A show of true devotion to duck

Duck is not a traditional favorite in Korea, but it has caught on there in a big way recently, and a restaurant called Il San Baseball Farm Duck Restaurant (so named for its location near the baseball stadium in Seoul) may be the reason. An L.A. branch -- Il San Duck B.B.Q. House -- appeared in Koreatown about three months ago, headed by a cousin of the original restaurant’s owner. It’s the only duck specialty restaurant in Los Angeles, possibly anywhere in the country.

Now a lavish, multi-roomed restaurant, the Korean Il San Duck opened 10 years ago as a tarp-covered roadside eatery when Il San, today a middle-class Seoul suburb, was still country. People stand around in clusters outside, waiting to snag a seat. Sometimes the customers are so impatient they just buy a duck and bring it outside to eat picnic-style.

At the L.A. Il San Duck, proprietor In Bok Choi has seen to it that nothing distracts from the specialty. The restaurant’s ambience is bright and fresh, purposely simple and utilitarian, just as at the original restaurant. Duck is all that’s served here, apart from kimchi and a few side dishes.

There’s nothing we would call barbecuing going on at Il San Duck B.B.Q.; the duck is either roasted or stewed. There are only four duck dishes -- clay-pot roasted, spicy casserole, spicy noodle soup, and porridge -- on the menu, but that’s just fine by me. In my view -- and in the tradition of Asian restaurants -- a chef should concentrate on cooking just a few dishes, and doing them perfectly.

The centerpiece of Il San’s menu, clay-pot roasted duck, is a cooked-to-order dish, so it’s imperative to phone the restaurant at least three hours ahead to reserve one. Choi carefully follows the original recipe used in Korea, going so far as to import the same sort of stone-lined oven and the clay roasting pots that hold ducks vertically as they roast. The thin-walled pots, which look a little like footballs with flattened ends, are discarded after a single use. The clay locks in the juices while it lets the duck fat melt away, leaving crisp, golden skin and succulent meat.

The roasted duck is luxurious by any standard. Its sweet rice stuffing, an assemblage of nuts, seeds and dried fruits, includes whole glazed walnut halves, roasted chestnuts, ginkgo nuts and perfect fig halves. A mysterious, spindly tonic herbal root sits in the center. The whole dish is believed to have “health benefits,� according to the menu.

Before it’s served, you’ll get a light salad, set beside an elegant little stainless steel bucket for disposing of your duck bones. After the duck course comes a bowl of noodle soup, into which the waitress will stir a special kimchi if you like.

In the well-named spicy duck casserole, meaty chunks of duck roil under a flaming crimson sauce that is actually grainy from the colossal quantities of ground red pepper in it. This one’s a real tonsil-torcher. Draped over the duck in its bubbling casserole is a little canopy of exotic produce that includes the cress-like green ssukkat, chrysanthemum blossoms, sesame leaves and enoki mushrooms.

Spicy duck noodle soup is really too plebeian a name to describe the third specialty, an extravaganza cooked at your table. The broth is rich and dense with thick chunky shreds of roasted duck. Fresh jalapeno slices bob ominously in the broth but there’s so much else going on in the bubbling pot -- about a dozen vegetables, fat udon-style noodles and tofu chunks, all simmering together -- that the peppers don’t overwhelm the dish. In case you’re still a little hungry when the soup is done, the waitress will sop up the last of the broth by folding in a bowlful of rice.

The final dish, a rice porridge flavored with vegetables and duck, is a less imposing entree. But rice porridge seems to be a sub-specialty at Il San Duck B.B.Q. House. Three versions are available, including a light, delicate one flavored with pine nuts and one that incorporates very tiny corn kernels and five kinds of bean: adzuki, black soy, lima, garbanzo and pinto.

All the porridges are perfectly cooked and made with excellent ingredients. Rice porridge is Korean comfort food, and its bland, subtle flavor is the perfect foil for kimchi.

As you head out into the night, you’ll discover one way the L.A. branch beats the original Il San: In the parking lot, instead of milling crowds, there’s a valet to bring your car.

*

Il San Duck

B.B.Q. House

Location: 3700 W. Olympic Blvd., Koreatown, (323) 735-9100, (323) 735-4778.

Price: Duck porridge, $3.95; spicy duck casserole, $7.85; spicy duck noodle soup (serves 2), $14.95; clay-pot roasted duck (serves 4), $45.

Best dishes: Clay-pot roasted duck, spicy duck noodle soup, spicy duck casserole.

Details: Open daily 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. No alcohol. Valet and street parking. Major credit cards.