Western Soondae

This past Sunday, May 17, 2009, we ventured out to Venice Beach hoping to find as much junk food as we could possibly eat, and provide our readers with many different choices on some of the best spots to eat while in Venice Beach.

Our first stop, upon arrival to Venice, was “The Wings- Famous Chicken Wings” place, which we have never heard off , but we decided to give it a try and start our eating adventure from this point. We asked for the 12 piece mild wings which took about 10 minutes to be served , service is ok, nothing really fancy so don’t expect much from this place. The wings were nice and crisp but not mild enough, which is good because you won’t get that awful heartburn from spicy wings sauce.

After the wings, our day took a completely different spin to what we had planned. I won’t go into details as to why or how our day took a spin because this spin is now available by clicking on the link Nature guy

We left Venice Beach around six pm hungry, and eager to try something new, and something that I’ve wanted to try for a long time. We drove over to Korea Town in search of “Western Soondae”, a Korean restaurant that serves, (from what I’ve heard,) the best Korean sausage in town.

Soondae is a typical Korean sausage made from fresh pork blood, sweet rice sweet potato noodles, several types of finely chopped vegetables, garlic and some other spices. This mixture is stuffed inside an intestinal casing and steamed until fully cooked.

I’ve tried many different types of sausages and have noticed the ones that are made from blood, have this irony taste to them, and are more solid in structure. I was expecting the same from soondae, but I was completely surprised to find the taste very pleasant, not irony at all, and the whole texture of it, was very different from all other sausages I’ve tried.

We asked for the Soondae platter, which includes a whole variety of pork internal organs, such as the kidney, stomach, some sort of head cheese and some other cuts that I was not able to distinguish. The plate is served with traditional kimchi with big chunks of cured radish. In addition to the kimchi, they also brought a plate of garlic chives, I might be wrong, but they felt and looked like garlic chives, rock salt with chili powder, a sauce composed of brine shrimp and fish sauce, and a sauce that looked more like a fermented paste with a strong flavor but it blent in really good with the assorted meats.

If you eat the pieces of pork alone, they have a simple taste, and that’s where all those side compliments come in handy and add a whole different taste to the soondae and all the assorted pork meats. Overall, we enjoyed the food very much, the Soondae, was full of flavor and the other cuts of pork go really well with the various sauces that were brought out to our table. I must also add that we really loved the tea. The tea served at this place, has a rice taste that blends with the tea just perfect. I would definitely recommend Soondae for anyone who is looking for something out of the ordinary.

Western Soondae, also serves different types of soups, including a soondae soup which was very much enjoyed by many of the customers around us. The Soondae plate is very big, and it might feed up to five people. Prices are reasonable for the amount of food you get, so don't worry about a budget because the food is worth every single bite of it.

We had a funny incident when my friend Thomas was trying to cut a piece of radish in half; as he pinched the small piece with his chopsticks and tried to split in half with a spoon, an older gentlemen sitting to the right of Natalie, kept telling Thomas, as he shooked his head, “no, no, no”, when all of the sudden, the piece of radish flew off the table landing on the floor. All three of us started to laugh as the older men continued to shake his head. This was a funny experience and one that will continue to bring us laughter for as long as we can remember that piece of radish.

543 S Western Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90189

(213) 389-5288

May Mei Restaurant

After trying Din Tai Fung Dumpling House, as a group, our bellies weren’t satisfied. Therefore we went over to May Mei (Cantonese/Hong Kong Style) restaurant, to load-up on more food. We got there roughly 9ish, waited for 10 minutes or so for a table, not that bad for a Friday night. My braces were bothering me; therefore I decided to play it safe and went for porridge. I ordered the preserved egg w/pork porridge ($4.95). We all wanted to try one of the clay pot dish, so we ordered the beef cubes w/egg hot pot rice ($7.95). For the last entrée, we went with dumpling lo mein ($6.25), just to compare with the previous dumplings that we tried. The porridge came out first, it was nice, soothing and tasted like it should taste. We were all pretty happy with the porridge. Then came the dumpling lo mein, it’s pretty interesting the way they serve it here. I was expecting a bow of noodle with dumping on top, surrounded by the broth, but no, not exactly. I honestly like it better this way because you only pour in the amount of broth you’d like and when you want to, therefore the dumpling and noodle doesn’t get soggy toward the end of the meal. This dish was pretty tasty, I would recommend trying. The last dish to arrive was the beef cubes w/egg hot pot rice. The meat they used was very moist and the soy sauce was not salty, but rather it adds flavor to the rice, to me that was good quality sauce. Sauces should supplement the flavor of food, instead of adding saltiness. Overall, we were all very please with this down-to-earth restaurant. The price is very decent, the quality is there and well it’s just a good restaurant to go to for eating out. I would dine here again if I’m in the area, no doubt.

639 W. Duarte Rd

Arcadia, Ca 91007

626.574.1318

Sun-Thu: 11-10pm

Fri & Sat: 11-10:30pm

Preserved egg w/pork porridge

Beef cubes w/egg hot pot rice

Dumpling lo mein

Din Tai Fung Dumpling House

Dumpling…Dumpling…Dumpling…

There’s something about dumpling that amazes me, it’s probably the fact that how can something so little and yet can be so satisfying. With that being said, it bring us back to why I set this website up in the first place, for the sole reason of hunting down quality food. I’ve wanted to try this restaurant out for the longest time, this past Friday I finally had the opportunity to do so. We got to the place at around 7pm, pretty busy and crowded, as I would expect it to be. We waited for roughly 5 to 10 minutes and were seated, which was not a bad wait time. Right after we were seated, we got right on to the typical Chinese mark-your-order sheet. We ordered the Roast Beef Noodle Soup ($7.25), juicy pork dumpling ($7.25), shrimp & pork shiaomai ($9.00), and red bean dumpling ($5.00). The Roast Beef Noodle Soup was the first to arrive at our table. It looked like a very simple dish, and indeed it was simple. The beef tasted pretty dry, the broth was just decent, nothing exceptional about this dish. Then came the pork dumpling and the shiaomai, I was very excited about this duo, for shiaomai is one of my favorite. The pork and shrimp shiaomai looked very nice and unique but the taste was not up to par for me. I’ve had better shiaomai, and this one was just decent. The juicy pork dumpling was very different. Man, when they say, “juicy” they do mean juicy. Holding the dumpling up with the chopstick, felt like holding a sack of broth. I have to admit the dumpling was the highlight of the place; it tasted very different, in a good way of course. After all, the name of the place is Dumpling House. The final course that came out was the red bean dumpling. It tasted pretty good, perfect for a light dessert. Overall, this place is worth a try. I mean I wouldn’t go out of my way just to come back and dine here. I guess after reading about the restaurant’s history and all the hypes that people speak of, I came to this restaurant with very high expectations, but sadly it didn’t quite match-up to my expectation.

1108 South Baldwin Avenue

Arcadia, Ca 91007

626.574.7068

M-F: 11- 2:30PM, & 5PM - 9:30PM

Sat: 10:30AM-2:30PM, & 5PM - 9:30PM

Sun: 10:30AM-2:30PM, & 5PM - 9:00PM

Shrimp Shiaomai

Pork Dumpling

Red Bean Dumpling

Roast Beef Noodle Soup