I'm actually overwhelmed, i don't even know how to act or what to do a row of three by five banchan is another one of their signature dishes. Here, oh man see i told you that thing just melts in your mouth right. Look at that row. It's good to know that it's healthy, oh man, i can never go back.

Every bite of dumpling has to be with kimchi, hey everyone hope you're having an amazing day. It's mark wiens and welcome to los angeles good morning, steve hello, hello, mark awesome to hang out with you today. Likewise and today we are gon na go on an ultimate korean food tour of koreatown. In los angeles.

I think it is the number one hub and the biggest korea, town and center of korean culture outside of korea in the world for sure right, no doubt about it. We're going to take you on an ultimate korean food tour of k-town, los angeles, we're going to be eating. Noodles we're going to be eating. Marinated crab we're going to be eating a special duck dish, we're going to be eating barbecue we're going to have a lot of fun, we're going to eat a lot of delicious food and share all of the korean food, and this entire ultimate tour with you.

Right now so steve, where are we going first? So first we are going to this place called mdk noodles, which is one of the most popular traditional noodle houses, in los angeles in koreatown. They specialize in fresh handmade noodles, especially what's called their kalguksu, which is the korean style knife cut noodles. Doesn't that sound, exciting smells so good in this kitchen you smell that lactic acid. There's barrels of kimchi going buckets of garlic flying around the kitchen, the pre-aromas of a korean food tour - oh man, i'm hungry, looks like cheese.

Curds seems that they make these giant noodle rolls which almost look like paper towels before they're then set aside and rest, and then they slice them into the noodles. But what a cool machine it kind of kneads and pushes them and then like flattens it out into a roll formation, exactly man. Those are fresh noodles that you're guaranteed to get here from here. We're gon na run to the kitchen where they're gon na, where auntie is gon na cook.

Oh man there's just about 12 pots of boiling broth and meat juices and sauces all over the place. And then, if you come to the back there, that's where they're going to boil the kalguksu the noodles, but then also they have this amazing steamer for the mandu. It smells so wonderful, oh man, what a i didn't even see those trays of food over there. Oh yeah yeah: can you eat all this mark baby, okay, so so bibim kind of means like mixed right, a mixed.

So it's almost a mixed whoa mix, noodles mixed and then the guksu are those noodles which used green noodles wow. Oh, the mandu is ready wow. She can cook man um this place is serious man, yeah auntie's skills in the kitchen. I don't even have time to to process what she's doing she's just flying around the kitchen like through volcanic steam baths through boiling juices and noodles.

Everything is ready and she's, probably still like running around making more dishes like right now. Oh soybean soybean sauce, okay, wow um, not fully no talk about working brisk in the back of that kitchen man. They just fly auntie she's, the korean auntie. You want to have this is truly going to be.

An ultimate jeffrey is also joining us for a quick breakfast this morning. Oh, it's so good. I think we better start with the mandu, because they're like right out of the steamers, you want to catch those while they're hot all right mark. Are you ready for the first bite of this entire tour? One bite? Yes, cheers cheers cheers boom that was so comforting.

Oh wow yeah. Oh, i immediately taste the shrimp in there, the the bouncy texture of them. Oh, it's such a good mixture of meat, shrimp and herbs in there. Maybe chives.

Yes, chives too, you can see all the colors inside through the dumpling and it doesn't break apart yeah. I think that's something i love is that the skin is so thin. The owner mentioned that we one of the special moves, one of the signature things to do here, because they're famous for their kimchi is take some of the kimchi, and i hope we do this correct. I'm gon na put this into the bowl.

Take one of the dumplings onto the kimchi and kind of wrap the wrap. The kimchi. Is this the correct method: kimchi flavored, flavor explosion in your mouth man, the extra punch from that kimchi wow yeah, the ultimate move right there absolutely and everything is like just made fresher. So you can really taste the difference right.

I can never go back and every bite of dumpling has to be with kimchi forever, so minced meat. On top there's she added in these fresh noodles um. Let's just serve ourselves. Some of the that's quite a noodle pole here, but a noodle ball come on over.

Here i've got a, i got, you bro, you got me, don't let go man, don't let me drown. These are the fresh noodles that we saw them make and that they slice in the back there in the factory before boiling them up. There's little dumplings in there. There's a chive mixture, there's onions and then there's that minced meat that they put on top.

No, you definitely need to eat this one. If you come your signature dish right here, signature dish. Yes, all right cheers, that's just warm and comforting the freshness of the noodles. The soup is not overpowering, it's just soothing feels just like eating in korea right, you would not know you're, not in korea, and then we just got.

I think this sauce might be for the calgo soup. Okay, it looks kind of like a chili oil, not too much. It might be salty. Okay.

This is like the type of dish that anybody could eat from from young to old. Everyone can appreciate. Okay, next up for the bibim, the noodles are green, but she said it's from they're, not like matcha tea noodles. These are made from corella, which is some type of seaweed that she mentioned, and man i loved how she made this yeah, let's just pair in, should we mix it or should we just we got ta? Oh you got ta yeah go for it.

