20 Feb 8th–Feb 14th, 2024 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | bones, the kodalijjim — mistranslated on the menu as “Steamed Cod” — is a dynamite dish with wild intensity. Semi-dried pollock is braised with soy, chiles and garlic, creating a kind of robust, ruddy stew of fish with a firm texture. And less intense but no less delicious is the kalguksu — a gently briny clam broth bathing soft, hand-cut flour noodles. Comfort and community Media, particularly online, has a reduc- tivist tendency to frame food appreciation as a winner-take-all quest for the best. But embracing that framework robs us of the diversity that makes any restaurant scene special. A restaurant doesn’t have to be the best — if a singular “best” even exists — to speak with a unique voice and say some- thing interesting. If you ask Woo what makes Ban Chan’s menu special, she’ll tell you it isn’t any specific dish so much as it is the focus on communal dining. She points to her massive hot pots, which can easily feed a crowd. The “Deluxe Seafood Hot Pot” is practi- cally an aquarium. Loaded with a menag- erie of sea critters and hefty bricks of tofu, it comes in a cauldron and looks like a five- alarm fire in the making. It’s spicy, no doubt, but less than you think. And beneath that fire is a surprisingly gentle, mellow seafood broth that hits hard when it’s hot, but reveals its subtleties as the soup slowly cools. Similarly, the pork belly and kimchi hot pot is flat-out dynamite. Filled with huge uncut heads of house kimchi and a massive, thick slab of honeycomb-scored pork belly, you have to take scissors to the contents before dishing it out. Hold a bowl to your nose and you can smell the gentle, deep sourness before you take a bite. And spicy barbecue pork is fine on its own, but it’s a party when you order it as a set with a basket of greens and herbs to pass around and wrap it up, and it comes with a small bowl of “miso soup.” Unlike Japanese miso soup, this is made with doenjang, which sports a coarser, more intense flavor than most types of miso. The bowl bubbles and burps and reveals a mound of chopped and stewed vegetables within. It’s rustic, unfussy and loaded with flavor. It’s not the “best” Korean soup in Arizona, nor the “most authentic.” But it’s comforting and delicious and I don’t know anyone else in town who makes it the same way. That makes it perfect. Ban Chan Korean Cuisine 2090 S. Dobson Road, Mesa instagram.com/babojumakaz/ Kitchen Hours: 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Soups and noodles $14-$20; Korean BBQ $21-$29; Other mains $13-$28; Large format dishes $38-$48. Top: Tiny, cozy and no-frills, Mesa restaurant Ban Chan makes everyone feel at home. Bottom right: Massive hot pots, like the deluxe seafood hot pot, are best shared with friends. A lot of friends. (Photos by Mary Berkstresser and Dominic Armato) Grandma’s on the ’Gram from p 19
