 |
 |
Yakiniku Million, a closer look
Aloha!
9/4/09 - Like Chodang on the last Closer Look, Yakiniku Million doesn't do a whole lotta advertising, if any. Yet, most Korean food afficionado's do know quite a bit about this little shop on Sheridan St., just mauka of Kapiolani Blvd.
Million Restaurant has long been known as a kind of hangout for wee-hour bar-goer's at hostess clubs around the area, since they open so late (till midnight Sun-Mon, 3am Tues-Thurs, 5am Fri-Sat), I think they should really consider going 24 Hours, like Sorabol close-by. Not that you should let it bother you at all - unless, perhaps, you're in there at two or three in the morning, next to a bunch of creepy guys!
Inside, it actually looks a lot nicer than the old building and area it is housed in, with a good A/C unit and air-duct tentacles reaching down from the ceiling, which can only mean one thing - Korean-style yakiniku! Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, someone else on this particularly lovely day did the cooking instead of us! Mom's cooked her whole life for four kids and my dad, too, so now she takes a break whenever possible!
High-backed booths offer a good deal of privacy, as you can see from this pic taken at eye level, while seated. Hey, it's nothing fancy, but it's very comfortable, as the booths are also roomy and wide enough to seat three or four on each side without a problem.
As for the menu, it's about as large and varied as it gets at any Korean restaurant, with soups of tripe, tendon, and pork bone, hot stone-pot dishes filled with rice and mingled with meats, seafoods, and vegetables, steamed or grilled fish like butterfish, yellow corvina, and mackeral, pan-fried items, noodles, stews, and of course - lots of bbq meats. One thing I didn't catch until it was too late was their offering of goat (yep, I did say goat), in the form of a spicy pot soup for one or two. Last time I had goat, it was with my drunk taxi driver in Kenya, and I loved it! Next time, now that I know...
Mom loves Korean bbq, so she went with the whole shebang - a trio of, from left to right, chicken, kalbi, and bulgogi, or boneless, thin-cut beef:
Excellent - not overly-marinated, not overly sweet, and with the simple, charred goodness that comes from the flame - perfectly done!
But another thing mom always loves is jhun, that egg-batter-covered dish of meat or fish, in most instances. And so, of course, I gotta order 'em, right?
And both were great choices, I must say, especially the fish, which was light, flaky, and delicious:
The meat jhun was also not bad at all, with very little separation, that dreaded pulling-apart of the meat and batter that local foodie and excellent writer Dave Choo talks about. In his book Lunch Break Honolulu - 65 Great Places to Beat the Clock, he says separation occurs because meats used are too thin and also because they deep-fry, two things that are extreme no-no's in his mind.
You're probably wondering by now where the banchan is. Don't worry, I just get ahead of myself sometimes. There was plenty of banchan to go around, including some very familiar faces as well as an excellent savory/sweet tofu custard, in the center, and an interesting mix of squid and vegetables in soy.
The also-complimentary wakame seaweed soup was also very good, the salty flavors of the sea represented well and the most important element, the seaweed itself, found just as it should be - reasonably thick and sturdy. Cheaper, lesser-quality wakame is melt-apart-mushy and paper-thin.
As in most visits to Korean restaurants, there was a great deal of left-overs to take home, and enough for another complete meal or two the next day.
--------------------------------------------------
A couple of weeks later, wifey and I returned to Million restaurant and brought a simple take-out to Magic Island, at the Ala Moana Beach Park, on one of my precious few Friday nights' off. I luuuv Friday nights, just because it's a great time to hang-out at the park and catch both the late-afternoon sailing club as they depart and return from the harbor, as well as the Hilton's fireworks show at 7:45pm. I didn't take any pics of the evening, but you can see the same action from a previous Friday night on the Bac Nam Closer Look page several months ago.
Anyhow, we met-up with my brother guys 'n family - their two rascal kids love the park and a good fireworks show on any occasion! We set-up a table and chairs right there on the water, threw back a few Stella Artois' and had a great time chasing the kids all over the place!
The meat jhun was so good the first time, I decided to get it again for wifey and everyone else to try, and it was indeed as good as the last visit (eeeh, maybe a little bit of separation this time, though, no?):
Even in take-out, they still give lots of banchan, all presented in separate containers because you just can't fit everything on one plate! Here's a few different looks, including the Korean specialty that every local boy loves, taegu, shown as the thin, reddish-orange strips directly below. It almost tastes like dried, spiced cuttlefish or squid, but it's actually dried, spiced codfish:
Of the four pan-fried dishes, the most expensive ($17.95) was a spicy octopus with mixed vegetables. I had to try it, as of the other three pan-fry's, the kim chee seemed a little too plain, the squid a little too boring, and the intestines, a little too scary!
Placed in a Styrofoam plate but reinforced with aluminum foil because of all the liquid, this stir-fry was ok, but probably not something I'd order again. I was happy for lots of tentacles, however, which is the best part of the octopus!
And finally, the last plate we bought that evening was, yet again - cold Korean noodles. Not the chic naeng myun we had at Yu Chun and Chodang, but mul naeng myun, or buckwheat noodle, as naeng myun simply means cold noodle.
Actually, neither wifey nor myself were very interested in finishing this plate, as we both found the noodles horrendously mushy. Now, if the dish were hot, I could understand the noodles cooking further in the enclosed styrofoam, but cold? No excuses, sorry. We picked-off only the egg and veggies, and chucked the rest without regret! Even the beefy broth, packed separately, couldn't save it in the end:
Looking back, I'd say for bbq meats and jhun (they even have oyster jhun and a seafood/kim chee jhun!), go for it! For everything else, I'm not quite so sure. I do wanna try that goat, though...
Four days, four Closer Looks - albeit with a lot less text, perhaps. Even so, my eyes are seeing double and triple, and my butt's sore. But no worries, 'cuz I'm still having the time of my life, and wouldn't have it any other way, for sure! I'll slow down here soon enough, though...
Thanks for stopping by.
Take care, and Aloha till next time!
Aku
---------------------------------------------------
Comments:
Rocky D (5/22/10): Beef tendon soup was awesome when I had a bad cold a couple of winters ago. Undescribable and original. Healing power!
Aku (5/22/10) Sounds good! Those Korean soups, I tell you, they got all kinds of stuff in there. I love when they add ginseng, too!
-------------------------------------------------------------
Post a Comment or just say hello! Don't worry about leaving REAL names if you don't want to! No e-mails will be posted without consent, last names will be abbreviated, and if you don't want me to post all or any part of your correspondence, please state so! Hope to hear from you all!