You wan na help me mark yes, okay, you know this thing is very sticky, so i'm just letting you know that you some people. I wonder if you have to cut this thing, the noodles, oh nice, nice hand of god, okay, all right! That makes things easier. Really all right, there's pickled vegetables in here, there's kimchi's, there's a variety of sauces, refreshing: oh wow yeah. She took them out of the hot water, put them under ice water, really, like massaged them, made them into a ball like literally like squeeze them out like a towel and then put them in your bowl, making sure they're, icy, cold, slippery cold, there's so many combinations And contrasts here: they're, not totally spicy too.

No, no, it's more like a sweet soothing, chili sauce yeah, not like you know about to do so: good soybean milk with the same green noodles on the bottom yeah. This is really one of the most unique and traditional korean dishes that you absolutely need to try, especially if you want to be introduced into the wonderful world of korean noodles. You ready mark. Oh yes, it looks and feels like the texture of a protein shake like it's like foamy and thick all, but men perfectly coating those noodles look at that wow all right.

Let's do it cheers cheers whoa the purity of it. It's like very earthly. Doesn't it tastes like it very nutty, nutty yeah soy beans, i believe soybeans and you taste the sesame in there there's very healthy taste to it minimal, very minimal? Yes, yes, exactly i mean if i had the flu or something um you know like. Instead of chicken soup, i wouldn't mind having that i'm just gon na set my dumplings onto this tray of kimchi nice.

Okay, i'm going to set that directly onto just cover it in kimchi, both top and bottom yeah, double kimchi, triple kimchi, the mandu sandwich. I think it's one of the more garlicky kimchi that you'll ever have it's also a pretty fresh kimchi. It's not you don't take as much lactic acid, it's mostly the like the stage where it's it's very new. It's not too bright man, the quality, the freshness of everything, is what really stood out absolutely so good, but we're not done quite yet.

Oh, not even close we're on our way to the next place, and next up we're going to a place. That's called soban restaurant. One of the legends of korean food, in los angeles and one of the great things about this restaurant, is that it was jonathan gold who was truly one of the most remarkable food writers in the the world has ever seen, unfortunately, he's not with us anymore, but His writing. Uh food advice continues, and this was one of his favorite korean restaurants.

Absolutely it's also michelin guide, restaurant, oh cool, really, one of the best uh high quality, traditional korean dining experiences. You can have in los angeles, small, it's friendly, it's like homey, and we met with the owner, so nice, so friendly from what steve told me is that the husband is the one who cooks the dishes, but the wife makes all the banchan and does all the Pickling mix the kimchi's, so what a team it's family run like extract, we're getting an exclusive look here in the back in the kitchen of soban, where mr and mrs park cook and prepare the dishes. Oh, it's an honor to be back here in such a legendary restaurant chicken just straight home, cooking yep, oh yeah, uh, oh rice, cake. Okay, so we've got the the fish stew.

We've got the kyby jim, which is the beef short rib. Stoop he's just heating up. Some stone bowls and those are gon na go into them wow. It smells unbelievable in here.

Oh that smells insane. Yeah, octopus, okay, yeah garlic. Yes, sometimes octopus goes in oh, oh honey, oh man! Oh, that was amazing. That is some cooking skills.

Thank you experience. That was incredible that final octopus dish, that final octopus dish was just absolutely amazing. Thank you. Okay, thank you.

That was so good, so good, okay, i cannot wait to eat all right. This is a roasted peanuts with baby anchovies, uh, dried uh, daikon radish. It's a korean green, it's in the aster family um, and that has the um the fermented beets and baby uh anchovies. So this one is like a a stew with fish eggs.

Yes, so there's a little bit of fish grow some smelt in there. Quite a lot of smell. Actually, so you know that tacos they have gone above and beyond, i'm actually overwhelmed. I don't even know how to act or what to do.

There's a row of three by five banchan 15 different banchans. That is a sign of a great korean restaurant is taking pride in the different banchons, because that's really like one of the arts, one of the skills of korean culinary like history and ah it's that banchan marinated raw crabs. So it's basically just remember the part. You got it right all right.

Oh man, pickled for two days, marinated, look at that row. You ever seen anything like it. Oh man, we just suck it suck it here we go that is sweet, isn't it sweet and bitter at the same time, just a hint of bitterness, but in like a really good kind of way, like condensed full force crab, all that like hint of sliminess texture. Oh man, this is just melts in your mouth, it melts in your mouth.

You don't need teeth, you don't need teeth. You don't need teeth to eat this, just suck it on like a bait. Even a baby can eat. Oh man, i don't know about you, but i can suck on this all day long yeah, maybe out by the beach or to see just have some raw crabs.

You have that right. The crunch to the christmas oven, the stir-fried octopus, oh man, he just absolutely like rocked this dish in korean. They call it the nakji, which is the the smokiness, because it looked like fireworks when he made those we must have added in, like 15 different spices and seasonings chili flakes pepper, sauces sesame seeds, oils sake, oh man, so many things went in here. I know you can really taste the multi-dimensional flavor going on right and then all wrapped up within the like.

