Two weeks ago, we posted the Los Angeles edition of the top 5 late-night Korean eats, and as promised, here’s the East coast edition.

New York City is consistently praised as having the best dining-out options—at all hours of the night, and Korean cuisine is no exception to that. You can’t always get a home-cooked meal when the craving hits, but we think the restaurants below definitely hit the spot.

Almost every restaurant on our list of the Top 5 Late-Night Eats is open 24/7, which is great news since it’s New Year’s Eve. Check out the dishes below—you’re bound to find something to satisfy your taste buds after a long night of drinking!

1) NY Kom Tang Soot Bul Kalbi – Charcoal Grilled Kalbi

This kalbi house, located in the heart of Koreatown, opened in 1979 and claims to be the oldest Korean restaurant in New York City. NY Kom Tang Soot Bul Kalbi is famous for using charcoal grills instead of gas grills, which infuses the beef with a natural smoky flavor that is rare to taste at other Korean BBQ establishments.

The menu offers several options for BBQ meat, such as Chumooluck (prime rib steak marinated in soy sauce) and Samgyeopsal Gul (grilled pork slices). But customers come here mostly for their Kalbi marinated in soy sauce, which comes with a complimentary gyeran tang (steamed egg soup). The late-night meal of champions.

NY Kom Tang Soot Bul Kalbi
32 W 32nd St
New York, NY 10001
(212) 947-8482

2) Gahm Mi Oak – Seolleongtang 

Zagat-rated Gahm Mi Oak’s claim to fame is their delicious seolleongtang, or ox bone broth, served up 24 hours a day in the perfect milky-white color. Restaurant-goers that are familiar with the healing powers of Korean soup are sure to flock here for a quick hangover cure late at night, or early in the morning.

The soup dish is usually served unseasoned with slices of beef brisket, rice, and rice noodles; customers are presented with their own choice of adding in scallions, salt, and for a spicy kick—kimchi sauce.

Gahm Mi Oak
43 W 32nd St
New York, NY 10001
(212) 695-4113

3) Seoul Soon Dae – Soondae & Jokbal 

Those familiar with New York know that Manhattan’s K-town isn’t the only place to get a taste of high-quality Korean food—Flushing, Queens is littered with prime choices for Korean cuisine. Among them is Seoul Soon Dae which is located on Northern Blvd.

The house specialty that attracts diners is Soondae—boiled or steamed blood sausage stuffed with different ingredients like cellophane noodles, scallions, and rice. Soondae is typically considered street food, but makes for a very fulfilling meal. Also try their jokbal, pigs’ feet—it’s good for your skin and helps fight nasty hangovers!

Seoul Soon Dae
151-18 Northern Blvd.
Flushing, NY 11358
www.soondae.com

4) BCD Tofu House – Soondubu Jjigae

It is definitely worthwhile to list BCD Tofu House under our NYC edition as well considering it’s one of the busiest spots in K-town. Although the wait time on a Friday or Saturday night is normally an hour or longer, it’s a rare sight to see customers leave for another restaurant.

Food-lovers come to BCD for the boiling tofu stew, seasoned to your preferred level of spiciness, and for the varying selections of soondubu jjigae to choose from. BCD has undoubtedly mastered this dish; not to mention the other menu items are worth a taste, too, like the spicy raw crab or the spicy pork bulgogi. If you’re in NYC, BCD Tofu House is a must!

UPDATE: As of Dec. 31st, BCD Tofu House has closed permanently.

BCD Tofu House
17 W 32nd St
New York, NY 10001
www.bcdtofu.com

5) Dduk Tak – Comfort foods + 2-Cha (2nd round of drinks!) 

Dduk Tak—formerly Baden Baden—is one of the latest second-floor establishments to K-Town’s restaurant-lined 32nd street. Most of the dishes are said to be dangerously spicy, but they are well-paired with soju or makgeolli.

