Buena Park doesn't get much foodie love, even though it's at the intersection of our burgeoning South Asian and Korean populations. The Indian and Pakistani restaurants, including our Best Indian Restaurant from 2011 (Namastey India), are migrating east from Artesia; the Koreans are bent on making Beach Boulevard one enormous buffet of great food from Garden Grove to La Mirada.
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It's not all barbecue, though; Koreans are fond of a night out on the town, and when they have to deal with the suk-chwi (you know, la cruda)
the following morning, they turn to soup. Jang Mo Gip, in Buena Park's
ever-expanding Korean restaurant row, serves the classic, offal-filled
haejangguk, but just as efficient at loosening the vise on the
over-imbiber's head is sullungtang, or seolleongtang.
Seolleongtang is beef bone soup, with japchae
(glass noodles, though you can ask for rice noodles, which are easier
to bite off) and little slices of beef, and that's it. There are no
vegetables floating in it; it's not broth poured around a salad like
minestrone. The other thing is that it comes completely unseasoned; you
add salt and chopped scallions from huge tubs on the table. Add, stir,
taste; add, stir, taste. Then you can dump your rice and kimchi in if
you like.
Before you know it, you'll have a cool glass of sweet
ginger drink (great for the morning-after queasiness) to nurse and
other, bleary-eyed people will be gazing longingly at your table.
