Tofu Village on Irving at 20th has taken over the space that once housed the only good Taiwanese restaurant in the city. Oh well. The space is the same, though they've added a flat screen tv to the wall and were playing some Chinese movie with Ziyi Zhang from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Despite the movie, the neighborhood and the previous version of the restaurant, there were quite a few people speaking Korean around our table. My caucasian friend pointed at the menu which shows a scale of spiciness from top to bottom: Extra Spicy, Spicy, Medium, Mild, and White. That's right, "White" is the mildest seasoning. We laughed.
This time I tried a straight up Combination Tofu rather than getting a combo with some bbq. The Combo Tofu was in a nice sized bowl, bigger than the one at My Tofu House, and filled with large chunks of tofu. Though the flavor was there, I was a little bit disappointed with the skimpy fillings. Only a couple of pieces of clam and two very small shrimp with the head on top. At least the service was good, they kept asking if we wanted more panchan. The panchan was not terribly exciting, though they did give each of us our own little fish and as much japchae as we could eat. Unlike other tofu places, they didn't pour hot water into the stone rice bowl -- not that I ever eat that water mush, but I like the idea of it. The dinner for two came out to $24 including tip, so I can't complain. Though next time I'd order the Dae Ji Bulgogi or the Kalbi.
Previous Tofu Village Post
Irving at 20th
Heading over to have dinner at Kevin's Noodle House on Irving near 19th, I saw that the old Taiwanese snack place has now changed from a jook house to a Korean tofu place. I had to try it. Tofu House has the usual assortment of soon tofu chige and a pretty good menu of combos which enables you to have tofu chige and some bbq. I opted for spicy pork bbq and tofu and ordered it 'very very spicy' -- First off, it came very very spicy, thank you tofu house for not shying away from giving me some heat. The tofu was a very small pot, appropriate for the combo, but chock full of shrimp and clams and tofu. Though it did not include a raw egg. Accompanying the tofu was a plate of spicy pork, which was at least 6 ounces -- a lot of sweet slightly spicy and very tender pork on a bed of onions. The panchan was decent and they included jap chae as a panchan, so I got two servings of that. For $15 it's a pretty good deal considering it's enough food for two people, or one gluttonous person such as myself. Next time: the kalbi and tofu combo.
Enjoyed some very spicy combination Soon Tofu at My Tofu House. The panchan was different than I remembered. There was a small fish which was good, but I stopped eating it as soon as I found that they hadn't gutted it. Sure, it's a small fish, but c'mon, you still gotta gut it. The rest of the panchan was good, though the kimchee is more salty than spicy. Geary @ 11th.
After the salty kimchee, I could not resist stopping at BiRite Creamery on the way home. They had a dazzling array of flavors: honey lavender, strawberry balsamic, roasted banana, ginger, chocolate chai, browned butter pecan, soy chocolate, salted caramel, blood orangebutter pecan and the soy chocolate after all the buzz I already knew I was getting the salted caramel. Of course, I overdid it and went for two scoops. I didn't think the bp was buttery enough, it was too sweet -- I prefer Baskin Robbin's butter pecan. The soy chocolate was a bit more icey, it had about the same flavor as the store bought soy ice creams. I figured I'd overdo it by having a double, but felt guilty so I got the soy as my second flavor. The salted caramel was by far my favorite of the three. I'll have to be back to try the others. Good thing I was there at 3 pm on a weekday because I passed by coming home from dinner at 9 p.m. and there was a line all the way to the corner. Next time: blood orange and ginger.
I had a great Lacuma (Peruvian fruit) flavored scoop at Mitchell's last week, it might supplant the Ube as my fave.