The restaurant-bar offers special deals for birthday celebrations, and on rainy days, customers are comforted with free pajeon (scallion pancake). Along with traditional Korean comfort foods like cheese ddeokbokki (spicy rice cakes with cheese), odang tang (fish cake soup), nakji bokkeum (spicy stir-fried octopus with veggies), and kimchi fried rice, the menu includes more exotic foods such as chicken feet, sea snails, and pigs’ feet—sure to sober you up!

Dduk Tak is comparable to Pocha 32, but with a cozier feel to it attributed to the wood decor and dimly lit setting. Although the restaurant isn’t open 24 hours, it is open until the wee hours of the morning after a long night of karaoke. Plus, it’s a great spot to go for a second round of drinking, a.k.a. 2-cha (pronounced ee-cha). They have colorful makgeolli cocktails!

Dduk Tak
28 W 32nd St., 2nd Fl.
New York, NY 10001
(212) 714-2266

Korean Food USA is a new series that showcases Korean and Korean-inspired eateries all around the nation.

While Korean BBQ and bibimbap have been welcomed and enjoyed by all, there are a lot of unique Korean foods that people may not know of. Sik Gaek, known for their affordable prices and extensive seafood options, is a great place to discover different Korean dishes that you may have never tried before. With locations in both Woodside and Flushing, NY, Sik Gaek is furnished and made to give a pojangmacha vibe. When you walk into this restaurant, the wooden stools and graffitied walls really make you feel like you are eating at a street stall in Seoul.

Assortment of shellfish to grill

There are different combinations of assorted shellfish that you can order and grill right at your table. Some of our favorites are mussels, clams, shrimp, and abalone. Everything is extremely fresh, and the taste is exceptional. Within the combination of shellfish, there are some clams with cheese and vegetables placed on top that melt together as they are grilled… and let’s just say that the creaminess of the cheese and the freshness of the clam work perfectly together.

San Nakji – a dish that star chefs Anthony Bourdain and David Chang have raved about

One of the dishes they serve that is not often seen on Korean menus is their Bool Dak Bal, which translates to Fire Chicken Feet. This dish will literally feel like a burst of flames in your mouth from the spiciness of the marinade, but the delicious flavor and tenderness of the meat have customers ordering it all the time. Another, somewhat controversial, item that you rarely see at Korean restaurant in the U.S. is Sannakji, live octopus. Though some people are hesitant to try the squirming tentacles, when dipped in cho gochujang (sweet & spicy Korean chilli sauce), it is truly delicious.

Sik Gaek does not provide a traditional banchan (side dishes) spread but give fried egg and ddeokbokki, spicy rice cakes, as appetizers.

Sik Gaek – Woodside
49-11 Roosevelt Ave
Woodside, NY 11377
http://www.sikgaekusa.com

Sik Gaek – Flushing
161-29 Crocheron Ave
Flushing, NY 11358

[Photos: Deborah Yoon, Yelp]

In a weekly series of posts, we will present the Top 5 Most Korean-American cities, selected not only for their numbers, but also for their visibility in mainstream America. Our research was guided by the following criteria: population, famous and/or influential locals, programs, and hotspots.

#2 New York, NY

New York City proudly boasts the second largest population of Korean Americans in the United States. Bustling Koreatowns have sprouted in Manhattan’s 32nd Street (a.k.a “Korea Way”) and Flushing—a neighborhood in Queens where the streets are lined with Korean shops, restaurants, and churches. Walking through both areas is like being transported to Korea itself, minus the grueling 13-hour flight. NYC is also home to your favorite go-to place for KA news: Korean Beacon!

Numbers

• 132,371 – New York metro area (population data compiled using the 2010 Census; excludes counties in Jersey and PA)

Visibility

• Dai Sil Kim-Gibson is an award-winning filmmaker, whose films include Sa-I-Gu: Korean Women’s Perspectives, Wet Sand: Voices from LA, and Silence Broken: Korean Comfort Women.  The latter film inspired her to create the Silence Broken Foundation, a non-profit organization that is “dedicated to exploring gender discrimination, racism, poverty and class struggle around the world.”
• Pauline Park is tireless fighter for transgender rights. Based in Queens, Park co-founded the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA), the first statewide transgender advocacy organization in New York, and Queens Pride House, the borough’s only LGBT community center. Pauline recently gave the commencement speech at Columbia University’s Lavender Graduation this past May.

