USING HER NOODLE GRANDMA KIM'S LEGACY IS IN GOOD HANDS IN CANOGA PARK.Byline: Larry Lipson Restaurant Critic GRANDMA KIM, now too elderly to work in the kitchen, is responsible for the recipes at Kim's Noodle & BBQ BBQ barbecue , an unassuming storefront cafe serving Korean food in Canoga Park. And proud she should be. Her Korean barbecued meats come forth surrounded by white onions, sizzling dramatically on black platters, richly seasoned and delicious. Chicken (lunch $6.99, dinner $9.99) and pork (lunch $7.99, dinner $12.99) share honors as the best all-around barbecue picks, the former moist and tender, the latter enhanced with the zing of Korean red peppers. Short ribs (lunch $8.99, dinner $14.99) have good flavor but tend to be chewy chew·y adj. chew·i·er, chew·i·est Needing much chewing: chewy candy. chew  i·ness n. . All the barbecue orders are served with an array of kim chee items in little white bowls, well-executed steamed rice and a small bowl of a tasty potato and onion broth. The soup arrives nice and hot. Conversely, Koreans love their noodles ice cold. Here at Kim's they're available perched in kim chee-flavored ice cold soup and accompanied by containers of hot mustard and rice vinegar. A daub or two of the mustard, a squirt or two of the vinegar on the noodles and a quick do-it-yourself tossing, and you have a refreshingly frigid ``pasta'' dish sporting a shot of spicy, vinegary heat. It's a combination that seems entirely appropriate on a hot afternoon. You get your heat two ways, peppery pep·per·y adj. 1. Of, containing, or resembling pepper; sharp or pungent in flavor. 2. Vigorously sharp-tempered: a peppery sales clerk. 3. hot and temperature hot, in the traditional bubbling tofu tofu Soft, bland, custardlike food product made from soybeans. Believed to date from China's Han dynasty (206 BC–AD 220), tofu is today an important source of protein in the cuisines of East and Southeast Asia. and egg ``soup'' called ``soon'' (lunch $5.99, dinner $7.99). This spicy melange mé·lange also me·lange n. A mixture: "[a] building crowned with a mélange of antennae and satellite dishes" Howard Kaplan. , cooked with white onions, has a speck or two of beef in it and a topping of scallions. If you need something to perk you up, this will do it, soon enough. With some 42 dishes to choose from, you won't get bored at Kim's. In addition to the pot of tofu soup there are numerous stews and soup offerings, most of them hot and spicy. The menu also lists 11 special dishes ranging from wonderfully light, puffy steamed dumplings stuffed with a meat mixture (10 for $7.99) delivered with a tart rice vinegar-soy-ginger dipping sauce to a steamed monkfish monkfish Any of 10–12 species (genus Squatina, family Squatinidae) of sharks having a flattened head and body, with winglike pectoral and pelvic fins that make them resemble rays. The tail bears two dorsal fins, and behind each eye is a prominent spiracle. platter for two ($21.99). There are cuttlefish cuttlefish, common name applied to cephalopod mollusks that have 10 tentacles, or arms, 8 of which have muscular suction cups on their inner surface and 2 that are longer and can shoot out for grasping prey, and a reduced internal shell enbedded in the enveloping and mackerel mackerel, common name for members of the family Scombridae, 60 species of open-sea fishes, including the albacore, bonito, and tuna. They are characterized by deeply forked tails that narrow greatly where they join the body; small finlets behind both the dorsal and plates (untried) and a heaped oval dish of sauteed baby octopus ($12.99) that we tried one day. The baby octopus had been stirred with cut, mixed vegetables in a hot, spicy red sauce red sauce Nutrition Any low-fat, low-calorie tomato-based sauce. Cf White sauce. , leaving some pieces more crunchy than chewy and others vice versa VICE VERSA. On the contrary; on opposite sides. . Grandma Kim's recipes are now handled deftly by her daughter Yeon Kim and often served with a smile by her granddaughter Jennifer. Her cooking legacy continues on Topanga Canyon Boulevard. Larry Lipson, (818) 713-3668 larry.lipson(at)dailynews.com KIM'S NOODLE & BBQ Food: Three stars - Service: Three stars Where: 8384 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Canoga Park. Hours: Open for lunch, dinner and snacks from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. daily except Sunday. Lunch specials served from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays. Recommended items: Barbecued pork or chicken, cold noodles in cold soup with mustard and vinegar, hot and spicy tofu soup with egg, steamed meat dumplings, variety of kim chee condiments. How much: Starters included with entrees (lunch $6 to $9, dinner $8 to $15). Beer and wine. All major credit cards accepted. Wine list: Korean rice wine ($10) and green tea-flavored Soju ($10) plus Korean OB beer ($5) and a couple of domestic beers ($2.50) are the alcoholic beverages of choice here. Reservations: Taken. Call (818) 346-1590. CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1 -- 2) Though Grandma Kim no longer works at Kim's Noodle & BBQ, her daughter Yeon, left, and granddaughter Jennifer have kept the dishes coming. Selections (top) include beef ribs and pan-fried seafood bean cake. Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News |
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