Had Korean food again last night but this time at a place I had never been before- Cho Dang Gol, also in K-town. Since Dawg is visiting from Seattle, we all wanted to get together for dinner and he said K-town and V picked this restaurant (V of Mekong fame, not to be confused with Stoopid V whose favorite food also happens to be Korean). K said she was going to suggest Cho Dang Gol too, so we pretty much knew it would be good. My friends know food, and if more than one them recommends the same place, it’s pretty much a forgone conclusion that the meal is going to rock. Sure enough, I was quite impressed. The assortment of little pancakes we had for apps were a perfrect starter. How can you not love seafood pancakes? The kalbi was also as delicious as you’d expect (kalbi happens to be one of the dishes that is reliably good almost everywhere because no Korean restaurant could stay open in NY if its kalbi were not up to par). Their other Korean standard, jap chae, was also perfectly executed with the added bonus of little bits of noodle that crisped up and stuck to the bottom of the hot metal plate; you’d have to scrape it off with your spoon to get at it, but it was well worth the effort. Speaking of crispy bits, we had barley rice with our meal, and at the end V (who is Korean, so she knew how to order all of this for us) ordered us some more of the barley rice but this time it included the toasty bits that must have come off the bottom of the rice cooker and had a light tea poured over it (or it may just have been water, I’m not sure). I love that sort of thing, just like I love congee or any kind of rice soup. So all of that was great, but the highlight of the meal for me was the kim chee. I’ve had a lot of kim chee in my day, but Cho Dang Gol’s was absolutely perfect. Just the right amount of heat, sweetness, and crunch. I like spicy food, but oftentimes restaurants make their kim chee so spicy that you can’t enjoy the subtleties of the other dishes. Not so here. The heat was just enough to light up the ol’ taste buds without overwhelming. When followed by a taste of the delicate freshly made tofu, I could still taste the subtle nutty nuances of the curd. Great stuff. I will definitely return.