Adrian Hong (left) and Pauline Park (right)

• Adrian Hong is a TED fellow, and the co-founder and former Director of Liberty in North Korea (LiNK), a global NGO whose mission is to “redefin[e] the North Korea crisis through creative storytelling, while providing emergency relief to North Korean refugees and pursuing an end to the human rights crisis.” Devoted to defending human rights, Adrian recently founded The Pegasus Press—a new initiative that uses innovative technology to keep the internet open and “safe for political dissidents and citizen journalists.”
• An advocate for women’s and children’s rights, Kyung B. Yoon is the Executive Director of the Korean American Community Foundation (KACF), a non-profit organization that “provides grants and capacity-building assistance to organizations working to address the most pressing needs in the Korean American community and beyond.” Last year we interviewed Kyung about her inspiring work with KACF and her goal to foster philanthropy in the KA community.
• A former candidate for New York City Council, Jin “PJ” Kim, a first-generation Korean American, is now the Executive Director at New York Needs You (NYNY), a career and leadership training program that empowers first-generation college students to achieve and realize their full potential. Notably, PJ also served as the Executive Director to the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy (DMI), a non-partisan progressive “urban think tank” founded during the Civil Rights Movement.

Programs

MinKwon’s Executive Director Steven Choi at rally on immigration issues

• MinKwon Center for Community Action fights for marginalized community members such as the youth, the elderly, recent immigrants, low-income residents, and limited English proficient residents who lack access to vital resources. MinKwon and its executive director, Steven Choi, were featured in a New York Times article that discussed the recent influx of Asians in New York and the fight to get fair representation for all Asians living in the city.
• The Korea Society was founded in 1957 with the purpose of facilitating a friendly relationship between the US through programs that allow for exchanges on topics such as public policy, business, education, and the arts. Next week, the organization will host an event with Wesley Yang, author of the New York Magazine article “Paper Tigers“—a response to Amy Chua’s Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.
• Fighting on behalf of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning people of Korean descent, the Dari Project aims to increase awareness and acceptance in Korean American communities. Dari provides resources such as personal testimonials about the experiences of LGBTQ people that are dispersed through a website that is available in both English and Korean.
• The Korean American Family Service Center (KAFSC) fights to prevent and end domestic violence and abuse for adults, youths, and children. KAFSC’s Board Chair Sarah BJ Sung was featured in the documentary series “NYC Women: Make it Here, Make it Happen” as a woman who is making a significant difference in New York City.
• The Korean Cultural Service New York (KCSNY) promotes Korean culture and aesthetics in New York through gallery exhibitions, performing arts concerts, film festivals, and educational programs. KCSNY also manages a library that contains more than 18,000 books magazines, and AV materials so that information on Korean films and Korean culture are easily accessible.

Hotspots

Buddae jjigae at Pocha 32

• NYC is home to Korilla BBQ—the Korean-style taco food truck founded by Ed Song. Since there are three trucks now, it’s impossible to miss out on a delicious taco lunch or dinner!
• Pocha 32 on W. 32nd street is a near-perfect replica of pojangmacha-style eateries littering the streets of South Korea—except it’s indoors. It’s known for its strong garlic odor, and delicious bubbling jjigaes (stews). Pocha 32 is also one of Kimchi Chronicles‘ Marja Vongerichten’s favorite spots in NYC.
• Circle is the premier attraction for newcomers to Manhattan looking for a fun, dance-filled night out. Owned by Bobby Kwak, one of NYC’s most savviest entrepreneurs, the nightclub is best known for hosting mini-concerts by top K-pop stars like Brown Eyed Girls and rapper Crown-J. It’s also been confirmed that this Labor Day weekend, T.O.P. from Big Bang will make a special guest appearance on both Friday and Saturday night! Other popular club spots in K-town are Maru Lounge on 32nd St, and Third Floor Cafe on 5th Avenue.
  
