Apparently one of the hottest food trends to be sweeping through California right now is Daego Kalbijjim. Just imagine: fall-off-the-bone beef short ribs, potatoes, carrots, and rice cakes, all mixed together in a sweet-savory beefy sauce and topped with a load of mozzarella cheese. The result is a saucy, cheesy, messy but oh-so-delicious pot of goodness. The overall dish is served in a hot stone bowl and cooked for 2 hours (though they pre-cook a lot of it). They ask you to order ahead to avoid waiting, but I think so many people order the traditional Daego Kalbijjim that they probably have a lot of pots going at once. We received our food about 30 min after ordering (not 1.5 hours).
On the side they gave us some Kim chi and pickled radish (an important balance to the richness!)
The place is PACKED. We arrived before 6PM on a Saturday and had to wait close to 2 hours for a seat. Thankfully, the location we went to was right next to Japantown, so we actually really enjoyed shopping around the area during the wait time. You can follow along your place in line via the Yelp app, so it’s quite convenient. We ended up not even exploring the whole area before it was time to go back. If you plan ahead, you can put your name down before you wish to eat, and then wander around the area.
Leftovers pack well, and almost everyone left with a pretty large container full of leftovers. Our table of three ordered a small Kalbijjim with extra rice cakes and extra beef. This made for the perfect amount of leftovers to take home. My friend said the last time he came, there weren’t enough rice cakes and people were fighting for them. This time it was perfect.
I’m actually quite inspired to try making this dish at home. It seems like the perfect type of food to serve at a larger gathering.
