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  • When I came here for the first time a few years back, and I enjoyed ganjang gaejang.

  • Like, it opened up a whole other universe of flavor and that

  • Honestly, like, I think propelled me toward a greater pursuit of amazing Korean food.

  • So, that's why I love this place.

  • Raw crab.

  • It's a specific breed that's flown in from Korea.

  • And the way they get made, is put into this incredibly complex, aromatic, sauce.

  • Eating well today!

  • The pièce desistance.

  • This amazing, soy-marinated flower crab.

  • They are using kkotge.

  • So "kkotge" literally means in Korean, "flower crab."

  • This soy-fermented crab is the absolute pinnacle of Korean cuisine expression.

  • It's not this heavy spicy red marinade, instead, you have a gentle soy marinade, and inside you have all these aromatics.

  • You have onions.

  • You have scallions.

  • And you even have like traditional Korean medicinal products like deer antlers, and licorice root.

  • The thing is really completed with the addition of mirin, which is a rice wine, and also some sake and soju.

  • This thing, this liquid, just magically transforms the crab.

  • You can tell this is a female crab, because you can see the roe, the bright orange roe in there.

  • But let me crack this open.

  • Okay.

  • It almost has this like, sheen of like, bone marrow.

  • Really and almost the same texture as bone marrow.

  • But this is cold, this is a completely cold dish.

  • It's uncooked.

  • Oh my God.

  • That is just incredible.

  • It is so rich, and smooth.

  • Like, almost like butter melting on your palate.

  • It just coats your whole mouth.

  • It has a sweetness to it that is indescribable.

  • Like, I can't...

  • It's not sugary.

  • It's not caramelly.

  • It's got this sweetness that only crab can give you.

  • I can't...

  • Oh man.

  • The gentle fermentation has like, congealed the meat into this like, kind of uniformed gelatin.

  • It's countered by the brighter notes of the actual marinade.

  • When it's raw, it's another thing completely, like it's almost unrecognizable.

  • If blue crab is regular Angus beef, like, this is wagyu.

  • Because it just melts away as you start eating it, just like a great piece of wagyu beef.

  • When you have it with rice, because of the soy, it takes on this almost like, sushi-like quality, right?

  • This actually reminds me a lot of raw scallop.

  • When you have a raw scallop, on top of sushi rice, you get that rich texture of the scallop, contrasted with the warm rice.

  • It's the same thing that's happening here, except you have an entire crab of it.

  • You can keep getting that incredible combination.

  • So what I'm going to do is take some of the roe now.

  • This bright orange roe, along with... these are kind of the innards of the crab.

  • Let's try that.

  • Get some of the rice.

  • I'm a little scared of this part.

  • I don't love eating the middle of the crab, but maybe that's just because...

  • Whoa.

  • Man, that's totally different.

  • The roe is...

  • Reminds me heavily of like uni.

  • That is like truly, truly special.

  • You can see ganjang gaejang...

  • You can find it in Korea, definitely.

  • But in the U.S., this is not a very common dish.

  • It's a long process.

  • These things have been aging for two days.

  • So it is a hard dish to serve.

  • You have to be known for it, you have to specialize in it, and that's what I love about Soban.

  • They have committed to preparing one of the greatest Korean dishes.

  • Thank you so much for watching, and if you want to see more of K-town in Los Angeles, click right here.

  • That was the first father and son trip.

  • I had a very good upbringing, and I ate very well.

  • Yeah, and I take full credit for that.

When I came here for the first time a few years back, and I enjoyed ganjang gaejang.

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