  
• Boka, in the heart of St. Mark’s, serves up plates of Korean fried chicken from Bonchon in all of the flavors you love. Make sure to top it off with an order of watermelon soju!
• U2 Karaoke is one of the bigger noraebangs in Manhattan—located in St. Mark’s rather than K-town. It’s a great spot for large birthday parties, or even just hanging out with a group of friends on a Friday night. The bar spans three floors with private karaoke rooms, and boasts a fully stocked bar on the second floor with seating.
• Kimganae, on Union Street in Flushing, has amazingly decent prices and is the best place to go for a fast meal that tastes just like a home-cooked Korean dish. The restaurant serves a variety of “comfort” foods like kimbap, tonkatsu and deokbokki.

Locals

• Named one of Time‘s Most Influential People of 2010, David Chang is the chef/owner of various restaurants in NYC including Momofuku Noodle Bar, Momofuku Ssäm Bar, Má Pêche, Momofuku Milk Bar, and Momofuku Ko. Momofuku Ko, a twelve-seat restaurant that requires making a reservation six days in advance, was awarded two Michelin stars in 2009. This summer, David launched his own food quarterly with McSweeney’s called Lucky Peach.

Momofuku’s David Chang (left) and KC’s Marja Vongeritchen (right)

• Born to a Korean mother and an African American father, and adopted by an American family at the age of 3, Kimchi Chronicles‘ Marja Vongeritchen is the new ambassador for Korean cuisine and culture, as well as a refreshing new face and voice in Korean America. A passionate noraebang-er, you’ll most likely bump into Marja and her “karaoke crew” (which usually includes her birth mother) in K-town.
• After moving to New York for a job as the host of an Oxygen show, SuChin Pak was quickly spotted as a rising star by MTV and promptly began her career as an MTV VJ in 2001. SuChin was recently featured in an interview with V Magazine about her role as the founder of Hester Street Fair.
• Kelly Choi is an Emmy-award winning television personality on NYC TV, former host of Bravo’s Top Chef Masters, and co-producer and host of the documentary series Secrets of New York. She also created and produced Eat Out NY, a show that is a guide to the city’s most popular and most hidden restaurants.
• Other locals include Alexander Chee, the author of Edinburgh (one of our Summer Reading picks!), and Emily Kim, the Korean food blogger pioneer better known as “Maangchi.”

The #1 Most KA city probably won’t be a big surprise, but still check back next week! We have some awesome hotspots and people lined up!

UPDATE: Check out our Top 5 Most Korean-American Cities Map!

Melissah Yang and Mink Choi contributed to this post.

Pastor Gage Jung isn’t your typical Korean American pastor: yes, he wears skinny jeans and caps, and yes, he has tattoos. But he isn’t a “self-proclaimed” hipster—and to him, that really doesn’t matter. He’s the pastor of Hipster Church (motto: “This ain’t your mama’s church.”), currently meeting in the heart of Flushing, Queens at the Sheraton Hotel.

After reading about his church’s unconventional practices—congregants read from an iPhone Bible app, and participants mingle “over donuts and candy” while listening to indie bands like MGMT and Arcade Fire—we were curious to find out more about him and his vision for a new type of church. So, on a particularly rainy Friday evening in Flushing, we met with Pastor Gage and he filled us in on what Hipster Church is all about.

Tell us a little bit about your background. Did you attend a Korean church when you were younger? If yes, what motivated you to branch out and away from it?

Yes, when I was growing up I served at Yong Nak church in LA, which is a Presbyterian church.  Most of my experiences were in leading youth groups or English ministries (EM) which consist of college students and above. When I came here (to New York), I was taking care of high school and college groups, and then I graduated up to adults. My father is a pastor at United Generations Church in Brooklyn and when my mom got sick from cancer—stage 4 with a seven-inch tumor in her spine, she didn’t have that much time to live. My dad needed to retire to spend some time with her and help her get better. That’s when I took over pastoring at UGC—not everybody liked it when I took over, but I led the church for a couple of years. After my mom recovered—she’s been cancer-free for a year now—my dad came out of retirement and went back to being a pastor. It was then that I felt like I needed to do something new, so he gave me the blessing to plant a church. And that’s how Hipster Church happened.

