Gorging in Koreatown

Witness a dream come true - a 24 hour tofu house! Why can't we have things like this in Philly? S took me to Koreatown, well, not exactly in Koreatown, but I think on the fringe... for some good old fashioned soondubu (korean tofu stew) at BCD Tofu House. And did we ever strap on the old feedback and gorge ourselves silly!


The place is run like a well-oiled machine... you order, and everything shows up, like clockwork. Everybody knows what the hell they're doing here. You get plenty of banchan... the kimchi was a little weird, strangely sweet and fresh. I was surprised that everyone gets their own little grilled fish. This thing was so good.... so simple and perfect.


S got the bulgogi and tofu combo, so obviously, we got a bunch of bulgogi, which was a bit on the sweet side, but still good, and some delicious soondubu. You get to pick the spiciness of it, and we picked medium. The egg? You crack it and put it into your tofu.

I went with the spicy pickled crab and tofu combo. So yeah, it sounds crazy, but it's raw crab that's marinated with a spicy sauce. It might not sound appetizing, but my oh my, I love this stuff. I guess you kind of just need to grow up with it. And the soondubu? Yeah, this was good too. If you don't get the combo, you can pick whatever kind of soondubu you want, but with the combo, it's just the "premium tofu" which has a little bit of beef, shrimp, and clam, and of course, tons and tons of soft tofu!

Ok, so the best thing about this place? The rice comes in individual stone pots that are individually cooked. So it's not like they have these industrial sized rice cookers and then they just scoop the rice into these cute little pots. No, it's actually cooked in the pots over a big ass fire. I saw the video that they kept running, it's for real!

What's great is that the waitresses come around and scoop out the rice from the stone bowls and then put em into regular bowls for you so you can just eat. Then they fill the stone bowls with water so you can eat the burnt rice mixed with water later. Yes, this also probably sounds strange, but believe me, it's one of those weird traditional Korean things, and I love this stuff!

Yeah, that bowl just has burnt rice with water in it. But you can't imagine just how good this really is. And I could eat this as a meal.

S insisted that I take some pics of the aftermath. Put two little korean girls together, throw tons of food at them, and what happens? They eat it all up, and leave nothing but empty bowls and crab carcasses in their wake.

Seriously though, this soondubu was freakin delicious. And I ate it all up... If I lived near a place like this, I'd be here all the time!