Happy New Year!

Hey, hope your Christmas and New Year’s celebrations were happy, safe, and enjoyable ones! Family, good food, good friends, and many reasons to be thankful - that's what it's all about, right?! We enjoy weekend get-togethers just about every other week, sometimes more, right in our own garage, but when the holidays roll around, it's like hibachi night on steroids - home-made shrimp tempura, mochiko chicken, fat rib steaks, crab legs, lobster tails, Kumamoto oysters - the works! And here on the first of the year, now that we're all 15 pounds heavier and recuperating, I should actually be writing about fresh salads, tofu patties, and range-fed chicken breasts, along with a few insightful strategies on helping to fulfill our latest resolution promises. But then again... Maybe not!

In fact, definitely not, as it's never too early nor too late to talk about beef! Red, glistening, tender, moist, juices-running beef! Yeah, I guess I am a bit of a steak snob, and no cow shallst ever hit the sizzling bars of my personal grill aside from the choicest of rib or tenderloin cuts. Outside of my own tongs, however, whether that be concerning a dry-aged, 16oz. USDA Prime ribeye at a fancy steakhouse, a completely raw carpaccio at an Italian or Pacific Rim restaurant, a luxurious Wagyu or Kobe kalbi at a Japanese yakiniku, or a skirt or brisket from a Korean yakiniku, it's all right up my alley! Each is special in its own way, and each deserves a voluminous amount of dissection and dialogue, but for today, we'll stick to the virtues of just one of these fiercely independent pathways - Korean yakiniku. And when it comes to this particular subject, a great place to start is Hyung Je (Joomooluck). No, it's not on Korea-moku nor Korea-lani (Keeaumoku or Kapiolani), but it's really close-by, sitting near the Kapiolani edge of Sheridan St., perhaps the third most Korea-lific stretch of road in town! Parking is available either in a lot behind the restaurant or right there on the street:

 
Hyung Je, on the 3rd leg of the Korean street trinity, Sheridan!

Though relatively unknown to local crowds and not one to post advertisements in your most recent Star-Advertiser or Weekly Magazine, Hyung Je is very much respected in the Korean community for one thing - yakiniku meats. It's not the fanciest of places, so don't expect the whole package when it comes to a complete dining experience. Customer service features a no-nonsense mama-san whom you don't wanna mess with but who is nevertheless charming in her own natural, motherly way (interpret that however you choose!), and the place doesn't carry nearly as wide and well-balanced a menu of all things Korean, such as you'll find at the classier duo of Choi's Garden on Rycroft and Shillawon on Amana. But then again, you're not really looking for a wide range of items or a sophisticated evening here at Hyung Je, only to get primal by pigging-out on protein! 

Like other Korean restaurants, tables come with built-in grills and suction devices to mitigate the effects of smoke permeating your clothes. Some of these yakiniku houses, I tell you - the smokiness has saturated deep into the very walls and especially the carpet, and you go home smelling like you've just escaped from a fire. Here, it's not so bad!

 
Inside shot!

But before seeing their signature products, you can't help but talk about one of the things Korean restaurants are also known for - banchan! Though I've never been to Korea outside of Incheon International, I hear that fancy eateries there can offer up to 20 or more of these complimentary side dishes! Here in the islands, however, the most we get are a still-respectable 8-10 separate offerings, with Hyung Je providing a median-range amount of 5 or 6. It's amazing, the variety of dishes you'll come across on any given day! I've seen squid different ways, noodles of all types, konnyaku, gobo, fish, garlic, tofu, choi sum, beansprouts - the list is endless! Here's a few given today, beginning with a Japanese cucumber kim chee:

 
Japanese cucumber kim chee.

 
Daikon kim chee.

 
Seaweed salad.

 
Shoyu/sugar potato.

 
Spicy lettuce salad.

Another free dish given was a plate of 8-10 large pieces of green leaf lettuce, which are used as wraps for your freshly-grilled meats. A pungent and strong sauce of Korean miso, shown as the reddish-brown mix in the next shot, is meant to be placed inside the wraps as well. Next to the miso is fresh garlic to be grilled and a uniquely Korean sauce I love every bit as much as a Japanese soy-based tare sauce, consisting of a high-quality sesame oil, natural salt, and pepper. It's very simple, but meats or even raw fish dipped inside are absolutely delicious!

 
Garlic and sauces.

Though my brother's bi bim bap was good (sorry, no picture!), the one other dish we ordered outside of meat only helped bolster our opinion that the only reason you come here is yakiniku. Their seafood pajeon, the only type of pajeon offered, was pretty darn horrible. Not only was it bland, but it wasn't cooked nearly long enough, resulting in a starchy-mushy inside and a total lack of that crispy outer shell that helps make the dish so enjoyable. Oftentimes, at the best places, this savory pancake dish arrives in a Pizza Hut-like cast-iron pan, its tasty crust developing further even as it sits at your table, making all the difference in the world. After a few bites, we decided to take the whole thing home, as a quick re-cooking with oil in a hot pan did the trick later!

