Little Tokyo: SKD Tofu House

 

SoKongDong or SKD Tofu House was one of my favorite tofu houses in Koreatown. They and Beverly Soon Tofu were always the most respected tofu houses. SKD moved downtown to Little Tokyo and in the process went with the abbreviation SKD as its official name.

SKD is best known for the spicy crab banchan, the little dishes of appetizers served at Korean meals. I recall the crab was difficult to get out of the shells when slicked with gochujang, the Korean hot sauce (that isn’t very spicy). At this new location, the spicy crab has been deshelled and is served in little bits. At first I mistook this for regular hot sauce. I was dipping my mandoo (dumplings) into it until I realized what it was- spicy crab!

The other notable banchan was the cold kimchi soup. Otherwise, the banchan is run of the mill.

One of these days, I’m going to a Korean dumplings specialist. Until then, I’m content to try mandoo whenever I see it on the menu. The ones at SKD are meat and chives. I’m also quite pleased the amount of dumplings you get. Some places might give you 5 or 6 but I loved that there were over 10 of these plump suckers.

 

My friend got the pork soon dobu and I had the assorted (meat and seafood). I asked for medium spicy which wasn’t very spicy but I’m glad it wasn’t spicier as it was a comfortable spice level. There was a good amount of tofu and seafood. I loved that the shrimp weren’t those tiny little things you find sometimes. And these did have roe. The soup is very savory and filling. Pretty soon it was all gone.

While you can just go with tofu soup, I usually get a combo at dinner with the intention of taking leftovers home. The pork bulgogi was great. It wasn’t overly sweet with marinade and went well with rice.

I’ll be coming back for lunch since my regular soon dobu spot closed recently. I’m glad I finally made the trek out to SKD in Little Tokyo.

 

SKD Tofu House (SoKongDong)

333 S Alameda St., Los Angeles, CA 90013  —  (213) 625-0940

 

© The Minty  2014