LA: Kogi at the Alibi Room

When it was finally confirmed that I would be going to Los Angeles for winter break, two words immediately formed in my finals-addled brain: Korean tacos. Or more specifically, the Kogi truck, the culinary brainchild of Chef Roy Choi that swept Southern California into a truck-chasing frenzy in 2008 and has since spawned dozens of copycat operations across the US (including one of the most recent pop-ups, the Korilla BBQ truck in New York). I'm not a proponent for imitation anything, so I semi-consciously made the decision not to try any iteration of a Kogi taco until I could taste the real thing for myself, in California. With this trip, I saw my chance. However, I'm still a New Yorker, and there was no way I was going to chase a truck down an unfamiliar California highway in a car only to wait two hours for my fix. With my original four days in LA slashed to two and a half due to an East Coast blizzard, I was on a strict schedule. Thankfully, a friend directed me to the Alibi Room, a bar that partnered with Kogi soon after it took off, and offers the same menu out of their kitchen.

Short rib tacos with slaw, cilantro, onions and salsa roja

Spicy pork tacos with slaw, cilantro, onions and salsa roja

The Alibi Room isn't much more than a large square bar plopped in the middle of a dark room, with a row of seating near the entrance. A couple we later met at the bar told us that prior to its partnership with Kogi, the Alibi Room wasn't exactly the most happening spot. The proprietors of the Alibi Room may not be very successful bar owners but they do know how to strike a deal. That Tuesday night, the place was packed with young locals, their chatter reverberating off the bare walls. It's a rather daunting scene for the average tourist so here's a crash course for the uninitiated: Go to the bar. Try to find some empty bar space. Place your food order with the bartender. Throw back a couple of drinks while you wait.

Kimchi sesame quesadilla: flour tortilla, cheese, kimchi, red pepper sour cream, salsa roja

Blackjack quesadilla: flour tortilla, cheese, spicy pork, onion, salsa verde

The tacos arrived first, sporting mounds of slaw and the traditional lime and radish. Both the pork and the short rib were grilled well, with the short rib exhibiting the toothsome, slightly resistant texture particular to traditional galbi. However, I found the slightly cloying sweet-sour sauce coating the meat to be better suited to the pork than the beef; the short rib taco would have been preferable had the natural beef flavor been allowed to break through the confines of its marinade. I wouldn’t call the overall effect harmonious – maybe they aren’t supposed to be. After all, the tacos are a mishmash of Korean and Mexican cuisine – they are meant to be an intriguing yet tasty juxtaposition of the textures and flavors of each, and this is certainly accomplished. How then, does one explain the almost preternatural flawlessness of the kimchi quesadilla? I’m not going to pretend I’ve never thrown a slice of cheese into a bubbling pot of kimchi chigae, but those were sly maneuvers to add some salty richness to the fermented tang of the kimchi – moves I sort of kept to myself because they seemed a little pedestrian, and well, inauthentic. But it seems that many Koreans often have the same idea, and Mr. Choi apparently decided to come clean with this guilty pleasure head-on with his kimchi quesadilla. The thing is bursting with copious amounts of melted cheese and kimchi, the oozing cheese the perfect foil for the sharpness of the cabbage. It’s all encased in an impeccably crisp flour tortilla and dressed with a smooth salsa roja for an extra blast of heat. There are few things I will risk third-degree burns for, but I palmed this quesadilla with gusto, scalded fingers be damned, lobbing it back and forth between both hands all the while trying to steer it into my mouth. (Eating with me is not humiliating at all.) The blackjack version is equally sumptuous, although less obviously a product of ‘fusion’ cuisine - with its spicy pork and cheese filling, it's just a really, really good quesadilla.

Driving around LA later that evening, it wasn't difficult to see how the phenomenon of Korean tacos took hold. The city has a huge Mexican population, and a formidable Koreatown to match. Weaving in and out of the streets of K-town, and along its outskirts, we whizzed past innumerable taco trucks, stands (including a lone man tending to an extremely makeshift grill in a parking lot - something I regret not stopping for to this day), and Spanish-only storefronts. The confluence of the two is probably something that should have happened earlier. But when it's this good, it is not ours to question when or why or how - just find that truck (or not) and go with it.

