked or raw when I ate them while growing up, but not only did I try them again (that post actually has a photo of my first oyster after a maybe 10 year hiatus!), I wound up loving them.  Well, raw.  I’m still not really keen on cooked oysters, but that can be another post.  Anyway, the point is, I often re-try something I haven’t liked before… because tastes change, or maybe I had a bad example. 

I’ve avoided soondubu for years on this account.  I’d only had it once before, somewhere in K-town, with my friends telling me it was great and my dubious response, “I really don’t like tofu and I’m not big on rice.  What makes you think I’d like this?” but I gamely went along.  I burned the living daylights out of my tongue, and I hated the taste of it.  Tofu mixed with rice, slightly sour, soupy, what is the big farking deal about this stuff?  So I never had it again.

(For the record, soondubu is basically a soup/stew made with soft tofu, garlic, sesame oil, some sort of meat (or not), a red pepper paste called gochujang, and some mix of stuff.  I am not Korean and didn’t eat it growing up, so I can’t really say what could be put in it and it’d still be considered authentic or not, but I know there’s a fairly large mix of things you can put in it that makes it what it is.  Oh, and you generally get served in a big stone bowl that’s hot to the point of “if you touch it, you will have severe burns” while the soondubu is so hot, it’s bubbling/boiling, and you can crack a raw egg into it, stir it around, and before it cools enough so that you can eat it comfortably, the egg will have cooked; then you mix rice into it or mix it into rice and eat it.  Please, anyone who knows better, feel free to correct me…)

So! now that we’re all clear on a dish that I’m not that familiar with.  Cold weather means soondubu time, right?  (Well, to this girl who eats this sort of hot soup food in cold weather, anyway, though I’ve read that Korean people eat it in the summer to make themselves feel cold.) 

Because soondubu can also be vegetarian (though I’m under the impression it usually is not), this made it a perfect candidate for dinner with Cookie. 

BCD Tofu, about which I’d heard much – at least, the location in Queens – recently opened up in Koreatown, much more accessible to someone like me, who doesn’t have a car and is in Koreatwn more often than she’d like to admit (picking up food for bento).  So I snagged Cookie and explained to her the situation: I’ve only had soondubu once and hated it, but I hear so many great things about BCD Tofu that I wanted to try it out.  She was game as ever, considering she loves soondubu – it’s filling, delicious, spicy as you like (which she’s nuts about; the girl scares me with how spicy she takes things!), and soothing/warming on a cold day. 

So, back to that picture up top (it was raining/snowing lightly the day we went, so I was not keen on taking out my camera and getting it wet to snag a photo of the front).

Banchan, or complimentary side/starter dishes that most Korean places give you when you eat there (well, all; I’ve never been to one that didn’t).  I’ve often mentioned these on my bento blog, cuz I buy them and they’re perfect for adding to bento… anyways, BCD Tofu thusfar has been one to give quite a lot of banchan for only two people dining.  Not only did we get the above – sauteed spinach, mungbean sprouts, pickly things, potato salad (which is closer to mashed potatoes and so disgustingly bad for you but delicious… and at $13.99 a lb., I refuse to buy this from ANYWHERE), kimchi of course, and … spicy raw octopus tentacles, which I saw Anthony Bourdain on No Reservations eat while they were still alive! but these were dead… but we also got

Some mild pickly soup thing (I didn’t drink it, but I did eat all of the veggies inside!)… but best of all… a banchan I’ve never seen anywhere!

A whole, deep fried fish each!  Since I went with Cookie the vegetarian, I got to eat both, but I found I couldn’t finish everything… sadface.  The fish is about the size of my hand (7″ long), and mild in flavor.

But you don’t really care about the banchan… do you?  (I do!)  It was tasty.  It was banchan.  Nothing stood out but nothing was awful either.  Oh, and here’s a little secret that I didn’t know until I read this book that I really must review here soon: if you like a particular banchan, or if you just run out of a particular banchan and want more, you can ask for more!  I’ve never done that, but I was told you can.  So… try it.  (And tell me if they charge you extra or laugh at you.  I don’t think they will though.)  Oh, and I’ve also read that if you like one and want to take some home, ask them!  They will probably sell you some.

The soondubu…

Freshly arrived at our table – this is my beef soondubu, regular (not spicy but not mild either).  Can you see the bubbles?  (I was trying to take pictures fast so that I could still do the next step…)

Cracking a raw egg into the pot!  (Not for the faint of heart, but I eat raw egg pretty regularly… when I hotpot.)

Stirring the raw egg into the boiling hot soup.  I wish they didn’t give wooden disposable chopsticks – it’d have been really nice to use real chopsticks, but what can you do…

Stir it up until it looks like egg drop soup, but spicy.  And with tofu.  And meat chunks.  Ok, it doesn’t look like egg drop soup at all, but the process reminds me of it.  Whatever!  I’m Chinese!  Leave me alone!  🙂 lol

Final product.  I wound up scooping bits of my rice in, eating it plain, eating it any which way.  And you know I really liked it – the flavors blended well for my tongue, garlic, sesame, red pepper paste, slightly spicy but nowhere near unbearable, a bit sour, very hearty while not being thick or weighing me down.  Completely soothing and perfect on a cold winter’s night – which tonight certainly is – in fact, shortly after this, I sought out soft tofu so I could replicate this at home (which I haven’t yet done, because I have been unable to get to the store to get gochujang, eeps). 

Now, my opinion means nothing here because it had been over 10 years since I had soondubu and I have no point of comparison.  I know I like it, I know I want to have it again, but I don’t know what other places taste like. 

Here comes Cookie!  She said it was one of the best, maybe not the best, soondubus she’d had before, with a great balance of all the flavors.  She’d requested kimchi soondubu, extra spicy, and found the spiciness in line with the sourness of the overall dish, and everything just worked together well.  The broth was very flavorful and she chowed down; I could tell she was enjoying the meal greatly, which always means a success to me.

Yvo says: It’s good.  It’s a little more expensive than the other places in Koreatown that serve the same thing, but the extra banchan surely makes a difference in the price as does the brand new, ginormous interior (I was really surprised when we stepped inside, expecting a smaller place).  I found the meal very tasty and worth the $15 or so that we each paid total with a good tip for the above food.  I would definitely go back, though I’d also like to try other places for comparison purposes, including the other location in Queens.
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