It’s been a very long time since I wrote up one of my “Chop Suey” posts of mixed Asian spots. Just a refresher on why I call these Chop Suey when obviously that’s not a pan-Asian dish nor term:

Chop Suey: Americanization of zá sui, literally, “assorted pieces”, and anecdotally, deriving from a Taiwanese tradition, tsap seui, “miscellaneous leftovers”.

There are probably similar terms in other Asian languages, I just don’t know them. Feel free to provide!

We’ll start with an aborted attempt at the annual Korean food festival. I’ve been in past years as it’s been held in various places. Usually there are a couple of hundred people, tops, until late in the day when they start with the entertainment. That’s always made it easy to get to sample food from various stands at lunchtime. However, apparently, Korean food has been discovered by locals – I mean, I knew that, and it’s why Korean restaurants outside of Koreatown are now thriving. But, this was over the top. In a two block stretch of Av. Carabobo there had to be something on the order of close to two thousand people, milling about and waiting for food. Estimates were well over an hour to get up to any booth. So, I decided to try one of the few spots left on my radar in the ‘hood.

Han Obaegnyeon, Pumacahua 1629, Flores. Back in January, two of us met up at the small house where the second branch of Han Obaeknyeon is located. We had a nice meal, but were a bit disappointed that most of the menu wasn’t available, but given that they’d just reopened after almost two years closed, we gave them some slack. Our waiter told us that if we wanted access to the full menu we should check out their original spot.

I got in line, and there was a line. Apparently a bunch of people had the same idea I did. I got to chatting with two young Argentines who were in line behind me. They’d actually come to the wrong festival – there was a regional Argentine festival going on near the Casa Rosada on Av. de Mayo, but they confused the two announcements and found themselves in Barrio Corea for the first time in their lives. Deciding to stay, they popped into the first Korean restaurant they found outside of the fray and ended up behind me. Neither had ever had Korean food before, and I offered to share a table with them (all the tables in the place are for four, so one person at a table on a busy day… and all that).

Now first off, this is clearly not a more extensive menu that the other location. I don’t even think it has half as many items. on it. And, it’s very focused on… innards (the translations in blue below are mine). And then it turned out that the young woman of the couple was vegetarian. Well that wasn’t happening. They decided to stay and sample something quickly and then head somewhere that she could eat. So he ordered a bowl of the ox-bone broth soup (1600 pesos). And, nibbled at the paltry selection of ban chan. Really wasn’t all that interesting of a selection – some plain potatoes, some decent cabbage kimchi, some pickled jalapeños, some daikon kimchi, and a little dish of chili paste to add to the soup. One note – no beverage menu, and it turned out, apparently, the only things available to drink were bottled water (a two-liter bottle is placed on each table, and is gratis), and Coke. Nothing with alcohol sounds really odd to me for a Korean restaurant – I don’t think I’ve ever encountered that before.

Now, I’m not fast enough to translate Korean on the fly, and they’re in a dead-spot for cell service, so I was muddling my way through when the woman who was behind the two of them in line, a lovely Korean woman, offered to help me out with the translation (which she translated into English for me, and I was simultaneously translating into Spanish). She highly recommended the house special dish, sundae gopchang bokkeum (3000 pesos, meant to be shared by 2-3 people). Not a dish I’ve had before, usually because no one I go with wants to try a spicy stir fry of blood sausage and small intestines. But on her recommendation, I went for it.

Damn good. I mean, really, really good, and fiery spicy. Yeah, you have to like blood sausage and intestines, but I do if they’re cooked right, and these were, along with a mix of cabbage and other greens, and a lot of slivered shiso leaf, which gave it a beautiful aromatic flavor. A huge portion, and the young man of the couple was only willing to sample one small piece of the blood sausage, then went and quickly finished his beef noodle soup, and they gave me money for that and headed out. I made through about a third or a little more of this whopping plate and then had them pack the rest up to take home, where we enjoyed the rest later for dinner.

Los Manjares, Arribeños 2186, Barrio Chino. Back in 2006, on one of my first visits to Chinatown here, I had stopped in and checked this place out. I had a really good meal, and swore to go back. For some reason, I never have. Don’t ask. I have no excuse, other than, perhaps, I found other places I liked more. Recently I noted that they’ve gotten a complete makeover – it’s now very modern and sleek looking, and I decided to pop in for lunch.

Service is still really friendly, in fact, same woman (owner perhaps?) was attending to tables. The menu seems much the same as I vaguely recall from so many years ago – a decent selection of classic dishes. One thing changed, instead of Chinese potstickers, they now offer Japanese gyoza as their only dumpling. Quite good, and a really generous portion of ten large ones. For a main course, had I remembered that I hadn’t gotten to try the Yu-xiang eggplant that first time, I might have ordered it this time. But I ordered ma-po tofu instead. A very good version of it. I’ve had better, I’ve had worse. I’d happily eat this again. And, while I know I swore this sixteen years ago, I’ll put this place back on my rotation for spots to eat at. I can’t find the receipt from lunch, but recollection is that with beverage and tip I spent about 2300 pesos.

 

Mian, Arribeños 2302, Barrio Chino. Yes, it’s Mian once again. Mostly because they’ve up and moved for a second time. We first visited five years ago when they were a little hole-in-the-wall on Mendoza. And then again (well, in reality, I, we, have visited many times, because it’s a favorite) in its new, large digs a block or so away on the same street. Now they’ve moved to a corner location on Arribeños, a block away – taking over the spot vacated during the pandemic by trendy sushi bar chain Dashi. Smaller than their last space, but bigger than the original.

Over these five years, the menu has remained unchanged. You can still confidently order by number any of your favorite dishes. And there are still a few scattered dishes that only appear on the Chinese version of the menu, not on the Spanish – like my favorite spicy chicken gizzards dish. And this time I decided to get them with a side of dumplings rather than a noodle dish. All as delicious as always, and still a favorite spot, particularly when you’re in the mood for noodles, in or out of soup. Followed by a second visit a few days later with a friend where we sampled our way through the steamed pork dumplings and baked/steamed pork buns, followed by the hot and sour glass noodle soup. Yums all around, and prices still relatively reasonable.