Counter: It’s sizzling, from Mapo Galbi to Costa Mesa
Cabbage and hot sauce are srirred into the Chicken Galbi dish.
- Share via
Salutations,
Koreatown is home to scores of restaurants that specialize in one dish. Mapo Galbi's specialty is dak galbi, a spicy stir-fried chicken, a sweet-hot mountain of meat that is served with cabbage and rice noodles.
In my column this week, I visit Mapo Galbi, where the waitresses dump big bowls of marinated chicken on smoking hot pans on the table as part of the lengthy cooking ritual. Should you stir it yourself as it cooks? It couldn't hurt.
Elsewhere in the feed, Jenn Harris checks out a place in Costa Mesa where teenagers are working a pop-up, S. Irene Virbila contemplates the wine list at David LeFevre's newish steakhouse and we offer up a round-up of restaurants that offer their own versions of soft-serve.
And be on the lookout for Wednesday's In the Kitchen newsletter, with cooking tips and news, including new recipes from the L.A. Times Test Kitchen.
Spicy chicken in Koreatown
This week Jonathan checks out Mapo Galbi in Koreatown, an old-school Korean barbecue joint where you don't have to worry about the menu — just order the chicken, sit back, watch the Dodgers on television and wait for some pretty amazing food. Lots of vegetables and hot sauce and, after your initial feast, your server will dump rice into the grill pan and make you fried rice for your second feast. Lucky you.
Amy Scattergood / Los Angeles Times
High schoolers in the kitchen
Jenn visits the Waffleholic restaurant in Costa Mesa, where teenage chefs are cooking sous-vide salmon with tarragon and lemon compound butter over cauliflower rice as part of a pop-up called Class Kitchen — because some 17-year-olds not only cook better than you do, they also cook better than many veteran chefs.
The Class Kitchen pop-up restaurant in Costa Mesa. 
Aimee Rueda / For the Los Angeles Times
What to drink in Manhattan Beach
S. Irene Virbila considers the wine list at the Arthur J, chef David LeFevre's newish steakhouse in Manhattan Beach. There are more than 200 wines, many of which pair very well with red meat, which you'd expect. But there are also some finds. All of which is made even more fun by the fact that the wines are organized according to old movie stars, including Jayne Mansfield: Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon.
Steak and red wine at the Arthur J in Manhattan Beach
Marie Buck Photography
Nyesha Arrington opens a restaurant
If you've been following chef Nyesha Arrington's career — Melisse, "Top Chef," Wilshire, "Knife Fight" — you've probably been wondering when she'd finally open a restaurant of her own. Arrington is about to do exactly that, opening Leona in Venice at the end of the month.
Cocktail mixto, a dish on the menu at Leona, chef Nyesha Arrington’s first restaurant in Venice. Leona is scheduled to open at the end of the month. 
Leona
The emperors of soft-serve ice cream
Soft-serve has been around for a long time, probably since the founder of Carvel started selling melting ice cream after a flat tire in the '30s. But these days it's showing up at more than soda fountains. Some pretty terrific L.A. restaurants and dessert shops are making their versions. We check out eight of them.
A cone of Honeymee’s milk ice cream and honeycomb.
Amy Scattergood / Los Angeles Times
What we're reading
Hypoallergenic peanuts? How new research into allergies means that some people could be able to finally eat peanuts, from Modern Farmer.
Chairman Mao and mangoes. Or, fruit as propaganda, from Lucky Peach.
Check out the thousands of recipes in our Recipe Database.
Feedback?
We’d love hear from you. Email us at [email protected]
Eat your way across L.A.
Get our weekly Tasting Notes newsletter for reviews, news and more.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