What is a typical Sunday service like at Hipster Church?

Well, first our band performs an opening song, and then for about 5-10 minutes, we give everyone a chance to mingle and get to know one another—sort of like an icebreaker. Then I give my message to the congregants, followed by the altar call if people choose to take part in it. We also observe Communion, and then the last 30 minutes or so are devoted to praise and worship, during which we present our case on why giving offerings is important. One of the things I’ve implemented is explaining to everyone how much we’ve collected that day, how much we’ve spent as a group, and the amount that’s left over. We do that because a lot of churches want you to blindly give money, but we want to demystify that as a church and let everyone know exactly where it’s going to go.

By calling it ‘Hipster Church,’ doesn’t it give the impression that only hipsters are welcome? Is the name permanent?

People started formulating the idea that it’s only about cool people, but it’s not. We wanted to create a church that’s cool in the sense that we’re forward-thinking, that we’re not stuck in the past. What would you call a church that is pursuing coolness as in their identity being something that will set trends or set this generation on fire so that it can come towards God?

A lot of kids would come wearing skinny jeans and Ray-Ban glasses, and started joking around, saying, ‘Since you’re the pastor of this church, is it a hipster church?’ We’re not trying to target hipsters—we want everyone to come. I think that’s what the normal person would think—that we only accept hipsters, but when they come and I tell them about the vision that we’re trying to be the dopest church on the planet, they like it and they get it; they think it’s pretty clever. And of course I’d agree with changing the name of the church if that situation came up—I mean, come on, the name of the church doesn’t make the church, it’s the people.

There have been ongoing conversations about re-branding Christianity. Does Christianity need to be considered ‘cool’ to gain younger followers?

That’s such a good question! Trying to be a cool church just to attract young people is lame; re-vamping the old stuff to make it cooler doesn’t work. It’s like dressing up a 50 year old man in skinny jeans—not cool. People like genuine things; all you have to be is legitimate and genuine. And whoever likes that and is drawn to that will come. I’m not trying to be cool by the way we dress–we’re just who we are and that’s defined by what we do. For instance, we helped two people get out of homelessness: one person contacted us and said, ‘I’m homeless, can you help me?’ We did what we could. We got her to a halfway house and we paid for her to rent an apartment there. She was able to get a job in two weeks! I called her to see how she was doing and she said since she got a job, to please give the money to someone who really needed it. Our biggest draw is that this spirituality has some action and agenda to it and people like that; there’s no trying to make it cool to reach people. We’re not worried about it, and it’s why we have 80 some odd followers. Someone will probably approach us later when the church gets bigger to ask us what the secret is, but I’ll tell you right now, there’s no secret. Churches shouldn’t try to do church ‘cool,’ that’s not going to work.

What led you to settle in Flushing, Queens, where it seems like there are Korean churches on almost every block? Why not choose Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which is also known as the ‘hipster mecca’?

A million people have asked us why Flushing? We did research on Williamsburg, on Astoria and Union Square, but Hillsong NYC (a Pentecostal megachurch) came into Union Square and I saw that they were filled with very capable people doing certain things—why go and step on other people’s toes, you know? One guy e-mailed us to ask why we were coming to Flushing? He was like, ‘I need a church in Flushing like I need a hole in my head.’ (laughs) We didn’t care though, God’s doing something new here and I’m sure the churches here are doing amazing things but what God’s calling us to do is something special—it’s different. Last time I checked there were homeless people here. I saw this Korean man sleeping in a bank and he couldn’t get up so we went in there, helped him up, and got him some food. We want to do something to make our community better, so if this community is fully healthy, then there would be no need for a church to come but I see tons of need here. We came to Flushing with a sincere heart to help people.

Finally, what are your views on organized religion, and more specifically—”Korean-style Christianity“? Korean churches have been publicly criticized as politically and culturally regressive—do you believe this to be true?

