[Los Angeles] [Korean] 龍水山 Yongsusan

Yongsusan
龍水山
950 S Vermont Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90006
(213) 388-3042
http://www.yongsusan.co.kr/default_en.asp

It was Dr. P's mom's birthday, and Dr. P was thinking about taking Mrs. P out for a nice dinner.  I immediately thought of Yongsusan.  Dr. P and I went there about two years ago.  We really enjoyed the food at this high-end Korean restaurant.  Dr. P thought it was a great idea.  Last night we went with Mrs. P, Dr. P's brother and his girlfriend to Yongsusan for a birthday dinner.


Soft Creamy Porridge

Last time Dr. P and I ordered the $45.99 Royal court Table D’Hote (The price has gone up to $48.99 now).  It was way too much food.  This time we ordered the Special Table D'Hote for $39.99/person.  The dinner set has 16 courses!  The meal started with soft creamy porridge.  I think this was either made with pumpkin or squash.  The creamy porridge was made with sticky rice, and it tasted like slightly sweet warm sticky mochi soup.  I like it!



Cold Dish Dressed with Seafood

Cold dish dressed with seafood was jellyfish salad with cucumber and radish.  Also there were shrimp and thousand year old egg with the seafood salad.  The jelly fish salad tasted really food.  It wasn't as garlicky as the Chinese version.  I like how it had just the right amount of acidity with rice vinegar.


Black Sesame Tofu

Black sesame tofu was delicious.  The fried tofu had a black sesame crust.  It was soft inside and crunchy on the outside.  The flavor and texture contrast was excellent.  I am going to try to make this at http://www.eileenlikestoeat.com!


Mixed Vegetable Salad of Bean Sprout, Radish and Apricot /
Clear Mungbean Jelly mixed with Beef, Mushroom and Seaweed

Mixed Vegetable Salad of Bean Sprout, Radish and Apricot was spicy, crunchy, and sweet all at the same time.  Mrs. P commented that the food would be good with a bowl of rice, and I agreed.  Clear mungbean jelly mixed with beef, mushroom and seaweed was a very light dish.  It tasted refreshing.


A Colorful Platter of the Nine Ingredients with Thin Crepe

Our waitress brought in a colorful plate, and made the Nince Ingredients Thin Crepe for us.



Each of us got two crepes, one white one and one green one.



I opened up my crepe to see what was inside.  There were thin slices of vegetable, egg, and tripe?  Dr. P's girlfriend does not eat tripe, so Mrs. P asked our waitress if it was tripe.  She told us it was all vegetable.  What kind of vegetable looks like tripe?  I still think it looks like and taste like tripe though.


Kaesung Style Steamed Pork

Kaesun Style Steamed Pork was one of my favorite dish from our last visit.  It still is one of my favorite this time.  The dish is best eaten with everything on the plate together.  A piece of perfectly cooked pork belly, some spicy crunchy radish, some steamed cabbage, with the salty shrimp sauce.  Yum yum yum!  This dish was too good.


Egg Battered Fish and Vegetable

Egg Battered Fish and Vegetable was probably the only disappointing dish that night.  It was lacking flavor, and was a bit too oily.  I wasn't sure what kind of fish they used, but there was tiny bones in my piece of fish.  I think those tiny bones were edible, but I still didn't like it.


Kaesung Style Wrapped Kimchi

Kaesung Style Wrapped Kimchi looked pretty and fancy when it arrived at the table.



The kimchi had a milder taste than regular kimchi.  It tasted crisp and fresh.  I like it a lot.  I am planning to make kimchi fried rice with our leftover kimchi.


Stir Fried Clear Noodle with Mixed Vegetable and Seafood

Stir Fried Clear Noodle with Mixed Vegetable and Seafood was super tasty.  The squid was very tender.  Love the mixed vegetable and the clear noodle's flavor.


King Prawn a la Yongsusan

King Prawn a la Yongsusan tasted a bit like the egg battered dish earlier, but it had more flavor since there were zucchini and green onion added to the batter, and it came with dipping sauce.  The king prawn was really big.  I like it.


Skewered Sea Scallop

Skewered Sea Scallop was cooked perfectly.  The mushroom was juicy, and scallop was so fresh and soft.


Vegetable, Fish, Beef Slice Cooked in Soup

Our waitress brought in a fancy looking dragon stand , lit fire, and put the soup pot on the stand.  She did all that just to pour the soup in the bowls for us.  Fancy schmancy!



The soup had vegetable and slices of fish in it, along with some rice cake.  It tasted clean, but SPICY!  I wasn't expecting spicy soup just by looking at it, but it was a very pleasant surprise.



And we found a heart shaped green onion in my soup!  Love is in the air!!  haha....


Braised Short Ribs

Can I just say I LOVE BRAISED SHORT RIBS!  I absolutely love this dish.  It was kalbi, but in thick cut.  It was braised in this yummy sauce.  The meat was so tender that it just fell off the bone.  It was my favorite dish of the night.  Love it!  I really want to learn how to cook this dish at http://www.eileenlikestoeat.com.


Banchan

Two banchan to go with the rice/noodle dish, kimchi radish and fish cake.


Cold Noodle

We each got our choice of rice or noodle dish.  Both Dr. P and his brother picked cold noodle.  The cold noodle was chewy.  Broth was great.  I especially like the thin sliced pear.


Scorched Rice

Mrs. P ordered Scorched Rice (鍋巴).  This was the crispy rice on the side of the stone pot, and they added water to it.  A bowl of salty bean paste soup came with the rice.  Mrs. P finished the whole thing.  Must be good.


Soybean Paste Soup with Tofu

Dr. P's brother's girlfriend got Soybean Paste Soup with Tofu.  She was too full to finish it, and Dr. P's brother finished it for her.


Rice Cake Soup

I got the rice cake soup.  Their rice cake was in a funny 8 shape.  It made it more fun to eat.  haha....  The soup was light.  A great dish to finish the delicate meal.


Persimmon Punch made of Fresh Ginger, Cinnamon and Honey

Persimmon Punch was sweet and spicy.  I could definitely taste the cinnamon and ginger.  Good drink for a cold night.


Korean Sweets

When our waitress brought the dessert, Dr. P's brother said, "Oh I read about this tempura fried strawberry online."  What tempura fried strawberry?  Seriously?  Somebody thought this was fried strawberry?  This was rice cake (aka mochi) wrapped strawberry with kiwi sauce!  I can't believe someone actually called it fried strawberry.  Love the one-bite dessert.



Food at Yongsusan was delicious!  We all ate a little bit too much, and had the same expression on Dr. P's face when we left the restaurant.  haha....  Mrs. P was very happy with the meal.  We like having our own room so we can have conversation freely.  Last time Dr. P and I came here, they told us they do not do to-go here.  But this time, when Mrs. P asked our waitress in Korean, she give us couple boxes for to-go.  Hmmmm....  I think in general, service is better in Korean restaurant when there are Korean speaking people in the party.  Love the food, and great service.  For $40 per person, this was definitely a bargain for a 16 course tasting menu comparing to non-Asian restaurants tasting menu.  I really want to take my parents here to experience the "royalty dining", too.  I think we will return very shortly.


Ube Cake

After dinner, we went back to Mrs. P's house for birthday cake.  Dr. P's brother's girlfriend bought a Ube cake.  Ube is also called purple yam (山芋).



The purple cake looked like and tasted like taro cake to me.  Is ube and taro the same thing?  The cake was moist, and not overly sweet.  We all liked it a lot.  Thank you, Lucine, for the yummy cake.

Happy birthday Mrs. P!

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