shik do rak

shik do rak (or "SDR" as i like to call it) is one of my favorite korean bbq joints in k-town (at corner of olympic and hoover). what makes it stand out from all the rest is the "duk bo sam" which are these white rice noodle wrappers (similar to won ton skins) that you use to wrap your bbq'd meat in (after dipping it into a sesame oil/salt/pepper mixture and a red hot sauce), along w/ the green lettuce, shredded green onions, and sesame seed salad mixture and whatever else you want to throw in there. our group of five ordered the $49.99 combination, which has the thinly sliced beef, beef short ribs, and beef king ribs, which are these two huge slabs of beef, along w/ sliced onions and mixed mushrooms. we also got the $10.99 seafood pancake, and had more food than we could eat. (but i've been here on other occasions and have found that the quantity of meat is inconsistent. i guess it depends on who's working in the kitchen).



on my last visit with a bunch of friends, we were adventurous and ordered the monkfish casserole, which seemed to be a popular item -- it wasn't so much a casserole, but more of a noodle dish mixed with seafood and lots of red chile sauce. what threw us were these roundish mussel-sized creatures with a really tough, thick, chewy wrinkled hide-like skin that were filled with a bitter liquid and a free floating bb-sized hard ball inside. we're still trying to figure out what they are and don't even know if it's plant or animal. the waitstaff weren't much help, either, because they could only tell us what they are in korean, but didn't know the english translation (if there is one). the only thing we got for sure was that they are from the ocean. so, we just labelled them "nads." those who sampled them said they were really bitter and tough. the above picture is of a crazed-looking kendra holding a "nad" in her chopsticks.