For mother’s day this year, we somehow ended up at Margaret Kuo’s Akari Room in Wayne. My aunt picked it. But then she didn’t end up going. But we had to go anyway. That’s ok, the old lady would have picked sushi anyway. This is on the second floor of the chinese part of Margaret Kuo’s. It’s swanky. There’s a large sushi bar and plenty of tables and traditional style booths.
The miso soup – quite respectable. Mom didn’t complain about it being too salty or anything. It was just right.
Since I always like to try the agedashi tofu, I tried it here too. And it was good! It was nice and hot and the sauce was spot on.
Mom’s sushi dinner, which is usually her go-to at any sushi joint. Everything was good and fresh.
As for me, I went with a grilled chilean sea bass in an orange miso sauce. This was a great big honkin piece of fish! And it tasted great too. The sauce was just a tiny bit on the orangey side, just enough. The veggies were great too. All in all, this was good food with good service and a fancy atmosphere.

Instead of heading into the city, I decided to spend my last night in the burbs and ended up busting a gut at BCD Tofu House in Edmonds. I’ve been to one before in LA, so I knew what to expect. I ordered a spicy pickled crab & tofu combo. I got a whole bunch of banchan, including this entire grilled fish. It’s impossible to go hungry here. This banchan wasn’t particularly amazing, but it was just fine.
Here’s the crab. Typically, it’s one of my favorite korean dishes of all time. Here, it was only ok. The crab didn’t taste that fresh and the flavor was only so-so. But heck, there was tons of it! And most of the crab was claws, which a lot of you probably prefer.
Here’s my little steaming cauldron of soondubu! Yum! I think there was beef and seafood in this. It just seemed to have a little bit of everything. It was also ok.
They have the “purple” rice here, which is cool. The rice comes out in its own little cauldron, but when the server comes out, she transports the rice into a metal bowl and then leaves the leftovers in the cauldron with you. Then she fills the cauldron with hot water.
Then you can mix up the water with the leftover rice and also eat that. It’s actually probably my favorite part of such a soondubu meal, even though it’s probably the most boring! This place is pretty small, and there’s only one server working in the whole place. Despite this, the service was quite fine and the food came out quickly.

Sometimes you have to go into scary parts of town to eat amazing food. I’ve wanted to go to Jong Ka Jip for a gazillion years, but somehow, never made it. After actually craving soondubu, we made the scary drive. Ok, it’s not really that scary. Just be aware of the red light cameras! And speaking of cameras, don’t worry. The Jong Ka Jip parking lot is well-monitored by at least 4-6 cameras. It was definitely a relief to me.
As is standard with korean grub, you get a variety of banchan. None of it was extraordinary here, but it was all ok. I really liked their cucumber kimchi though. So props to you for that, Jong Ka Jip.
They may have some other things on the menu, but you come here for one thing – soondubu jjigae. It’s a spicy stew with a whole lotta soft tofu, and you can choose what kind of meat, or non-meat, you want in it. When it comes out to you, it’s boiling in a stone bowl. I like to call this a mini cauldron. While it’s boiling, you crack a raw egg into it. You also get a bowl of rice in a similar cauldron. And you eat the stew with the rice. Easy as pie. And infinitely more delicious. I can’t even tell you how awesome this is. And it’s $9, tax included, free well-lit well-monitored parking lot included, call button included. And when you’re done with your stew and rice, the bottom layer of rice that was exposed to the cauldron will hopefully be a little burnt and toasted. You then pour hot water into this, mix it up, and then eat that. That’s only if it’s physically possible for you to shovel more food into your already distended belly. This food is beyond awesome, super cheap, and more than worth the trek. So do it.