Description
Born as a greasy spoon almost two decades ago, Kobawoo has mellowed into a Koreatown institution, a polished, respectable destination restaurant with some of the best food in Koreatown at prices almost unbelievably low. The restaurant has a decent version of samgyetang, a soothing chicken-in-the-pot stuffed with ginseng and sticky rice, and very good pigs' feet, boiled and pressed into a sort of terrine. The home-style pindaeduk, mung-bean pancakes, are a big draw - the pancakes are ethereal beneath their thin veneer of crunch, melting away almost instantly in the mouth like a sort of intriguingly flavored polenta. But the specialty of Kobawoo is probably bossam, a sort of combo platter of steamed pork belly and ultraspicy turnip kimchi, an elegant preparation that like so many other Korean dishes seems almost custom-designed to accompany a bottle of soju.