 
Seafood pajeon.

But now, it's time to talk about meat! You can order specific cuts, but a great way to go is a combination order that comes with 4 different cuts on one plate, normally running about $20 to $25 per person (single meats a few dollars cheaper), with a 2-person minimum to start-up the grill. Here's our choices:

 
Gimme 'em raw!

Perhaps I'm grumbling too much, but I do have one caveat regarding the excellent yakiniku here. Luckily, though, it has nothing to do with taste, but presentation! It's no big thing, really, but I couldn't help noticing how sloppily our plate was presented. Elsewhere, such as at a couple of other great spots also carrying Korean yakiniku, Seoul Garden and Korea House, our plates were stacked high and proud, its strips of thinner cuts rolled into perfectly-rounded tubes and its heavier sections placed strategically underneath for an over-all dramatic effect. Just looks nicer and more impressive, is all. This plate above seemed to be thrown together with no particular care or thought whatsoever, so long as it got there.

To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, check out this pile, from Seoul Garden on Kapiolani Blvd:

 
First impressions count!

Or this one, from Korea House, also on Kapiolani Blvd., only steps away!

 
High and proud!

See what I mean? The easily-identifiable, typically round tubes of the thinnest cuts of beef come from brisket, but while the hollow tubes sure are prettier, they can only hold their shape when partially frozen, which is not necessarily the most ideal of circumstances when thrown on your hot grill. Even at its worst, however, meaning its most frozen, they are fine, and nowhere near the experience Kumi and I shared at one of the other big-name Korean restaurants, which will remain un-named for today, where we ordered shrimp and a single, fully-frozen block of 6 tails were hastily placed on the grill for us! I mean, we're talking solid ice between each tail and a shape literally like a brick! But then I digress. Life does move on...

Here's another shot of our pile of meats at Hyung Je, from a different angle. As you can tell, most of the tubes have melted into flat tires, but perhaps it was a comforting thing, meaning they weren't frozen-solid!

 
Another shot at Hyung Je meats, ready for grilling.

Sorry, I don't have individual pictures of each type of meat, but having already identified brisket, the other types combined on our plate was kalbi from an individual order and skirt, tripe, and tongue, from our combination order (along with brisket). As far as the only other rolled beef variety, tongue, you can always distinguish them because, number one, they contain larger portions of white that do not follow a clear grain like other cuts, instead forming splotches in highly irregular patterns. Taste-wise, they are very similiar to normal beef, but much more crispy-firm in texture and a tad-bit gamier. Skirt comes from the plate or underside of the cow, closer to the front legs and also considered the diaphragm, while kalbi is from the upper and mid rib portions of the cow. Both are relatively tougher, but highly flavorful and perfect when cut into the smaller pieces found in yakiniku houses. I guess that's why we always find them in these types of eateries!

Here's a few skirt and kalbi pieces firing on our grill, both of which were my personal favorites:

 
Almost there!

All of these meats were absolutely delicious, some coming with a light marinade and others a touch of salt. The question then becomes whether to dip or not to dip, but either way, they were juicy, succulent, and bursting with beefy flavors, kicked-up exponentially by an infusion of grilled smokiness and a touch of Korean bbq taste. Funny thing is, Hyung Je puts so much emphasis on raw meats that, outside of bulgogi and spicy pork, they don't even offer any bbq meats cooked, not even kalbi!

The final item I haven't mentioned in detail yet is shown here:

 
What is it?

First thinking they were mistaken for cartilage or tendon, these beef tripe pieces were soft yet tough, looking almost like a raw scallop. I was very curious to see how they'd taste. Not normally one for organs, I actually found them not bad at all, coming with a chewy-firm consistency and a mellow flavor, albeit with just a tiny hint of, well... organ meat. A cold OB would have allowed me to snatch a few more pieces, but here at lunch, in broad daylight and with no drink but water and tea, I let Kumi have her way with them:

 
Beef tripe, or intestine, cooked.

As stated earlier, there's not a whole lotta frills and extra's here, but if you want delicious Korean bbq meats, Hyung Je is definitely at or near the top of the list! The price of $20-$25 per person is roughly the same as a cheap buffet, but when you think about it, a buffet is almost what you're getting! I mean, with all that banchan, all that rice, and a giant stack of meats, I'm sure you'll get your fill and then some for tomorrow's lunch, and besides, who needs the oftentimes depraved, mass-cooked items plucked from under hot, drying lights and over sterno'd chafers when you can get sizzling meats straight off the grill?

In closing, I know you've probably OD'd on all those get-together's and gatherings by now, and need a day, a week, or whatever it takes to rest and recuperate. Before you know it, however, you'll be re-charged and ready to go, and soon enough be calling friends, gathering around the grill, enjoying some good laughs, and maybe even having your fill of Korean yakiniku beef! If you love steak, believe me, you won't be sorry here at Hyung Je or any of the other great spots I mentioned earlier!

Hey, this year is gonna be the best year of your life, so make the most of it!!!

Take care, and Aloha till next time,

Stan