SOY MEETS GRILL IF YOU THINK YOU KNOW TOFU, CHECK OUT BCD.Byline: Larry Lipson Restaurant Critic On Wilshire Boulevard Wilshire Boulevard is one of the principal east-west arterial roads in Los Angeles, California, United States. It was named for H. Gaylord Wilshire (1861-1927), an Ohio native who made and lost fortunes in real estate, farming, and gold mining. in L.A.'s Koreatown area there's a BCD (Binary Coded Decimal) The storage of numbers in which each decimal digit is converted into binary and is stored in a single character or byte. For example, a 12-digit number would take 12 bytes. See binary numbers. Tofu House that, for a while, served what is known as ``soon dubu'' 24 hours a day. It's so popular that customers often have to take a number before being seated. There are other BCDs (downtown, Vermont Avenue Vermont Avenue is one of the longest running north/south streets in Los Angeles. Located just west of the Harbor Freeway for the major portion south of downtown Los Angeles, it starts in Griffith Park at the Greek Theatre in the Los Feliz neighborhood as a one-lane divided road (it , Western Avenue, Rowland Heights, Garden Grove Garden Grove, city (1990 pop. 143,050), Orange co., S Calif., a suburb of Long Beach and Los Angeles, on the Santa Ana River; founded 1877, inc. 1956. Many of its residents work in nearby aerospace and defense installations, and there is light manufacturing. and Seoul, Korea) and now there's one in Reseda. Labeled ``soon tofu'' on its BCD menu, what we're speaking about is basically a stone pot brought to the table filled with bubbling, steaming hot tofu that looks something like scrambled eggs scram·bled eggs pl.n. 1. Eggs with the yolks and whites beaten together and cooked to a firm but soft consistency. 2. Slang The gold braid worn on the bill of the cap of a field-grade officer in the armed services. but appears more beige in tone than the yellowish hue of eggs. However, a true scrambled egg isn't far away. As part of the several accompaniments with each of these boiling caldrons of tofu, diners receive a fresh unshelled un·shell tr.v. un·shelled, un·shell·ing, un·shells To remove from a shell. Adj. 1. unshelled - of animals or fruits that have no shell shell-less shelled - of animals or fruits that have a shell egg ready to break and drop into the tofu mixture, eaten with gusto for breakfast, lunch or dinner. The egg cooks up quickly in the fiery, boiling melange mé·lange also me·lange n. A mixture: "[a] building crowned with a mélange of antennae and satellite dishes" Howard Kaplan. of tofu, spicy chile seasoning and possibly a few shrimp, clams or some ground meat. But the steaming tofu pot isn't the actual starting point Noun 1. starting point - earliest limiting point terminus a quo commencement, get-go, offset, outset, showtime, starting time, beginning, start, kickoff, first - the time at which something is supposed to begin; "they got an early start"; "she knew from the of a soon tofu meal. For example, if you order the dumpling version ($7.50), as I did one time, which has several ground beef-stuffed dumplings in the tofu pot, you'll start out with something resembling chilled kimchee soup. A small bowl of this cold, reddish-orange, semi-spicy, crunchy cabbage soup lacks the chile heat of some kimchees, giving the palate instead a sort of refreshing kick start. Following this, little portions of several appetizer-size items come forth. One contains the familiar spicy red cabbage we all know as kimchee, BCD's rendition being less sharp than most, with a touch more tomato sweetness and roundness on the palate. There's also a soothing dollop of a coleslaw cole·slaw also cole slaw n. A salad of finely shredded raw cabbage and sometimes shredded carrots, dressed with mayonnaise or a vinaigrette. offering actually made with thin julienned strips of potato and carrot in a creamy mayonnaise sauce. Obviously, this is a dish meant to soothe, just in case any of the other items have a tendency to burn up the mouth. Like the spicy, raw crab that was pretty hot and rather difficult to eat one day. And the spicy, thin-sliced squid perched on shredded cabbage. Incidentally, you need great teeth for these rather rubbery pieces. A designated soother-refresher is a little bowl of pickled, crunchy cucumber spears nestled in a bed of ice cubes. They look very much like familiar dill pickles, but taste slightly different. Before you know it, the bubbling, boiling tofu is before you, along with a bowl of sticky white rice flecked fleck n. 1. A tiny mark or spot: flecks of mica in the rock. 2. A small bit or flake: flecks of foam; a fleck of dandruff. tr.v. with a few green peas. A bit later, the server comes by and scrapes the hot rice pot from which the bowl of rice was served and adds water, making a rice water mixture that also acts as a finishing, soothing liquid. Much like the dumpling pot and its side dishes, there's a standard soon tofu meal called ``the original'' that also costs $7.50. This option presents a choice of beef or pork with it. Others at the same price include seafood (oyster, shrimp, clam), kimchee (with beef or pork), soybean soybean, soya bean, or soy pea, leguminous plant (Glycine max, G. soja, or Soja max) of the family Leguminosae (pulse family), native to tropical and warm temperate regions of Asia, where it has been (with beef, mushroom and clam) and vegetable (with broccoli, carrot, cauliflower cauliflower (kô`lĭflou'ər, käl`ĭ–), variety of cabbage, with an edible head of condensed flowers and flower stems. Broccoli is the horticultural variety (botrytis); both were cultivated in Roman times. and mushroom). If you don't mind paying a few bucks more, you can get additional plates of food with the regular array of dishes. Chicken teriyaki ter·i·ya·ki n. A Japanese dish of grilled or broiled slices of marinated meat or shellfish. [Japanese : teri, glaze + yaki, to broil.] Noun 1. (lunchtime $9.50, dinnertime $11.95), for example, comes up as a tasty platter of bite-size strips of moist chicken flavored with a non-gloppy teriyaki sauce. Options of bibimbap, a Korean-style rice bowl topped with a variety of vegetables and meats (lunchtime $9.50, dinnertime $11.95); barbecued ribs (lunchtime $10.50, dinnertime $12.95); and pork bulgogi (marinated, seasoned pork, lunchtime $9.50, dinnertime $11.95) make for extra-satisfying tofu meal taste and texture combinations. Incidentally, the chicken teriyaki, pork bulgogi and barbecued ribs can be ordered as semi a la carte dinners ($9.50 to $13.50). And to make sure customers depart with a sweet taste in their mouths, a modern Korean meal ending practiced by BCD consists of a complimentary stick of chewing gum per person delivered with each check. Certainly a sensible gesture, because those spicy red sauces tend to contain mighty amounts of garlic. BCD TOFU HOUSE Where: 18044 Saticoy St., Reseda. (Also one Korean and six other Southern Californian locations.) When: Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner from 8 a.m. to midnight daily. Recommended items: Variety of accompaniments with ``soon tofu'' served bubbling hot in stone pots. How much: Dishes range from $5 to $13.50, with most tofu meals from $7.50 to $12. Beer and wine. All major credit cards. Wine list: Negligible. Best beverage companion with this spicy food spicy food Nutrition Any comestible marinated in and/or which contains chili peppers, mustard with horseradish, curry or other spices that evoke a desired intraoral sensation that crosses pain with pleasure; SFs may elicit an autonomic nervous system is beer. Try the Korean Hite or O.B. imports. Reservations: Taken. Call (818) 342-3535. Our rating: Three stars for food; Three stars for service. CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1) Hyun J. Nam, left, owner of the BCD Tofu House, and manager Yusang Kim display some of their specialties, including Tofu and Vegetable Salad, lower left.dlim! (2) Although it's a tofu restaurant, BCD also offers succulent barbecue ribs. Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer |
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