Almost like bouncy octopus right, that's delicious, oh yeah, wow, it's not that spicy! Either i mean when you look at it. Some of these dishes look like they're going to be burning hot, but it's not like that. No, no yeah! This one is actually it's very tolerable. Let me tell you, don't be afraid of this guys, the cod fish, oh yeah! This is another one of their signature dishes here they just boiled this in a in a fireworks display of sauce and juices the fish and sesame seeds.

Oh man see, i told you that thing just melts in your mouth right, yeah, so buttery in texture and then again just wrapped up with all of that sauce. He layers in the flavors they're all evident they're. All in there, the pepper flakes bean pastes. That's sesame seeds, oh man, yeah this and you haven't even tried the rice, oh yeah, the radish is a mush in here.

I love the way radishes used in korean cooking. Oh yeah. Oh i got potato actually, oh, but the potato is awesome too. Really.

Okay, i absorbed the flavor okay, i found a radish yup. It was trying to hide from you. You can tell it's a radish by that transparent, a little more transparent than the potato. It's so juicy! It's so juicy! It's so again.

It absorbs the flavor of that stew. Oh wow, we've got banchan for days here, the complexity of flavor. I mean from fresh to fermentation from sweet to spicy, to salty to it's very textural as well. You'll find some that are very soft and tender, others that are crunchy and chewy, others that have totally different textures to them.

Oh, that's, a beautiful sweet and saltiness to it and nutty like leathery, yet crunchy at the same time. So next up for the kaibi jim, which is the beef short ribs entry, you slice it off the bone, but it's still blazing hot in here seriously. Look at that! Oh man yeah! So in english they call us the brace short ribs greens raised short ribs. All right, let's go steve and thankfully they cut the supper.

That is nice. Yes, they slice it off the bone. For you, oh wow, i got a big piece. I didn't know if i did that on purpose, but okay, soft, yet stringy the mix of fat and meat, you taste the flavor of the plum in there i saw that they added some dried plums in there, so it has a fruity sweetness to it, contrasting the Pepper flakes and by the way they can um adjust the spiciness of it.

So it can be mild. It can be a little bit spicy, so just apply it for you guys, wow, that's pretty good! I can tell you're having a good time korean food here dip. It in the sauce - oh man, i'm going to be generous with my dips - cheers man that sauce makes all the difference just comforting, but a mix of seafood kind of like all mixed together, all made into a almost taste like consistency for a pancake batter, fried. I think we just have one more to try: they call it the row: fish, eggs, fish, eggs and the texture.

I love the texture of fish eggs, it's crumbly it just dissolves in your mouth, because there's so many of those eggs all together. Okay, i think we've sampled everything here. We have a massive table of food to eat and we're going to stay here for a while we're going to finish off the rest of the food seriously, just straight home, cooking with so much passion, so much love and so much. Preservation of korean ingredients and techniques.

Truly a special restaurant man, absolutely so wow yeah. I would say that for you guys, if you are looking for very traditional home style, high quality korean cooking, that's non-barbecue related! If you want to try something different, this is the restaurant. You got to try because we always think of going the barbecue route, which we are going to go by the way, but you got to try the traditional stuff just like we're doing right now. Right, isn't it so great? This is awesome.

Food yeah absolutely sensational in there, and then you mix the white rice in there. So like a bowl and you mix all the tamale in the row and then, if you'd like, you can even add like a little bit of sesame oil yeah. So this was chilled with the rice inside right in there mark doesn't look so awesome, so in the corners there's a lot wow. It's almost like done with that real, like almost like a porridge in some ways, so you're mixing you eat it like that.

A little tiny bit of sesame oil man you're a chef with the rice, a little bit of sesame soil sesame oil drizzled on top man. That is quite unique. Oh, you taste that roasted sesame oil and the sweetness of the row, and then she was telling us that, in the crab recipe that sauce includes 24 different ingredients which are boiled down that that's sauce, that's just killer, isn't it celery? Oh, the freshness of that the crunch of the celery, the wild sesame next banchan and auntie, said that she actually grinds her own acorn flour to make this everything is by hand all the texture, so silky, so smooth so neutral, tasting finishing off with some auntie made. Some of her own, like plum tea yeah, it's like a plum tea, like a fermented, plum.

Okay, fermented plum tea, which is good for the digestion. Oh yeah, two years fermented, so that came out of one of those jars. Oh just like everything, her knowledge of pickling and preservation is everything about this restaurant. That's like huge.

It's unparalleled, wow great way to end off the meal. This is so good. I cannot recommend sobani enough. Absolutely a legendary restaurant, incredible food, incredible family that was extraordinary.

We are now going actually right across the street for the next meal. It just turned into such a massive day of korean food that i had to split this video up into two parts, because you don't want to miss any of the korean food action. In part. Two we're walking right across the street to eat a unique barbecue meat and the greatest ever fried rice.

Steve is going to take me to eat my first korean dog and then we'll finish with an epic korean barbecue. So keep on watching part 2 for lots more delicious korean food - oh man! Well, the juices are just pouring out.