19 Feb 8th–Feb 14th, 2024 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | behind the counter. In between slurps, your chopsticks wander and seek out a nibble of the banchan splayed across the table. Woo’s banchan are some of the best in town — a collection of pickled and stewed vegeta- bles, none of them particularly showy but all of them freshly prepared in-house, bright and flavorful. Her baechu kimchi is tremendous. She ferments Napa cabbage for less than a week, so it plays more like a light, spicy- sour pickle and less like the deeply funky kimchi you’re probably used to. You survey the walls covered with charming, colorful portraits of Korean dishes, painted by Woo herself, and decide that some haemul pajeon sounds perfect. When the seafood and scallion pancake arrives, it isn’t the geometrically perfect circle you’ve seen around town. It’s a little rustic, a little misshapen — thick batter plopped into a pan and fried until crisp and craggy around the edges. It’s cooked a little unevenly. Hey, some- times grandma burns the pajeon. But it still hits the spot and the love comes through. Popular dishes on the menu One reason trendy restaurant seekers may have overlooked Ban Chan for so long is that some of the more popular dishes around town aren’t always the restaurant’s best foot forward. A rather oily soft tofu soup has a nice flavor, but I wouldn’t choose it over Phoenix’s soondubu specialists. Bibimbap doesn’t get much crisp from its hot stone bowl, and the tteokbokki might not do it for folks who prefer a more spicy-sweet gochujang intensity with their rice and fish cakes. Meanwhile, bulgogi is never quite the same when prepared in the kitchen rather than charred on the table in front of you. Someone who orders these dishes might conclude they can do better else- where and not return. That would be a mistake. The kitchen puts a nice, hard sear on slabs of galbi and pork belly, and the spicy chicken barbecue is a standout dish you don’t often see. Its juicy thighs are slath- ered with a sweet and spicy yangnyeom sauce that turns into a sticky caramelized goo on the cast iron plate. And Woo’s excellent meat jun, thinly sliced beef coated in eggy batter and pan-fried, is a standout crowd pleaser. Corn kernels torched tableside with a mound of mozzarella cheese is an excellent rendition of the popular drinking food, and naengmyeon, thin, chewy noodles in icy cold soup, are a godsend come June. I suspect the spicy bibim naengmyeon will steal most diners’ attention, but don’t snooze on the mul naengmyeon. It’s bathed in a frigid beef broth that you perk up to taste with vinegar and hot mustard. Where Woo’s menu really starts to shine, though, is when you dive into the esoterica. Don’t miss the less popular dishes Is anybody else in town offering acorn jelly? Perhaps, but I don’t recall seeing it. Korean dotorimuk is made from acorns pulverized into starch and turned into a dark brown jelly that has a playful jiggle and bite. Here, it’s sliced and tossed into a salad with lettuce, scallions and pungent chrysanthemum leaves, anointed with a spicy-sweet dressing. You can get the same treat- ment applied to hongeo, fermented skate fish. When it’s served in sashimi form, hongeo is an acquired taste that has its detractors, even in Korea. But here, smoth- ered with chiles and vinegar, it offers a cleaner, more delicate kind of funk and a feisty, chewy texture that puts up a fight against anyone who enjoys gnawing it off the bone. Count me among them. If you’re comfortable with fish Powdered acorns are fashioned into a resilient jelly, sliced and tossed in a salad with a vinegary fermented chile dressing. (Photo by Dominic Armato) Much of Ban Chan’s menu is comprised of large-format dishes designed for sharing. (Photo by Mary Berkstresser) Grandma’s on the ’Gram from p 17 >> p 20
