Blah

Today was a very frustrating day, foodwise and otherwise. I went down to DUMBO for the Shanghai chili crab festival, but when I got there I realized it was happening tomorrow. Since I was in Brooklyn, I thought I should go to BAM to see some of the Shaw Brothers film series. When I got there, I learned there were no matinee times. There are some great restaurants on Fulton St.(Pequino Mexican and the new Habana Outpost) but I was craving Korean.Specifically, nang myun (cold noodles) so I headed back to the city.

When I used to walk to my last job, I'd pass Li Hua (171 Grand St., at Baxter 212.343.0090) and wonder who would go to a Korean restaurant on the cusp of Chinatown and Little Italy. I still don't know. It was around 3 o'clock and there were only 2 other groups in the restaurant: a mother and her daughter snacking on the kimchi pajeun (pancake), and a group of four that ordered the Korean usuals: bibimbap (good stuff on rice w. a runny egg), the kimchi pancake, fried rice and tofu jigae (stew). The place itself was well designed and decorated. There's a bench that divides the room into different spaces and the simple flower watercolor is a nice decorative motif. On the other side of the bench, the staff was eating a family meal out of a big pot of tofu jigae and a couple of plates of japchae (noodles with good stuff). It looked great and the smell of the hot stone bibimbap was divine.

Unfortunately, my nang myun was just okay. I prefer the cold noodles at Momofuko, Woorijip or even Men Kui Tei (their cold noodles are more Japanese than Korean). Taste-wise, Momofuko is the best. Moneywise, Woorijip wins. Their noodles are usually about 6 bux. LiHua charged 13 for the dish. I believe Momofuko has noodles in broth for 13 and no broth for 12, but don't quote me on those prices.

There's no way around it: the broth at Li Hua was weak. The liquid consisted of a little bit of meat juice, soy sauce and a lot of water. I doused it with mustard and vinegar but it didn't help. The beauty of Korean food is the strong flavors, and this dish had none of that. The pork seemed like an anonymous meat, the noodles were noodles, and the half-egg and the cucumber were nothing special. I have to say, though, that the pickled sweet asian pear was great. The banchan were okay (I think the flavors were toned down for white folks) the kimchi wasn't ripe, the cucumber salad was okay (vinegar, sugar, salt) but what I thought was a white onion was actually a stringy piece of crabstick. I don't mind fake crab, but this piece was tough and dry. Bleh.

There was another nice, red pepper-based salad of cabbage and zuccini that was good, but come on, the star of the show should be the main dish, right? To be fair, I've only eaten there once. Robert Siestama from the Village Voice eats at a place 3 times before he writes a review. And he goes with a bunch of people. I would say that you should go to Li Hua if you are craving bibimbap and want to be in a sleek restaurant setting. Or if your gringo friends want to try Korean food, but you don't feel like going up to Koreatown. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother.

Here's the link to the recent NY Times article that ran about so called Kimchi chic. urg.