In a recent interview with Eater Los Angeles, Greta Lee shared her favorite, go-to Korean dishes that she always orders from her local Korean spots. The Past Lives star grew up in Koreatown — where her parents still live — and recently moved back to Los Angeles after 17 years in New York.
Since she's been back, Greta and her family (now including her husband and two sons) have been creating new memories over Korean food — like naengmyeon and jjajangmyeon — as they check out new restaurants and return to old childhood faves.
Here are Greta's go-to Korean orders from her favorite restaurants, for the next time you find yourself craving Korean food:
1.Mul-naengmyeon and bibim-naengmyeon from Yuchun — "Yuchun is a place where my brother and I have an official standing lunch date," Greta said. It's known for its mul-naengmyeon and bibim-naengmyeon. "Mul" means water in Korean, and "naengmyeon" means cold noodles (and in this case, buckwheat noodles). So while mul-naengmyeon is served in broth, bibim-naengmyeon is served in a spicy sauce.
As for Greta and her brother, they always get a plate of steamed leek, pork dumplings, and mul-naengmyeon in that order. "This is a full endeavor," she said. "There are days when that's the only thing I have to eat. My brother calls it 'one-meal day.'"
2.Jjajangmyeon and jjamppong from Young King — "It was probably one of the first restaurants in Koreatown that we went to as a family," Greta recalled. The Korean Chinese restaurant, she said, offers dishes that are tentpole meals for Korean immigrants, like jjajangmyeon and tangsuyuk.
She recommended having both jjajangmyeon — "fermented black bean noodles" — and its sister dish, jjamppong — a spicy, seafood-based noodle dish — together. Fortunately, to spare your tastebuds the Sophie's choice of it all, some restaurants now offer a jjajangmyeon-jjamppong combo in a split bowl. "I profoundly appreciate that," Greta said.
3.Doenjang-jjigae and kalguksu from Western Doma Noodles — Located across the street from her parents' office, Doma is a place where Greta and her family would go to and get everything. "We've been going there for as long as I can remember," she said.
As Greta noted, doenjang-jjigae — a fermented soybean paste stew — is a cornerstone food for Korean people. "I remember [it] smelling distinctly like feet to me as a child, but [it's] now a dish that I can't live without," she said. However, she pointed out that Doma is known for its kalguksu — "hand-cut noodles in a clam broth" — pictured below.
4.Seolleong-tang from Sun Nong Dan — "It's incredible and where you go when you want tang, which is a soup," Greta said, admitting that she frequently goes there alone to eat (and that the restaurant's newest location actually used to be a Sizzler's).
While Greta personally loves their seolleong-tang — ox bone soup — she made sure to mention Sun Nong Dan's tteokbokki and cheese-topped dishes: "They come in with a torch and will light it on fire for you like it's some sort of savory creme brulée."
5.Mul-naengmyeon from Sulga House of Bone Broth — "[Sulga] does amazing food in such an intimate way," Greta said, explaining that Sulga elevates and reinterprets traditional Korean dishes.
Case in point, Sulga adds a hit of beets (or wild yams, as their menu describes) to their mul-naengmyeon — again, cold buckwheat noodles in broth — that gives the broth a pinkish tint, as you can see in the photo. "It's this beautiful pink that's so Instagram-friendly, but it was clearly not the owners' intent," Greta said.
6.Seafood Barbecue from The C (DaeBuDo) — Introduced to The C by a friend, this is a newer restaurant on Greta's list. Unlike the typical meat-based Korean barbecue restaurants, The C offers seafood barbecues, such as scallops, clams, and shrimp. "There's a fully immersive experience involving seafood barbecue," she said. "It feels almost cinematic."
Greta explained how she approaches seafood barbecue: First, she grills the mollusks/shellfish. Because you can get scallops wrapped in foil with broth, Greta then recommends adding the broth to a rice dish when the scallops are done grilling. She also gets seafood noodle dishes, noting, "And you have to eat it all while drinking soju and beer."
7."The King's Meal" from Yongsusan — "Yongsusan is probably my mother's favorite restaurant," Greta said. While "the king's meal" isn't exactly the name of a Korean dish, Yongsusan specializes in authentic hanjeongsik (a full-course meal) reminiscent of meals served to Korean kings during the Goryeo Dynasty.
Since Yongsusan offers full-course meals, there's no specific dish Greta specifically recommended ordering. However, she did have a realization there during a friend's 40th birthday celebration as they ate muk — acorn jelly. "To me, it was one of those foods that just felt kind of embarrassing growing up. And now as an adult, I'm at this birthday party with grown-ups who aren't Korean at all, eating bowls of acorn jelly," she reflected. "I just felt overjoyed that Korean food could be recognized and appreciated in a much more expansive way. It just feels so different from what I knew growing up."
Well, there ya have it! What do you think of these dishes? Have you eaten any before or been to any of these restaurants? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Read Greta's full interview with Eater LA here, and be sure to check out the trailer for A24's Past Lives — which drops in theaters nationwide on June 23 — starring Greta, here:
