Nothing Says Halloween Like Tofu

We live in a condo full of old and/or Korean people. This means we never have trick-or-treaters. In honor of our recent cooler weather and without worry of being "tricked" for not being home, we headed to Koreatown for piping hot sundubu jjigae.

BCD Tofu House is a worldwide chain with 10 locations in the United States, eight of which are in Southern California. There are two outposts in K-town that are both open 24 hours a day, every day. We usually go to the one at 869 S. Western because it's less crowded than the one at 3575 Wilshire.

Like other Korean establishments, the meal starts with a little salad and panchan.


My favorite part of the complimentary pre-meal delights at BCD is the small fried fish. One is given to each patron. It's fantastic. I won't lie -- this fish is the main reason I keep coming back to BCD.

I had the dumpling tofu soup ($8.99), an exquisite harmony of homemade meat mandu (Korean dumplings), soft tofu, beef, pork, leeks, onions, cabbage, and green onions. Medium spiciness is the perfect amount of hotness for me.

Look at all that luscious redness! It's like lava!

Mr. Monkey always orders the hottest level of spice available. I don't know how he does it. I like spicy things, but I also like to taste my food and not to sweat profusely. He had the yellow corvina and premium tofu combo ($14.99). His tofu looked similar to mine, so here's a picture of his yellow corvina.

It's like a slightly larger version of the complimentary appetizer fried fish. Yeah, we really like the fried fish here.

Like at other Korean restaurants, near the end of your meal, your server scrapes out all of the remaining scorched rice from your hot dolsot (stone bowl) and mixes it with hot water for a soothing post-dinner quasi-porridge.

I usually eat a couple bites and give the rest to Mr. Monkey. I'm not a huge fan, but he loves the smoky rice soup. He thinks it's good for digestion. I think it's just more carbs I don't need.

Our Halloween wasn't entirely un-Halloweeny. The beauty of living in Los Angeles is that our neighborhoods meld together. Throughout the night, little children -- mostly of Latino descent -- invaded BCD with requests for candy from our friendly Korean proprietors.

We also sat next to a group of four fun guys who were dressed like a pirate (complete with a fake parrot on his shoulder), sailor, aviator, and sheik. I think they were probably on their way to the huge bash in West Hollywood.

Pretty cool.

If you'd like to read a post with slightly more detailed descriptions of various components of what we ate, go here for a better breakdown. Hope you all had a fun Halloween!