I appreciate Korean churches, they’re a part my heritage and it’s where I’m from. But there’s no such thing as a perfect church. I’m influenced by Korean-style Christianity, but I have my own identity. I know that they’re good churches, but I’m not the same as them and I’m not trying to be exactly like them. I don’t think people want the same thing either because it’s not relevant to this time and age. I’m trying to change the whole concept of church: to be a type of Christianity that’s not so concerned with rules and regulations, but be more concerned about having a relationship with Jesus so that people can experience God for themselves. That’s why it’s a church plant, not an extension because many Korean churches are hierarchical which makes it difficult to do anything without their approval.

Hipster Church is holding their next service in August in Flushing Meadow Park.

Hipster Church
www.hipsterchurch.com
Follow Hipster Church on Twitter.
Follow Pastor Gage on Twitter.

[Photo: Hipster Church]

Whenever my friends and I are in the mood for some Korean food, we usually visit the bustling little strip of lighted restaurant signs on 32^nd Street, otherwise known as K-Town. The food is solid, but we seem to always end up at the same couple of places. Last month, thanks to my awesome foodie friend, I discovered a whole new land of Korean joints in Murray Hill, Flushing (not to be confused with the neighborhood in Manhattan). Home to a large Korean community, Murray Hill has over a dozen of Korean restaurants offering dishes ranging from crispy fried chicken to scrumptious BBQ meats.

After doing some due diligence, I found out that Murray Hill is supposedly best known for its meats. The popular Galbi consists of tender, marinated beef short ribs grilled over a large iron caste and served with lettuce and a sesame paste. What is perhaps less known, but equally as decadent, is the sam-gyup-sal, which quite literally translates to “three-layered meat.”

Imagine a thick strip of marbled pork belly, glistening amidst the smoke rising from a large, black iron caste and perfuming the air with its sumptuous aroma, as the waiter flips it back and forth with his tongs. This is, indeed, the fatty bacon of Korea.

Raw strip of sam-gyup-sal from Ha Jim Bach in Murray Hill

Unlike galbi, sam-gyup-sal is not marinated or seasoned, so the original flavor of the pork tends to be more pronounced. Sam-gyup-sal is typically served with two types of sauces: ssamjang, a red Korean chili paste, and gireumjiang, which is made with sesame oil, salt, and a dab of pepper.

Scrumptious sam-gyup-sal sizzling on a black iron caste

For those of you who have never been to Murray Hill in Flushing, it’s actually very easy to get to. Take the LIRR to Murray Hill from Penn Station, and once you get out, you will see the restaurants all lined up along the streets. Keep in mind that on weekends, the LIRR offers City Tickets, which are reduced to only $3.50 a ride. If you ever want to try something new to satisfy your carnivorous cravings, you know where to go.

Happy eating!

Jess

It’s getting hot and steamy in the city council race for a New York City borough.  Peter Koo of Flushing has entered the race for the city council seat in District 20 (of Queens). Koo made his announcement at Mulan Catering Hall in Flushing Monday evening.

“During these fiscally challenging times, we need to create jobs and lower taxes so people have the resources to live the American Dream of owning a home and providing a better life for their children and families,” Koo said. “It takes a strong leader to get things done in New York City and that’s why I am running for City Council.”

Koo is the third Korean to enter the race. Community activist S.J. Jung, a fellow Korean immigrant, launched his campaign earlier this month and Gov. David Paterson’s Queens liaison, Ron Kim, told the Times Ledger Newspapers this week that he is also considering a run.

The trio of candidates marks a strong and somewhat unprecedented wave of political activism for Flushing’s Korean community.  If elected, Koo, Jung or Kim would be the first Korean American elected to the Council.

The festivities, which will kick off at 11 a.m. Saturday with a parade starting at Union St. and 37th Ave., will continue through February with a series of Asian cultural events.

Highlights include an afternoon of free Korean activities, including a singing competition at the Dae Dong Manor on Northern Blvd., presented by the Korean-American Association of Central Queens.

“It’s going to be traditional games, contests, raffles,” said former association President Sean Shin. “It’s going to be fun.”

Games include yut, where players toss wooden sticks to move pieces on a board, and jegichagi, similar to Hacky Sack.  Read>