Kogi at the Alibi Room

12236 Washington Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90066

Phone: (310) 390-9300

Best dishes: Kimchi quesadilla, blackjack quesadilla

Kogi Korean BBQ hours at the Alibi Room: 6 pm-12 am, Monday - Saturday

Kogi Truck website (with schedule): www.kogibbq.com

New York: Dhaba

It may be surprising to some that Indian cuisine is not something I know a whole lot about. In fact, it wasn’t until about two years ago that I began to actively pursue good, authentic Indian food. Admittedly, my prior knowledge on the subject had been limited to the dishes I’d had at the homes of my Indian friends in grade school (as good a start as any, I suppose) and the small town Indian buffets I sometimes frequented in college (a step down, to say the least). It was the memory of the great Indian food that I’d had intermittently as a child that prompted me to renew my quest to find the flavors and textures that had so fascinated me in my youth – the onion-y dense bread studded with potato that my friend Arati used to sneak to me from her lunch box under our desks in the third grade; the array of curries that I once found myself staring down during dinner at a classmate’s house in middle school.

Enter Dhaba, a dimly lit Punjabi restaurant in New York’s Murray Hill/Flatiron neighborhood, dubbed Curry Hill due to its abundance of Indian restaurants. Its modern ambiance and high-decibel crowd don’t exactly scream authenticity but let your eyes adjust to the darkness and you’ll see that the noisemakers are mostly Indian families and couples, not inebriated Wall Street brokers and anorexic scenesters.

Mango lassi

Navratan korma: paneer, fresh vegetables, pineapples, nuts, creamy almond sauce.

Tawa aloo gobi: potatoes, cauliflower, onions, tomatoes, tawa masala

Dhaba’s dizzyingly varied menu offers everything from the familiar to the unpronounceable. Yes, you could order chicken tikka masala, but please don’t - greater pleasures are to be found in the unknown. Try the navratan korma, a paneer (Indian cheese) dish stewed with vegetables, pineapple and nuts in an almond cream sauce. This isn't a dish I would have ordered myself, but I'm glad my companion did - the sauce was thick and naturally sweet from the pineapple and stewed vegetables, the paneer the perfect blend of firmness and creaminess with a mild milky flavor. It stood in stark contrast to the paneers I've had in the past, where the texture of the cheese so often approximates that of a waterlogged sponge. Or opt for the tawa aloo gobi, a medley of potatoes, cauliflower, onions and tomatoes in a pungent tawa masala spice blend.

Bhuna lamb mirchwala: thick onion tomato sauce, garlic, garam masala, green chilies

Murgh makhni (butter chicken): roasted chicken strips, bell pepper, creamy tomato sauce

For the carnivorous, lamb is a wise choice. The bhuna lamb mirchwala features chunks of lamb in a fiery sauce of onions, tomatoes and garam masala. Texturally, the lamb in Dhaba's curries are a mixed bag - some tender and fatty, others tougher, less favored cuts - but all flavorful. When it comes to spice, Dhaba (admirably) refuses to relent to the frailties of the Western palate - spicy here means spicy. For those who insist on playing it safe, the murgh makhni (butter chicken) is a good bet. Pleasantly tangy and creamy with the occasional undercurrent of heat, it's the girl next door of curry.

Garlic naan

Aloo pea paratha: leavened bread, spiced potato, peas

Tandoori chicken

However, Dhaba is not without its weak spots. During both visits, Dhaba's bread failed to impress. The generous amount of minced garlic on the garlic naan imparted an overpoweringly bitter flavor to the bread, which lacked the airy, springy quality I have come to expect from naan. An aloo pea paratha's stodgy texture detracted from its otherwise enjoyable potato and pea filling. I took bite after bite, waiting for some vestige of flakiness to show itself, but it never did. And the tandoori chicken seemed to serve an almost perfunctory purpose - moist and well-seasoned, but certainly not a standout dish.

Still, Dhaba's curries and vegetarian dishes are deliciously thick and expertly seasoned, and the mango lassi is outstanding. Visit just once and you will feel the urge to return in order to sample more of their extensive menu. The best strategy at Dhaba is to take on the unfamiliar. Chances are, you will be pleasantly surprised or, as in my case, find what you were looking for all along.

Dhaba

108 Lexington Ave.
(between 27th St & 28th St)
New York, NY 10016

Phone: (212) 679-1284

Best dishes: Curries, vegetarian/vegan dishes, lassi

Hours: Mon-Thu 12 pm - 12 am; Fri-Sat 12 pm - 1 am; Sun 12 pm - 10:30 pm

Things to know: $9 take-out lunch specials on weekdays; $10 lunch buffet Mon-Sat; $12.95 lunch buffet on Sundays